Social Sciences in China (Chinese Edition)

No.7, 2015

Suicide Rates in Contemporary China: A Case of Disputed Discourse

(Abstract)

Xie Lizhong

The research literature provides markedly varying figures for the contemporary Chinese suicide rate. The disparities in these figures come from both the differences in the original data used by different authors, and the dissimilarity in the methods these authors used when adjusting and revising the original data. Because it is hard to make absolute judgments about the accuracy of the original data and the methods in question, it is not possible to make absolute judgments about the accuracy of the different figures these authors provide for the suicide rate. We can only view them as the construction of a discourse on the contemporary Chinese suicide rate carried out by researchers under given preconditions.