Progress on depression slow in China as stigmas persist
BEIJING — Kerry Yang speaks openly to foreigners about the bouts of depression that have haunted her for a decade — her emotional meltdowns in college, the bruises she inflicted upon her body as a coping mechanism, her initial unsuccessful attempts at treatment.
Yet despite such candour, the 30-year-old public relations consultant from Beijing often can’t bring herself to discuss her problems with her fellow Chinese, including members of her own family.
“There’s a saying in China that if you display your emotions, you display weakness,” Yang said.
Depression as an illness went widely unacknowledged for decades in China, even as the brutalities of the Cultural Revolution and, more recently, frenetic economic growth left emotional scars. Public attitudes have shifted in recent years, propelled in part by the adoption of the nation’s first mental health law five years ago.