Culture Shock: A Review of Vietnamese Culture and Its Concepts of Health and Disease
Cross-cultural
Medidine
Culture Shock A Review of Vietnamese Culture and Its Concepts of Health and Disease
MAJ DUONG NGUYEN, MC, USA, Tacoma, Washington
Misunderstandings of Vietnamese culture and beliefs have led to many unfortunate incidents in the United States, including court cases for child abuse and even suicide. These can be avoided by an awareness of the cultural background of the Vietnamese, their philosophy oflife and the influence of religion and beliefs on their personalities, both as individual persons and as members of extended family units. The Vietnamese concepts of health and disease are presented, along with brief descriptions of certain folk medicines that are frequently misconstrued byAmerican physicians. (Nguyen D: Culture shock-A review of Vietnamese culture and its concepts of health and disease [Cross-cultural Medicine]. West J Med 1985 Mar; 142:409-412)
April 1975 through February 1982, about 1.4 million Indochinese refugees fled their homelands. Nearly 580,000 (40%) of these refugees, most of whom were Vietnamese, have settled in the United States.t They have incurred, in turn, a host of cultural, economic, political, psychological and social upheavals.2 In contrast to the nearly 1 million Cuban refugees that have settled in the United States since January 1959, the Vietnamese refugees have had to confront more immediate problems: They had no previously settled ethnic group to offer initial support; their culture was more dissimilar to that of the Americans, and they have frequently been symbolically identified with the unpopular Vietnam war. In brief, their arrival in the United States marked the beginning of a long and arduous process of adjustment to a new life in a new country with an alien culture. Inevitably, misunderstandings have occurred. For example, a Vietnamese father took his 3-year-old son to an American hospital because of possible influenza.3 The child had many ecchymoses on his chest and back, and the father
Medidine
Culture Shock A Review of Vietnamese Culture and Its Concepts of Health and Disease
MAJ DUONG NGUYEN, MC, USA, Tacoma, Washington
Misunderstandings of Vietnamese culture and beliefs have led to many unfortunate incidents in the United States, including court cases for child abuse and even suicide. These can be avoided by an awareness of the cultural background of the Vietnamese, their philosophy oflife and the influence of religion and beliefs on their personalities, both as individual persons and as members of extended family units. The Vietnamese concepts of health and disease are presented, along with brief descriptions of certain folk medicines that are frequently misconstrued byAmerican physicians. (Nguyen D: Culture shock-A review of Vietnamese culture and its concepts of health and disease [Cross-cultural Medicine]. West J Med 1985 Mar; 142:409-412)
April 1975 through February 1982, about 1.4 million Indochinese refugees fled their homelands. Nearly 580,000 (40%) of these refugees, most of whom were Vietnamese, have settled in the United States.t They have incurred, in turn, a host of cultural, economic, political, psychological and social upheavals.2 In contrast to the nearly 1 million Cuban refugees that have settled in the United States since January 1959, the Vietnamese refugees have had to confront more immediate problems: They had no previously settled ethnic group to offer initial support; their culture was more dissimilar to that of the Americans, and they have frequently been symbolically identified with the unpopular Vietnam war. In brief, their arrival in the United States marked the beginning of a long and arduous process of adjustment to a new life in a new country with an alien culture. Inevitably, misunderstandings have occurred. For example, a Vietnamese father took his 3-year-old son to an American hospital because of possible influenza.3 The child had many ecchymoses on his chest and back, and the father
References: 1. Report by the Comptroller General of the United States, GAO/HRD 82-65. Government Accounting Office, Aug 5, 1982 2. Masuda M, Lin KM, Tazuma L: Adaptation problems of Vietnamese refugees-LI. Life changes and perception of life events. Arch Gen Psychiatry 1980; 37:447-450 3. Nong TA: 'Pseudo-battered child ' syndrome (Letter). JAMA 1976; 236:2288 4. Toan A: Phong tuc Vietnam (Vietnamese Tradition). Lancaster, Pa, Xuan Thu Library, n.d. 5. Special Report: Physical and emotional health care needs of Indochinese refugees. Indochina Refugee Action Center 1980 (March 20), pp 30-31 6. Tran MT, quoted by Tripp-Reimer T, Theiman K: Traditional health beliefs/ practices of Vietnamese refugees. J Iowa Med Soc 1981; 71:533-535 7. Toan A: Tin nguong Vietnam (Vietnamese Religions and Beliefs). Lancaster, Pa, Xuan Thu Library, 1966-1967 8. Tran MT: The Indochinese refugees as patients. J Refugee Resettlement 1981; 1:53-60 9. Rocereto L: Selected health beliefs of Vietnamese refugees. J Sch Health 1981; 51:63-64 10 Hoang GN, Erickson RV: Guidelines for providing medical care to Southeast Asian refugees. JAMA 1982; 248:710-714 11. Yeatman GW, Dang VV: Cao Gio (coin rubbing)-Vietnamese attitude toward health care. JAMA 1980; 244:2748-2749 12. Council minutes: Maryland Refugee Advisory Council, 1982 (December 2) 13. Centers for Disease Control: A clinician 's guide to diseases of Indochinese refugees. Resident and Staff Physician 1979 (December), pp 76-82 412 THE WESTERN JOURNAL OF MEDICINE