ABSTRACT
What distinguishes human beings from other animals is that they have a great capacity for creating and learning a wide range of ideas and practices, laws and regulations, custom and rituals, moralities, technologies and organizational skills. People's wants and needs are usually defined by their cultural traditions. Resources are also provided by these traditions for solving problems and meeting these wants and needs. Hong Kong is a Chinese society, under British rule until 1997. Good health is highly valued by the Hong Kong Chinese. The health-care system comprises a variety of medical traditions: Western-style scientific medicine, professional Chinese medicine, empirical folk remedies and magical-religious healing. The magical-religious healing tradition in Chinese culture is a syncretic product of various religious or philosophical traditions, particularly Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism. The Health Attitudes and Behaviour Survey collected information about how the Chinese adults evaluated the different aspects of Chinese-style vs Western-style medical care.
