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Introduction
Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has a very long history of more than 2,500 years and it is an integral part of Chinese culture (Lu and Needham, 1980). TCM, in particularly acupuncture, is becoming a popular medical treatment in North America and Europe (MacPherson et al., 2006; Xue et al., 2008; Zhang et al., 2012). As a former British colony, the medical system in Hong Kong is dominated by biomedicine. TCM has been marginalized in the healthcare system and most of the Western-trained doctors are not willing to recommend TCM to patients (Chung et al., 2011). Among the 1.63 million persons who had consulted a doctor during the 30 days before survey enumeration, 89 per cent had consulted biomedicine practitioners, whereas 18 per cent had consulted TCM practitioners (Census and Statistics Department: Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, 2015). TCM practitioners in Hong Kong can be classified into three types: herbalists (treating illness by herbal prescriptions and other medicinal materials), acupuncturists (treating illness by needle insertions) and bone-setters (treating fractures, sprains and other bone-related health issues) (Luk, 2001).
A recent survey found that public attitudes toward advertising of TCM practitioners were in general favorable. Respondents found TCM advertising useful in providing information about medical services. However, they worried TCM advertising being misleading or exaggerated. They also perceived that TCM advertising would lead to increase in the cost of services (Chan et al., 2015b). A focus group study of acupuncture users and non-users found that among the user groups, acupuncture was perceived as being effective, having few side effects and generating lasting impact; among the non-user groups, it was perceived as lacking a clinical base, being of high risk and suffering from a lack of standardization. Participants with no acupuncture experience had more confidence in biomedicine than in acupuncture (Chan et al., 2016). A content analysis of newspaper articles about acupuncture in Hong Kong before and after the 1997 transfer of sovereignty to China found that acupuncture has become increasingly legitimate in media discourse. Both the texts and the social contexts associated with acupuncture demonstrated three forms of legitimacy, namely, authorization, rationalization and moral evaluation (Dong and Chan, 2016). Despite the long history of TCM practices in China and the fact...