Attitude and value change: Health education contrasts in the US and the People's Republic of China

The success of the Chinese in effecting overwhelming change in the health conduct and status of their people has presented an enigma and challenge to change agents throughout the world. This paper attempts to provide a perspective for viewing the Chinese success by contrasting the targets and approaches of Chinese and western health education. In doing so, a distinction will be drawn in the ideology and philosophic tradition of each approach. Most fundamentally, these distinctions will center on changes in health conduct through methodologies of attitude change as practiced in the West and value change as conducted in the Chinese case. The societal context which largely determines the behavior change strategies accepted by a people will be examined as a clue to this difference in approach.