Publications

Publication details [#62078]

Li, Yungeng. 2016. From “whom to blame” to “nothing to fear”: documentary narratives, voices, and “dependent destigmatization” of severe mental patients (SMPs) in Hong Kong. Chinese Journal of Communication 9 (4) : 403–421.
Publication type
Article in journal
Publication language
English
Place, Publisher
Routledge

Annotation

Using narrative analysis and Couldry’s (2010) talk on voice, this paper explores media and mental hospitals' developing and collective effort in consistently destigmatizing severe mental patients (SMPs) and in fostering Hong Kong mental health care's rehabilitation mode. From 1989 to 2011, Hong Kong Connections generated three documentaries. Moving the narrative from “whom to blame” to “nothing to dread,” the documentaries fix a destigmatization agenda commonly worded by the media and mental hospitals. Though SMPs’ voices continually raise in length and distinction in the narrative’s temporal line, they are sternly arranged within the sealed narrative that is subject to the institutional concern of fostering Hong Kong mental health care's rehabilitation mode. The voice/narrative disparity between SMPs and mental institutions induces “dependent destigmatization” that points out a dependent power relation between SMPs and potent institutions.