Smoking Environments in China: Challenges for Tobacco Control (Global Perspectives on Health Geography)

This book fills a major gap in research into smoking and tobacco control in China. In recent decades, few studies have explored the significance of geographical factors and the role they have played either in affecting the prevalence of smoking or in tobacco control responses to the smoking epidemic in China. In light of this, the book investigates the importance of national, regional and local environmental factors affecting smoking in China. It shows how geographical, social and institutional contexts have influenced the implementation and success of tobacco control initiatives, and situates smoking trends in China in a broader global context. The authors synthesize Chinese and western research on the smoking epidemic and uniquely focus on the importance of environmental factors and Chinese cultural perspectives in understanding smoking behaviour and the ineffectiveness of many tobacco control initiatives, especially how these conflict with Chinese economic policy. The book is aimedat academic and policy audiences both internationally and inside China, and will be of interest to a wide audience, not only geographers, but also epidemiologists, sociologists and others working in public health.

Dr. Ross Barnett is an Adjunct Professor at the University of Canterbury. He is a senior international consultant for the Centre for Tobacco Control Research, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou, China. His research focuses on links between social and physical environments and health, health behaviour and policy making, with a particular focus on smoking and tobacco control.  

Dr.Tingzhong Yang is the Director of the Centre for Tobacco Control Research, Zhejiang University. His research has encouraged “tobacco control advocacy capacity” in medical schools in China. He served as an expert in updating the 2013-2020 version of the WHO Global Action Plan for the Prevention and Control of NCDs. Professor Yang's primary academic focus is health behaviour but he also has research interests in tobacco control, mental stress, and obesity. 

Dr.  Xiaozhao Yousef Yang is a medical sociologist at Sun Yat-sen University.  He studies at-risk healthbehaviours and health inequities across changing socioeconomic contexts. His research aims to reach out to policy makers and the public to inform about the fundamental social causes of health problems and their impacts on disadvantaged populations. 

Dr Pauline Barnett is an Adjunct Associate Professor in the School of Health Sciences at the University of Canterbury. Her research focuses on public health policy and ways in which health services can be designed and managed to benefit the community.  She has special interests in primary health care, mental health, disability and ageing.

Dr. Shuhan Jiang is a Lecturer in the School of Humanities and Management, Zhejiang Chinese Medical University in Hangzhou. She is also a research member in the Centre for Tobacco Control Research, Zhejiang University. Her research interests focus on health behaviour, especially on tobacco use. 

Dr. Sihui Peng is an instructor in the School of Medicine at Jinan Universityin Guangzhou and a researcher at the Centre for Tobacco Control, Zhejiang University. Her main research interests are tobacco control, smartphone addiction and uncertainty stress. Her research work underlines the importance of Chinese cultural influences on health behaviour.  

 Dr Weifang Zhang is a senior health administrator and academic. She is currently Senior Vice President of the Stomatology Hospital, Zhejiang School of Medicine and previously served as the Vice President of the Children’s Hospital, Zhejiang School of Medicine. She has been actively involved in establishing funds for child health and recently became the Principal of the Zhejiang University Women’s Health Foundation.  Her research interests focus on social medicine, health care and health policy.