Rethinking Depression: An Ethnographic Study of the Experiences of Depression Among Chinese

Relative to studies of patients in the West, little research has focused on the lived experiences of patients with mental illness in non-Western societies. The current understanding of the phenomenology of depression and other psychiatric disorders is almost entirely based on studies of Western populations. The objective of the present study was to examine the experiences of depressive disorders among contemporary Chinese in Guangzhou (Canton), China. A total of 40 patients who had significant depressive symptoms were recruited using quota sampling from the outpatient department of a regional mental health service. The depressive experiences of participants were examined by open-ended, in-depth, ethnographic interviews. The interviews were taped, transcribed, and translated. Content analysis was conducted on both the Chinese and English transcripts. A total of six categories of affective experiences were identified among the participants. Indigenous affective lexicons, embodied emotional experiences, implicit sadness, preverbal pain, distress of social disharmony, and centrality of sleeplessness were regularly observed among the informants. Our findings suggest that psychiatric textbooks and diagnostic systems do not cover the full range of depressive symptoms experienced among contemporary Chinese. More studies are needed to examine how depression is differentially experienced globally--a crucial step in making professional diagnosis, treatment, and research more broadly applicable across cultures.