Traditional Chinese Medicine: Communicating Informational and Symbolic Functions in the Linguistic Landscape

While dissemination of information is a key function of health communication, signage at medical facilities has other functions: signs can be a type of marketing (e.g., services offered), can promote credibility and inspire trust, can exacerbate or ameliorate social inequalities and can provide educational opportunities. All of these functions are influenced by cultural, contextual and social factors as evidenced by a linguistic landscape (LL) perspective. Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is a particularly instructive case for considering the functions of signage in healthcare LL as it has a strong cultural component from its historical Chinese roots, but its practice has been popularized around the globe in recent years. Given the role of TCM as a main or complementary medical treatment and healthcare option, this study investigates TCM LLs as sites of healthcare communication. Specifically, we analyze a set of 1,659 signs from two TCM hospitals in a multilingual, ethnic minority region of China as a case study which can be useful for healthcare providers when considering their own use of LL. We describe the way language and other sign features are used for informational, symbolic and other functions, showing how explicit communication channels as well as implicit ideological channels can impact healthcare communication. We discuss these findings in light of the need for healthcare communication which is sensitive to stakeholder needs.