Doctoral Dissertation Research: Understanding Increasing Diagnostic Rates of Autism in Children

自闭症的诊断在世界范围内正在增加。自20世纪80年代以来，中国的重点一直放在培养少量高质量的儿童上，在中国，儿童的价值在于他们成年后能够为父母提供照顾。这项关于中国自闭症儿童诊断和护理的人种学研究询问了在一个非常不同的社会环境中，西方医学类别是如何被接受和改变的。结合人类学和STS的概念和文献，本研究在关注中国的家庭、组织和国家方面具有创新性。这项研究将产生一篇论文和一名在中国语言和社会方面受过良好训练的学者。更好地了解中国人是如何理解和治疗自闭症的，这将为我们提供一个有价值的对比，与美国对普遍存在的自闭症更为“生物学”的理解相比较，也可以为美国致力于减少自闭症污名的患者倡导者提供一个有用的模型。

Autism diagnosis is increasing worldwide. This ethnographic study of the diagnosis and care of autistic children in China, a country in which the emphasis since the 1980s has been on producing small numbers of high quality children, and in which children are valued for the care they will be able to offer their parents as adults, asks how a western medical category is taken up and changed in a very different social setting. Bringing together anthropological and STS concepts and literatures, this study is innovative in its focus on families, organizations and the state in China. This research will result in a dissertation and the production of a scholar well-trained in Chinese language and society. A better understanding of how the Chinese conceptualize and treat autism will provide a worthwhile comparison to the more "biological" understanding of autism prevalent in the United States and could provide a useful model for patient advocates in the US working to reduce the stigma of autism.