Menopause and Midlife Aging in Cross-Cultural Perspective: Findings from Ethnographic Research in China

摘要

Based on longitudinal mixed methods ethnographic research conducted in China from the mid-1990s to 2018, this article argues that Chinese lay language use divides what Americans and Canadians refer to as "menopause" into two distinct though overlapping concepts of the narrowjuejingor end of menstruation and the broader non-gender-specificgengnianqior "transition between middle and old age." While comparison with research done by Lock in Japan shows that Japanese language uses a similar set of two overlapping yet distinct terms calledheikeiandkonenki, there are important differences between Chinese and Japanese views and experiences of female midlife amidst the similarities. While views and experiences ofjuejingin China are very similar to notions ofheikeiin Japan,gengnianqiis quite different fromkonenki. Like in Japan, the end of menstruation tends to be welcomed by women in China. Also like in Japan, midlife women in China had a lower prevalence of hot flashes than that found in the US and Canada. Also similar to Japan, Chinese women rarely associate hot flashes with embarrassment. However, unlike in the Japanese sample, the Chinese women reported a higher rate of irritability than even the American and Canadian samples. Contrasting withkonenki, which is primarly associated with bodily aches and self-restraint in Japan,gengnianqiis commonly viewed as a time of vulnerability to irritable outbursts which must be allowed, though managed carefully. Overall, I show how menopause and midlife aging as concepts and as lived experiences are subject to variation related to differences in language, cultural ideas and practices, local biologies, and culturally-mediated generational experiences of historical change.