title: Hong Kong Chinese family caregiving: cultural categories of bodily order and the location of self.
abstract: This ethnographic study entailed interviews and observations over 2 years involving 35 Hong Kong Chinese families caring for elderly coresidential members. Bodily disorder was a starting point from which to locate identifiably Chinese attempts to restore disrupted family relations. Themes included bodies out of order--challenging Confucian-informed models of family obligation; controlling bodily excretions; the body in decay; and the body as the location of self. The management of bodily order by Chinese caregivers provides a cultural category in which personal experiences are ordered as public matters within specific local contexts. Caregivers dealt with both the demands of bodily needs and the imperative to maintain a social relationship. The establishment of bodily and self-order reflects a Chinese social system whereby moral duties are located primarily in kinship. The author summarizes culturally specific ways in which health professionals working with Chinese families involved in long-term care can target assessment and interventions before the onset of physical and emotional deterioration.
authors.affiliation: Chinese University of Hong Kong.
authors.forename: Eleanor
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Holroyd
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D017028:Caregivers / Q000523:psychology*; D032903:Confucianism; D003469:Culture; D005195:Family Relations / Q000208:ethnology*; D006701:Home Nursing; D006723:Hong Kong; D018594:Human Body; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D036301:Qualitative Research