East Asian Culture: A Cultural Analysis

People from different cultures respond to pain differently because every culture responds to pain different medical beliefs. In this essay I will focus on East Asian cultural aspect of pain management. East Asians are people from china, Japan, Taiwan and Korea. People in east Asian cultures tend to endure pain because showing pain is perceived as sign of weakness, health care professionals should not be challenged with complains about pain and also assertiveness is associated with having poor social skills. Showing pain is perceived as sign of weakness in East Asian culture for several reasons. To begin with, patients in this culture may deny pain and not report the pain until it becomes unbearable. According to Tung’s article, “The Chinese people who value stoicism tend to avoid vocalizing with moans or screams or may even deny it while actually experiencing pain. They may feel that revealing and admitting to pain is a sign of weakness” (Tung, 2010).For example …show more content…
According to Carteret’s article, “ a person who is assertive and complains openly is considered to have poor social skills; It might be tolerated by small children but not by adolescents and adults.”(Careret, 2011). For example, the person may feel pain or sadness it is not culturally acceptable to make this obvious. So it is believed that an individual should never draw an attention to themselves. As a result the patient may be quiet when in pain because they don’t want to cause dishonor to themselves and their family. In this case, the healthcare professional should create an environment that is conductive for the patient to feel comfortable in expressing their feelings. Furthermore, it is very important for the healthcare provider to acknowledge that the patient may suffer quietly and it is also the healthcare professional’s duty to look for nonverbal cues to assist on determination if the patient is suffering from