In recent decades, sociological and anthropological studies of illness and health care behaviour have pointed to the coexistence of modern Western medicine and various forms of traditional medicine; this is the case not only in many developing societies but also in many advanced industrial societies (see, for example, Worsley, 1982; Elhng, 1981; Chen, 1981; Ho, Lun, and Ng, 1984; Lee, 1981, 1982; Klemman, 1980; Koo, 1987; Quah, 1981; Young, 1983; Cheung and New, 1985). It is generally found that there exist multiple health care traditions in most, if not all, national societies, although modern Western medicine has become so widespread and so dominant that it can be referred to as “cosmopolitan medicine”. As Leslie (1976: 357) describes it, the medical system is, in fact “a pluralistic network of different kinds of physicians, dentists, clinical psychologists, chiropractors, health food experts, yoga teachers, spirit curers, druggists, Chinese herbalists, and so on”. It seems that as no one system alone can adequately meet the health care needs of the entire population, different systems of health care are bound to coexist and are complementary to each other; they provide alternative pathways to health care (New, 1977).

Such a pluralistic structure of health care is also true of Hong Kong, a British colony that has undergone rapid industrialization and modernization in the past two or three decades (for statistics and discussions, see Hopkins, 1971; Lin, Lee, and Simonis, 1979; King and Lee, 1981). At the present, there are over 5.5 million people living in a total land area of 1,070 sq. km. More than 95 per cent of the population are Chinese (mostly Cantonese) in place of origin. Despite land shortage and population pressure, Hong Kong achieved a miraculous growth in its economy during the past two to three decades. Much of its success was due to the remarkable developments in industrial, commercial, and financial sectors, bringing about increases in the general standard of living. For instance, material possessions such as colour television sets, hi-fi sets, telephones, refrigerators, and washing machines are now quite common for an average family.