A tale of tradition and modernization: The conceived self-identities by TCM doctors in the Digital Health Era

Yansheng Mao and Shuang Wei
Harbin Engineering University | Central University of Finance and Economics

This paper aims to examine the conceived self-identities by Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) doctors in the digitalized scenarios of healthcare. With the textual posts collected from Sina Microblog, this study systematically analyzed 474 pieces of narrative posts (97,737 Chinese characters) of TCM doctors who were officially registered on Sina Microblog. Results indicate that TCM doctors normally envisaged three types of self-identities on Sina Microblog: modern professionals, tradition defenders, and cultural inheritors. Specifically, solution-oriented, emotion-oriented, and legitimation-oriented strategies were discursively adopted by some TCM doctors to express their acceptance of digitalization, whereas various linguistic devices were employed to resist digitalization in TCM, such as analogies, rhetorical questions, and the usage of attitudinal markers. This study contributes to existing knowledge of the evolution of TCM through digitalization by pragmatically examining the identity work of TCM doctors under online circumstances in Oriental scenarios.

Publication history

Date received: 13 December 2023

Date accepted: 13 December 2024

Published online: 2 June 2025

Table of contents

This paper aims to investigate Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) doctors’ conception of self-identity in the digital era. Echoing the booming development of digitalization in the global medical setting, the digitalization in TCM has also become an inevitable trend in China under the double influences of digital technology and governmental support (Dongmai Net 2020; Niu et al. 2011). The digitalization in TCM aims to revitalize TCM treatment, in particular with numerous publications on various technologies applied to the four-step procedures of diagnosis (inspection, auscultation and olfaction, inquiry, and pulse-feeling and palpation). Though abundant studies have demonstrated the ever-growing development of TCM digitalization, little attention is paid to how healthcare-related workers respond to such changes while conceiving their identities, particularly in Oriental scenarios like China.

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