Chinese Culture
Chinese Culture
The Chinese culture is one of the oldest cultures in the world. Chinese is a closely related family with mutually unintelligible language. The country has more than 1.2 billion people who speak a variety of Chinese. Most of the rural Chinese live in one of 900000 villages in china. The villages in China have never been self sufficient units self contained, and the Chinese social world has extended beyond the home villages. Wives come from villages in other settlements and the daughters get to marry outside the village. All the villagers in Chinese have strong kinship ties with the families from other villages and marriages happen from village to village. The Chinese revolutionary government has made an effort in putting the state and its ideology in direct contact with the villages (Davis, E 2005). The cooperation between the fellow villagers and the close relations with the leaders of the village is more necessary in the Chinese culture.
In the early 1980, de collectivization resulted to the revival of the rural marketing and limited relaxation on out migration controls opened the villages and the social boundaries around them got diminished.Chinese honor the family bonds and hold them sacred as they are the pinnacle of the society (Colson, M 2013). The Chinese family traditionally has a hierarchical order where the man is the head of the family with the responsibility of earning the bread for the family.
He has complete authority over the family and the final say family affairs. The role that the family adopts in Chinese highly influenced by religion. The influence of religion traditionally spanned from selecting a mate to dealing with children. With the change in time, there have been some aspects of the Chinese family values that have changed while others aspects have had no change at all.The father is still the provider, maintainer, and protector of the family, but he done not enjoy the absolute control over the members of the family (Davis, E 2005). In marriage, the Chinese has a complex wedding celebration culture. There are many ritualistic practices that happen during the wedding events. This practice has to be maintained because they honor the institution of the family. The father is still responsible of educating his children until their marriage time and responsible of housing.
Attitude and belief of pregnancy and childbearing
It is the belief of Chinese that during pregnancy women should not go near open fires or use sharp objects on the bed. Pregnancy considered as a hot condition; therefore, to balance this, cold food should be consumed all through pregnancy. Pregnant women should not touch adhesive things as they cause the baby to have birth marks. One can determine sex of the baby during pregnancy by looking at the belly. When the belly has a pointed shape it is a boy, and in case it has a rounded shape it is a girl. During delivery, the spouse should not be present as it is not his role to participate (Colson, M 2013). The father is the one who gives the baby the first birth.
Attitude and belief of death and dying
In Chinese culture, patient cannot be told the life threatening aspects of illnesses that are serious like cancer. The family is the ones who get the message, and they usually wish to take care of the patient at home. Some people believe that if the patient dies while at home may have a harmful effect to the children in the home (Corr, C & Nabe, C 2009). In cases like this, patient’s relatives may wish that the patient can die in another setting like the hospice or the hospital. The family can then stay at the bedside of the dying patient. In Chinese culture, white is the color for mourning and wearing all black or all white may be considered terrible luck.
Communication
During communication, the Chinese patient can avoid eye contact. Communication is usually indirect and non verbal so as to avoid conflict. In the Chinese culture, words alone tend not to convey the message. It relies on the shared presumptions by people on non verbal cues such as body language and the situation where the interaction is occurring. Outward expression of sexual relationships and emotions like kissing, hugging and woman and man holding hands in public are not common.
Dietary and nutrition
With the principle of Yin and Yang, in order to maintain balance in life, a patient in Chinese can consider food as having cold (Yin) and hot (yang) properties. Patients are likely to prefer hot food to cold food when they have a cold illness. The cooking methods include barbecuing, steaming, boiling, and stir frying. The Chinese use soy sauce, garlic, and ginger when cooking (Colson, M 2013). Rice considered the most essential food, which may be eaten at every meal and also porridge as breakfast. The preferred meat is pork and noodles may also be eaten. Fruits and vegetables take up most of part of food intake. Patients usually prefer hot boiled water or hot tea.
Strength
One of the strengths of the Chinese culture is that they put more emphasis on caring for their family. The family makes sure that they take responsible of the elderly by providing them with all the requirements that they might ask for. This has ensured strong relationship between the family members and even the elders when they die they die under the arms of their loved ones. The Chinese families clearly know how to take care of their children ensuring that they get the necessary education. Chinese children usually perform well in schools. This is because of their parents are more strict and demanding; thus, pushing the kids to practice, study, and achieve (Bond, M 2010).
Weakness
The weakness of this culture is that they prefer taking care of their patients instead of letting them receive care while they are in the hospital setting; thus, deciding to take them home. There are some times when people do not seek medical care; thus, opting to use herbal remedies, acupuncture, acupressure, and conferring to spiritualist for treatment. Because of their tradition, it is difficult for them to go to health care for treatment. The Chinese do not usually recognize mental illness because they fear stigma from the community (Kalman, B 2008). Another weakness of this culture is that Chinese people value privacy much. Because of this they tend not to discuss their personal and sexuality problems with the health care providers.
Assessment information
The appropriate approach for obtaining assessment information is through client assessment. By assessing the client, it will be easier to learn about the cultural beliefs of Chinese and be able to develop an appropriate care plan for this culture. It is necessary for the nurse in a different culture to learn all the cultural beliefs and practices of the culture. This makes sure that the services that provided to families in that culture are appropriate and agree with their culture. When planning for nursing care, the nurse has to focus on the cultural beliefs of Chinese so that to ensure that the practice does not violate any of their requirements.
Nursing diagnosis
The nursing diagnosis for altered family process usually affects many family members. The family members try to offer encouragement and help to the person affected while there are still managing their distress. The Chinese families depend on each other for support in doing their daily task placing more emphasis on interdependence. An intervention to assist the altered family process is through creating a supportive hospital environment. This will provide adequate comfort and the rest for the family while the patient is resting. Completing a family history including the care giver burden and emotional and physical issues relating to the care provided. Another intervention is teaching the family members about coping skills and ways for caring for the patient and themselves.Another nursing diagnosis for a family living in Chinese culture is nutrition imbalance. Because of the nutrition being less than what the body requires, the child is likely to lose weight. The intervention will involve assisting the family of the child in choosing protein rich food, higher calorie, and high fat so as to optimize the growth. Offer the child with favorite food so that to encourage eating, encouraging supplements, and ensuring continued monitoring. The monitoring will include BMI, height, the weight percentile, and upper arm circumference.
Reference
Colson, M (2013). Chinese culture Raintree Publishers
Davis, E (2005). Encyclopedia of contemporary Chinese culture Taylor & Francis Group
Clark, P (2008). The Chinese Cultural Revolution Cambridge University Press
Kalman, B (2008). China Crabtree Publishing Company
Bond, M (2010). Oxford handbook of Chinese psychology Oxford University Press
Corr, C & Nabe, C (2009). Death and Dying Cengage Learning
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