Exclusive versus Integrative Professional Norms: A Comparative Study of Biomedical Attitudes Toward Traditional Chinese Medicine in Hong Kong and Mainland China

How does biomedicine interact with complementary and alternative medicines (CAMs)? Existing studies emphasize boundary work and epistemological distinctions, but give limited attention to the professional contexts shaping biomedical responses. Adopting a social space perspective, this study argues that variation in biomedical responses to CAMs arises from healthcare space structures—specifically, the social distance between biomedicine and CAMs and physicians’ social positions. Drawing on a comparative study of Hong Kong and mainland China, we show that biomedical physicians adopt two distinct professional norms toward traditional Chinese medicine (TCM): an exclusive norm in Hong Kong and an integrative norm in mainland China. Evidence from in-depth interviews with physicians indicates that these norms reflect differing patterns of social distance between biomedicine and TCM and the stratified social positions of physicians in the two regions. By foregrounding professional context, this study offers a spatial framework for understanding variation in biomedical responses to CAMs across sociocultural settings. • Physicians’ professional norms on TCM: exclusive in Hong Kong, integrative in China. • A social space perspective explains these differing professional norms. • Social distance and social position in healthcare shape biomedical responses to CAMs. • Professional contexts are key to understanding biomedicine-CAM interactions.