Written by Cheer (Lijiaozi) Cheng
How often do we meet someone who declares themselves in perfect health? It’s a rare occurrence, to say the least.
In the intricate landscape of health and illness, there lies a nuanced space occupied by those who find themselves neither distinctly well nor acutely unwell. This space is diverse, encompassing various conditions, symptoms, and life circumstances. But what happens when this space is clumped together, named, measured, and given a concrete term for people to articulate their experiences? In China, this space is referred to as 亚健康 (yajiankang). In English, this translates to ‘suboptimal health’ or subhealth.
At the core of my PhD and continuing into my new postdoctoral research project, funded by a Mildred Blaxter award from the Foundation for the Sociology of Health and Illness, is a quest to understand the knowledge production and narratives of this concept, and these liminal health experiences captured by this concept in modern Chinese society.
For those interested in how this line of inquiry began – rooted in my own experiences, the struggle for a suitable methodology while bearing the marks of the pandemic – my earlier blog post on The Polyphony might offer some insights.
Subhealth Narratives: Both Personal and Social
In the realm of ‘subhealth,’ personal stories intertwine with broader societal narratives, painting a vivid picture of this liminal health space. The current article I am working on, drawing upon my empirical work to date, delves into these contemporary narratives, sourced from interviews with young Chinese individuals and an array of Weibo posts where people candidly share their experiences with subhealth.
At the heart of these narratives is a distinct contrast: unlike specific health conditions or the generalized concept of well-being, which are often individualized, ‘subhealth’ emerges as a collective experience. It’s a term that resonates with a shared understanding, reflecting not just individual symptoms or conditions, but a communal sentiment about the state of being on the brink of health and illness.
Through the voices of young people and the digital narratives on Weibo, ‘subhealth’ emerges as a social phenomenon encompassing the anxieties, hopes, and daily realities of people navigate the so-called ‘996’ work pattern (working from 9am until 9pm, 6 days a week) in the modern Chinese context. This exploration into ‘subhealth’ provides a lens to understand how health, often viewed as a personal concern, is deeply interwoven with the social fabric and collective consciousness.
Measuring Subhealth
The quest to quantify ‘subhealth’ has led to the development of various indexes and surveys, each attempting to offer a measurable perspective on this elusive concept. These tools, often in the form of self-evaluating health surveys, provide individuals with scores that categorize their health status. They subsequently influence our understanding of the prevalence of ‘subhealth’ in specific populations (and the figure can fluctuate quite drastically!)
These measurement efforts are more than mere statistical exercises; they represent a significant paradigm in understanding health. By assigning numerical values to health states, these surveys bring ‘subhealth’ into a more concrete realm, allowing for a structured analysis of its prevalence and characteristics. However, this approach also raises critical questions about the nature of health assessment. In particular, the questions that are asked in the health survey reflect particular understandings of bodies, work, and productivity.
Subhealth and Traditional Chinese Medicine
The concept of ‘subhealth,’ as we understand it today, has intriguing roots that intertwine with Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). My research reveals that the inception of ‘subhealth’ is closely linked to an agenda within Chinese medicine, specifically aimed at marketing a particular health tonic. This origin story provides a fascinating insight into how health concepts can be shaped by commercial interests and cultural practices.
In exploring this connection, we see how TCM, traditionally known for its holistic approach to health, has played a role in the formation and popularization of ‘subhealth’. It has embraced subhealth as almost a subdiscipline of TCM, with the concept playing a mediating role between TCM and biomedicine. But it has recently also shown preferences in its professional agenda for other concepts such as the concept of 大健康 (dajiankang) or, in English, Big Health.
The year ahead
This critical exploration, which began with my personal encounters with the label of subhealth and with treatment of TCM for my ‘subhealth’, has extended through my doctoral and postdoctoral research. As I continue my research under the Mildred Blaxter fellowship, I will look to unpack the ways in which subhealth is measured, as well as its consequences. I am also keen to unravel in more detail the relationship between subhealth and Traditional Chinese Medicine.
As the year proceeds, then, my focus is set on further disentangle different layers of subhealth which I began to unpack with my doctoral thesis. Through this, I hope to interrogate the intricacies of being in the liminal space of health and illness in contemporary China.
Sociological Studies Research 