A survey of public awareness and understanding of and attitudes toward epilepsy was made in Taipei City and Chin-San Village, Taiwan in 1992. In a population sample of 2,610 adults, 87% had read or heard about epilepsy, 70% knew someone who had epilepsy, 56% had seen someone having a seizure, 18% would object to having their children associated with persons with epilepsy, 72% would object to having their children marry a person with epilepsy, 31% believed that epileptic persons should not be employed in jobs as other persons are, 7% believed that epilepsy was a form of insanity, 34% did not know the cause of epilepsy, 13% did not know what an epileptic attack was like, and 18% did not know what to recommend if their friends or relatives had epilepsy. Youth, higher education, and upper levels of employment were correlated with answers that were more favorable concerning epilepsy in all survey questions except for the question regarding marriage, for which the reverse was noted. The attitudes toward epilepsy disclosed by this study were more favorable than those detected in a similar survey conducted in Henan Province, China. The comparison suggests that the exposure to Western culture and socioeconomic system in Taiwan might have helped reduce the discrimination against epilepsy.

The awareness, understanding, and attitudes toward epilepsy in 1,278 men and women were surveyed in Henan, China in 1988. Results showed that 93% had read or heard about epilepsy; 77% knew someone who had epilepsy; 72% had seen someone who was having a seizure; 57% would object to having their children associate with persons with epilepsy in school or at play; 87% would object to having their children marry a person with epilepsy; 53% believed that epileptic persons should not be employed in jobs as other persons are; 16% believed that epilepsy was a form of insanity; 40% did not know the cause of epilepsy; 10% did not know what an epileptic attack was like; and 17% did not know what to recommend if their friends or relatives had epilepsy. The relationship between the responses and the respondents' age, sex, marital status, number of offspring, level of education, occupation, and residence was analyzed. Education reduced the respondent's prejudice against play and employment, but did not change their objection to marriage and appeared to have reinforced their linking epilepsy with insanity. As compared with the surveys conducted in Western countries, our survey showed that awareness of epilepsy in China was greater, if not the same, but the attitudes toward epilepsy were much more negative.

The stroke incidence rates in China, like those in Japan, are among the higher ones in the world. In recent years, there has been an apparent decline in stroke incidence. Marked differences in rates were found between males and females with decline in incidence occurring almost exclusively in males. There were also marked differences in stroke incidence among the cities studied. These differences may result in part from differences in diet, alcohol and cigarette consumption, or prevalence of hypertension.

The first known document on epilepsy in China appeared in The Yellow Emperor's Classic of Internal Medicine, Huang Di Nei Ching, written by a group of physicians around 770-221 B.C. The description of epilepsy in this book and in many others later published was confined to generalized convulsive seizures. No documentation of absence or simple partial seizures was provided. The first classification of epilepsy, probably by Cao Yuan Fang in A.D. 610, listed five types of epilepsy: "Yang Dian," "Yin Dian," "Feng (Wind) Dian," "Shih (Wet) Dian," and "Lao (Labor) Dian." Later, other classifications named seizures after the cry of animals whose cry the "epileptic cry" resembled, or after "visceral organs" believed to be responsible for the seizures. The concept of partial versus generalized seizures, however, was not observed in any of these classifications. The treatment of epilepsy, based on principles of "Yin Yang Wu Xing," consisted of herbs, acupuncture, and massage.

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