Home Building the skill of happiness: WeChat’s role in the promotion of mental health in China
Article
Licensed
Unlicensed Requires Authentication

Building the skill of happiness: WeChat’s role in the promotion of mental health in China

  • Barclay Bram ORCID logo EMAIL logo
Published/Copyright: July 18, 2022
Become an author with De Gruyter Brill

Abstract

China is in the midst of a “psy-boom” as the use of psychological services and interest in psychology and psychologically informed personal development tools are seeing a meteoric rise. One of the key drivers of this trend has been the innovative use of social media tools like WeChat by psychological service providers to both attract consumers and deliver products. This paper argues that online psychological service provision via WeChat constitutes a very literal “technology of the self” in the way that the content published explicitly tells consumers that a better, healthier and happier self is within reach. For a fee these companies help provide people with psychological toolkits that they use to shape their understanding of the ways they can heal themselves and others.


Corresponding author: Barclay Bram, Oxford University School of Global Area Studies, 12 Bevington Road, Oxford, OX2 6LH, UK, E-mail:

References

Ahearn, Laura (2001): “Language and Agency”. Annual Review of Anthropology 30:109–37.10.1146/annurev.anthro.30.1.109Search in Google Scholar

Aronson, Polina and Duportail, Judith (2018): “The quantified heart”. Aeon, accessed. 15.2.2019 https://aeon.co/essays/can-emotion-regulating-tech-translate-across-cultures.Search in Google Scholar

Biehl et al.. (2007): “Introduction: Rethinking Subjectivity”. In: Subjectivity: Ethnographic Investigations. Ed. by Biehl et al.. Berkeley: University of California Press.10.1525/california/9780520247925.003.0001Search in Google Scholar

Biehl, Good, Kleinman (2007): “Political Subjects”. Subjectivity: Ethnographic Investigations. Ed. by Biehl Good, Kleinman. Berkeley: University of California Press.10.1525/california/9780520247925.001.0001Search in Google Scholar

Bram, B. (2020): “Help-seekers, Callers and Clients: Embodied History in China’s psy-boom”. Medical Anthropology Quarterly 34: 286–300. https://doi.org/10.1111/maq.12578.Search in Google Scholar

Bram, Barclay. (2021): “Troubling Emotions in China’s Psy-boom”. Hau: Journal of Ethnographic Theory special section, politics of Negative Affect in China https://doi.org/10.1086/717183.Search in Google Scholar

Chen, Shujing (2016): “Mental Health Care: China’s Next Big Market”. Forbes, accessed 2.5.2019 http://www.forbes.com/sites/shuchingjeanchen/2016/01/26/mental-health-care-chinas-next-big-market/#6fac4dd41afe.Search in Google Scholar

Chen, Yujie, Zhifei Mao and Linchuan Qiu Jack (2018): Super-Sticky WeChat and Chinese Society. Bingley: Emerald Publishing.10.1108/9781787430914Search in Google Scholar

Deng, Iris (2018): “True dominance of China’s Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent revealed – and how their influence extends worldwide”. SCMP, accessed 2.5.2019. https://www.scmp.com/tech/china-tech/article/2154437/true-dominance-chinas-baidu-alibaba-and-tencent-revealed-and-how.Search in Google Scholar

Feng Chen (1997): “The Dilemma of Eudaemonic Legitimacy in Post-Mao China”. Polity 29.3: 421–439.10.2307/3235314Search in Google Scholar

Foucault, Michel (1983): “Subject and Power”. In: Michel Foucault: Beyond Structuralism and Hermeneutics. Ed. by Hubert Dreyfus and Paul Rabinow. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Search in Google Scholar

Foucault, Michel (1988) [1965]: Madness & Civilization: A History of Insanity in the Age of Reason. Trans. Richard Howard. New York: Vintage Books.Search in Google Scholar

Gibson, J (1966): The Senses Considered as Perceptual Systems. Allen and Unwin, London.Search in Google Scholar

Guangzhou Ribao 广州日报 (2017): “广州签发全国首张微信身份证 预计明年 1 月推向全国Xinhua Net, accessed 5.2.2019 http://www.xinhuanet.com/politics/2017-12/26/c_1122165668.htm.Search in Google Scholar

Harari, Yuval (2017): Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow. London: Vintage.10.17104/9783406704024Search in Google Scholar

Hizi, Gil (2018): “Gendered Self-Improvement: Autonomous Personhood and the Marriage Predicament of Young Women in Urban China”. The Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology 19.4: 298–315.10.1080/14442213.2018.1481881Search in Google Scholar

Holman, Chelsea (2018): “China’s Fitness Industry: New Lifestyle Trends Boost Investment Prospects”. China Briefing, accessed 16.2.2019.Search in Google Scholar

Huang, Hsuan-Ying (2017): “Therapy Made Easy”. China Perspectives [Online], 2017/4 | 2017, Online since 01 December 2018, connection on 21 April 2019. URL: http://journals.openedition.org/ chinaperspectives/7468.10.4000/chinaperspectives.7468Search in Google Scholar

Illouz, Eva (2018): “Introduction: emodities or the making of emotional commodities”. In: Emotions as Commodities: Capitalism, Consumption and Authenticity. Ed. by Eva Illouz. London: Routledge, 1–29.10.4324/9781315210742-1Search in Google Scholar

Kleinman, Arthur (2014): “The Search for Wisdom”. In: The Ground Between: Anthropologists Engage Philosophy. Ed. by Veena Das, Michael D. Jackson, Arthur Kleinman and Bhrigupati Singh. Durham and London: Duke University Press, 119–137.10.2307/j.ctv11sn2cn.9Search in Google Scholar

Kleinman, Arthur et al.. (2011): Deep China: The Moral Life of the Person. Berkeley: University of California Press.Search in Google Scholar

Know Yourself (2019a): “I Don’t Need to Prove Myself to Anyone” “我不需要向任何人证明自己。” | KY解读惊奇队长:人要如何成为真实的自己? Know Yourself, accessed 8.8.2019 https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/rTRi1nLBxUGMLzt6eC5qpw.Search in Google Scholar

Know Yourself (2019b): ‘Why is this family such a mess?” “妈宝男、施虐者、假性亲密,这一家为何这么乱?” | KY解读《都挺好》 Know Yourself, accessed 8.8.2019 https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/9tjaXjQ26fTOrRyqd0mb7g.Search in Google Scholar

Kuan, Teresa (2015): Love’s Uncertainty: The Politics and Ethics of Child Rearing in Contemporary China. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.10.1525/9780520959361Search in Google Scholar

Lu, Shushen 陆树燊 (2018): “微信发展简史 :微信成功的必然和偶然” 《行者慎思》, accessed 2.5.2019 https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/ZHHvwMaWcT1q-aDHbhN2dg.Search in Google Scholar

Miller, Peter and Rose, Nikolas (1994): Governing the Present: Administering Ecojomic, Social and Personal Life. Cambridge: Polity.Search in Google Scholar

Norman, Donald (2013): The Design of Everyday Things: Revised and Expanded Edition. Cambridge: MIT Press.Search in Google Scholar

Perry, Elizabeth (2002): “Moving the Masses: Emotion Work in the Chinese Revolution”. Mobilization 7.2: 111–128.10.17813/maiq.7.2.70rg70l202524uw6Search in Google Scholar

Philips, Michael (2019): personal interview @ Shanghai Mental Health Centre, Minhang, Shanghai 22/3/2019.Search in Google Scholar

Plantin, Jean-Christophe and de Seta, Gabriele (2019): “WeChat as infrastructure: the techno-nationalist shaping of Chinese digital platforms”. Chinese Journal of Communication, https://doi.org/10.1080/17544750.2019.1572633 PP. 257-273.Search in Google Scholar

Pupavac, Vanessa (2001): “Therapeutic Governance: Psycho-Social Intervention and Trauma Risk Management”. Disasters 25.4: 358–372.10.1111/1467-7717.00184Search in Google Scholar

Qian, Zhuang (2019) author interview, phone 15.5.2019.Search in Google Scholar

Rui Qi (2019): author interview, Chengdu Moments Coffeeshop, 25.10.2019.Search in Google Scholar

Swidler, Ann (1986): “Culture in Action: Symbols and Strategies”. American Sociological Review 51.2: 273–286. https://doi.org/10.2307/2095521.Search in Google Scholar

Westcott, Ben and Wang, Serenitie (2019): “Xi Jinping is determined to end all poverty in China by 2020. Can he do it?” CNN Accessed 5.5.2019. https://edition.cnn.com/2019/04/19/asia/poverty-alleviation-2020-xi-jinping-intl/index.html.Search in Google Scholar

Winter (2019): author interview, Nali Xinjiang Restaurant, Shanghai 9.5.2019.Search in Google Scholar

Yang, Jie (2015): Unknotting the Heart; Unemployment and Therapeutic Governance in China. New York: Cornell University Press.10.7591/9780801456183Search in Google Scholar

Yang, Jie (2017): Mental Health in China. Cambridge: Polity Press.Search in Google Scholar

Yixinli, 壹心理 (2019): “同居后,男人能挺多久” 壹心理 accessed 30.11.2019 https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/hURuzTpgNaJ4u2Gy6fksJA.Search in Google Scholar

Zhang, Li (2014): “Bentuhua: Culturing Psychotherapy in Postsocialist China”. Culture, Medicine, and Psychiatry 38.2: 283–305.10.1007/s11013-014-9366-ySearch in Google Scholar

Zhang, Li (2016): “The Rise of Therapeutic Governing in Postsocialist China”. Medical Anthropology 35.2: 6–18.10.1080/01459740.2015.1117079Search in Google Scholar

Zhang, Li 2018: “Cultivating the Therapeutic Self in China”. Medical Anthropology 37.1: 45–58.10.1080/01459740.2017.1317769Search in Google Scholar

Zhi’er, 汁儿 (2019a): 我只有两分钟,是病了吗?” | 研究:他总说累不想做爱,是怎 么了?KY 25.8.2019 https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/IUnNiw084xb81TaUuWw_UQ.Search in Google Scholar

Zhi’er, 汁儿 (2019b): “Gongzuo he Gongsi Louxia de Nanyou, Wo Xuanle Gongzuo| Dang Aiqing Yudao 996 , Hui Zenmeyang?” Know Yourself http://mp.weixin.qq.com/s?__biz=MzA4NjcyMDU1NQ==&mid=2247511207&idx=1 &sn=e5bee384e2ee0341abf45b437231f3af&chksm=9fc685e3a8b10cf5fb8430396b526de0f ace9b9b7dd88f2129c43af2fdc0116b93ed469c3b49#rd.Search in Google Scholar

Received: 2021-04-28
Accepted: 2022-06-22
Published Online: 2022-07-18
Published in Print: 2022-03-28

© 2022 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

Downloaded on 22.9.2025 from https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/asia-2021-0010/html
Scroll to top button