Mental Illness, Dementia and Family in China

Taiwanese Stories of Dementia

“…No such research has been undertaken to date. I, however, have examined Chinese-language stories of dementia from mainland China and Hong Kong in Mental Illness, Dementia and Family in China (see Ramsay, 2013). That study analyzes contemporary factual and fictional stories of dementia from these two regions, evaluating the meanings that attend their representations of time and self, their explanations for the signs of dementia, and the forms of language they employ.…”

“…The current article analyzes analogous stories of dementia from Taiwan and compares the analytic findings for the Taiwanese stories with those for the mainland Chinese and Hong Kong stories (Ramsay, 2013). In so doing, the article will answer the following principal research questions: (1) What meanings characterize the factual and fictional stories of dementia from Taiwan?…”

“…The article follows the analytic approach employed in my study of Chinese-language stories of dementia from mainland China and Hong Kong (Ramsay, 2013). A story, accordingly, is defined as an “ordering” of life events and experiences in ways that create meaning for the storyteller (McKechnie, 2014: 121).…”

“…In this way, the discursive “performance” of a story can be equally as important as its “authenticity” (Garden, 2010: 126–32; see also Arduser, 2014; Thomas, 2010; Woods, 2011). A story may be told orally, for example, in conversation or at interview; be written down, for example, in an autobiographical novel or on an internet blog; or presented visually, for example, in film, art, or a dramatic performance (Howard, 2013; McKechnie, 2014; Ramsay, 2013). Across these different formats for telling a story, three common narrative processes remain central to the creation of meaning (Ramsay, 2013): first, temporality, that is, the arranging of what may be unrelated life events and experiences into seemingly coherent temporal and causal sequences (Hydén and Brockmeier, 2008; Riessman, 2004; Ryan, 2007); second, subjectivity, that is, the reaffirming of existing identities and attachments to others, or the formulation of new ones (Arduser, 2014; Howard, 2013; McKechnie, 2014); and third, language use, that is, the use of language and imagery that hold particular denotative or connotative significance (Garden, 2010; McKechnie, 2014; Sontag, 1989).…”

“…First, the stories constitute a storyteller’s interpretation of the experience of dementia. This can be affected by many factors, not the least being whether the story is told from inside or outside the experience of dementia (Hydén, 1997; Ramsay, 2013). Second, analytic judgments are based on “what is said and what is unsaid in the stories” (Ramsay, 2013: 6).…”