Sociocultural contexts and communication about sex in China: informing HIV/STD prevention programs.
HIV may be particularly stigmatizing in Asia because of its association with "taboo" topics, including sex, drugs, homosexuality, and death (Aoki, Ngin, Mo, & Ja, 1989). These cultural schemata expose salient boundaries and moral implications for sexual communication (Chin, 1999, Social Science and Medicine, 49, 241-251). Yet HIV/STD prevention efforts are frequently conducted in the public realm. Education strategies often involve conversations with health "experts" about condom use, safe sex, and partner communication. The gap between the public context of intervention efforts and the private and norm-bound nature of sex conversation is particularly challenging. Interviews with 32 market workers in eastern China focused on knowledge, beliefs, and values surrounding sexual practices, meanings, and communication. Sex-talk taboos, information seeking, vulnerability, partner communication, and cultural change emerged as central to understanding intervention information flow and each theme's relative influence is described. Findings illustrate the nature of how sexual communication schemata in Chinese contexts impact the effectiveness of sexual health message communication.
Center for Culture and Health, Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90024-1759, USA. elieber@ucla.edu
Eli
E
Lieber
Dorothy
D
Chin
Li
L
Li
Mary Jane
MJ
Rotheram-Borus
Roger
R
Detels
Zunyou
Z
Wu
Jihui
J
Guan
D000328:Adult; D002681:China; D003142:Communication; D003469:Culture; D004651:Employment; D005260:Female; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000208:ethnology / Q000517:prevention & control*; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic / Q000379:methods; D008297:Male; D008402:Mass Media; D008875:Middle Aged; D011159:Population Surveillance / Q000379:methods; D011287:Prejudice; D012725:Sexual Behavior; D012749:Sexually Transmitted Diseases / Q000208:ethnology / Q000517:prevention & control*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D055815:Young Adult