Social Representations of Health and Illness: The Case of the Chinese Community in England SANDRA JOVCHELOVITCH* and MARIE-CLAUDE GERVAIS London School of Economics and Political Science, Department of Social Psychology, Houghton Street, London. WC2A 2AE, UK ABSTRACT This paper reports results from a qualitative study on social representations of health and illness among the Chinese community in England. It is assumed that representations of health and illness are grounded in cultural frameworks and are constructed through communication, social interaction and the practices of daily life. Our ®ndings show that in spite of dierences related to age and degrees of acculturation, Chinese people in England share a common representational system with respect to health and illness. This system is based on the tradi- tional notions of ``balance'' and ``harmony'' between the interdependent forces of Yin and Yang. Health results from balance, whereas illness is brought about by disequilibrium. It is through these traditional Chinese concepts that Western biomedical knowledge is incorpor- ated, producing a mixed representational ®eld where Chinese and Western knowledge co-exist. This representational ®eld is transmitted through the most fundamental dimensions of culture: food, language and kinship relations. We conclude by showing that social representations of health and illness are inseparable from the struggles over identity experienced by the Chinese people in England. Copyright # 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Key words: social representations; health and illness; health beliefs; identity; Chinese community INTRODUCTION There has been increasing interest over the last decades in how notions of health and illness are constructed by dierent communities of people and how this variation aects health care delivery. Despite the dominance of the biomedical model in the Western world, there is ample evidence that a variety of modes of health knowledge and practices co-exist in any society. Attention to this plurality is crucial to improve the quality of health care and to challenge patterns of communication between providers and users of health services. Recognizing that issues of health and illness CCC 1052±9284/99/040247±14$17.50 Received 7 April 1998 Copyright # 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Accepted 17 May 1998 Journal of Community & Applied Social Psychology J. Community Appl. Soc. Psychol. 9: 247±260 (1999) *Correspondence to: Dr Sandra Jovchelovitch, Department of Social Psychology, London School of Economics and Political Science, Houghton Street, London, WC2A 2AE, UK. Contract/grant sponsor: Health Education Authority.