Sun et al. (2010)
Evolution of information-driven HIV/AIDS policies in China
International Journal of Epidemiology, 39(suppl. 2), ii4–ii13. Historical context · added for this redesignFraming
HIV
How stigma takes shape
in China.
A frame makes some parts of a story more visible than others; framing is the act of making those choices.
Adapted from Entman (1993), p. 52. [10]01 / YOUR FIRST WORD
Before we start.
When you hear HIV,
what comes to mind?
No right answer. Your word stays on this page and is cleared when you reload.
02 / 643 ARTICLES
Most of them
were never a person.
Every mark is one Chinese newspaper article about HIV, from the weeks around World AIDS Day, 2000–2010.
Every mark opens. The dark ones named someone; the pale ones did not.
501 reported people living with HIV only as a collective. 142 named an individual. [02]
03 / WHY YOU HAD NO DEFENCE
You have probably
never met anyone
with HIV.
“In the absence of personal experience, we become highly dependent on representation to form our sense of the meaning of events, people and places.”Bowles (2014), p. 47. [09]
At least, never knowingly. So the press is not one source among several. For most readers it is the only one.
04 / TEN OF THE THIRTY
Real voices.
Some people on Weibo said people with AIDS should go to hell.Some people on Weibo said people with AIDS should go to hell.
Participant H81 / 10
Thirty people living with HIV, interviewed online in 2022–23, all asymptomatic. Quoted in the published English of the study; participants are identified by research code because that is how the study protects them. [14]
05 / A SORTING TEST
Let’s have a test.
Which of these would a newspaper be more likely to write up as a person?
Infected by a contaminated blood transfusion during childbirth.
Born to a mother who was HIV positive.
Infected by a husband who did not know he carried the virus.
Infected through a shared needle.
Infected through bartered sex.
Infected through sex with another man.
These are the six routes of infection the study coded, not six individuals. No score. Nobody is being tested on their decency. 0 of 6 sorted.
06 / WHAT THE NEWSPAPERS DID
43% and 3%.
People became individuals almost only when infected by a route the culture reads as blameless. That is the innocent victim frame — and the word innocent requires a guilty one.
- Blood contamination43%
- Mother-to-child30%
- Sexual, via spouse22%
- Injecting drug use15%
- Bartered sex13%
- Homosexual sex3%
Ren, Hust and Zhang add a harder turn: showing sympathetic atypical cases can reinforce the stereotype it appears to soften. [02]
Share of the 67 named individuals whose route of infection was reported. These are proportions, not rules: the smallest, 3%, is two people, not none. Articles could report more than one route, so the figures do not total 100%. n = 643 articles, 8 outlets, alternate years 2000–2010.
07 / ONE CHARACTER
Public health messaging describes them as a 高危人群 — a high-risk population.
English gives both terms the same words. Chinese does not. 风险 is a probability; 危 is peril, the character in 危险 and 危机. Ren, Hust and Zhang gloss 高危人群 literally as “a highly dangerous population”, and say the term may be read as dangerous and threatening where 高风险 only marks a risk. It appeared in 1 of every 10 articles — 65 of 643 — and is standard in policy, legal and institutional writing.
“He wants his own experience to serve as a warning to the high-risk group.”China News Service, 12 November 2008, on a university student who asked to be called Gong Wei. The report is about one person; the warning is addressed to a category. Our translation of the original 高危人群.
Ren, Hust and Zhang distinguish the two terms directly: “Unlike the Chinese term gao feng xian that clearly highlights high risk, gao wei may be interpreted as highly dangerous and threatening.” The verb is theirs — may be — and this screen keeps it. [02] UNAIDS advises against “high-risk group” in any language: it implies the risk is contained within the group, and may leave people outside it feeling safe. [19]
08 / FROM A PERSON TO A PLACE TO A JOB
The label
keeps travelling.
Every word here opens the report that printed it.
艾滋考生AIDS Candidate
A child, a village, an address, a profession, a student. The prefix stays; whatever follows it is taken.
Ren, Hust and Zhang found 48 of their 643 articles — 7.5% — putting an “AIDS” label on a person: 艾滋孤儿 in 25 of them, 艾滋病村 in 2. Li and colleagues count categories rather than words: across 39,141 articles, 2010–24, child terms are used by 2.85%, social-role terms by 0.53%, place terms by 0.27%, and generic terms, which name no role at all, by 55.95%. [02][03]
09 / A SLUR, OR A BORDER
United States, 1980s
“gay plague”
Argued with. Protested. Retired.
TIME, 12 August 1985 — US context, not a Chinese headline. [12]The United States was given a slur. China was given a border. A slur can be argued with; a border is only ever redrawn.
Two front pages, not two countries. Dong, Chang and Chen describe how people with HIV stayed invisible — “a nonissue devoid of social consequences” — in the People’s Daily of 1986–2002; that is one newspaper over one period, not all Chinese media. [15] China recorded its first case in 1985; the first comprehensive exposure of the epidemic in the Chinese press came in 1996. [17] Our reading of these sources, not a claim made by any one of them.
10 / THE VERDICT WAS IDEOLOGICAL
Same sound. Different verdict.
艾滋病AIDS. Picked for the sound; the characters mean nothing here.
ài zī bìng
爱资病love · capitalism · disease
The United States named a group of people. Here the same groups — sex workers, drug users, men who have sex with men — were denounced as anti-socialist. Homosexuality was not a separate charge; it was one of the things capitalism was accused of letting back in.
Gewirtz traces the pun to May 1987, when the writer Huang Gang quoted it at the Great Hall of the People; after 1989 it stood for “bourgeois liberalization”. A Party directive of 1983 had already listed AIDS among “capitalist countries’ serious social problems”, “including homosexuality and intravenous drug use”. [13]
11 / THREE WAYS TO DISAPPEAR
Three ways
to disappear.
Gaye Tuchman called this symbolic annihilation. A group is not removed from public life by one act but by three: it is left out, it is made small, it is condemned. You have already seen all three.
Omission is not the opposite of stigma. It is the first of its forms.
All three figures are Ren, Hust and Zhang’s own, over one corpus: 643 articles, 8 outlets, alternate years 2000–2010. The term is Tuchman’s (1978), read against the original — Ren et al. reach for it by name and cite her other book of that year. [02][18]
12 / A SHORT HISTORY, READ SIDEWAYS
A virus.
Many stories.
HIV did not enter an empty cultural space. Its meaning changed alongside policy, public knowledge and media language.
Six selected moments, not a complete history. Keep scrolling.1985 — 2024
13 / A SHORT HISTORY · EXHIBIT 01 OF 06
1985
An outside threat
China’s early response focused on preventing imported infections. That policy history helps explain a boundary between an imagined safe inside and a dangerous outside.
History + our interpretation [01]1989
The boundary breaks
An outbreak among people who injected drugs near the Myanmar border made domestic transmission visible. A location or population could become a shorthand for the disease.
History + our interpretation [01]1990s
The story gets wider
Paid plasma collection in central China reused tubing and pooled blood before reinfusion. By 2001–02 roughly 69,000 people infected this way needed treatment. The epidemic could not be explained by a single sexual identity.
The Lancet, co-authored by China CDC [17]2003
Care enters the frame
The Four Frees and One Care policy expanded the national response to treatment and support. The history includes shifts toward care as well as exclusion.
Policy history [01]2000–10
An us-and-them divide
Ren, Hust and Zhang’s newspaper study found labelling and stereotyping that separated people living with HIV from an imagined “us”.
Research period · published 2014 [02]2010–24
Change, and persistence
Li and colleagues found more generic terminology, but persistent stigma and reduced prominence of person-centred themes. Better language did not mean stigma had disappeared.
Research period · published 2026 [03]198519891990s20032000–102010–24
Exhibit 1 of 6: 1985, An outside threat14 / FROM A WORD TO A RULE
The word left
the newspaper.
A term that sorts people in the press is the same term that sorts them in a rule.
Ren, Hust and Zhang record 高危人群 “widely used in the Chinese media in government policy contexts, legal contexts, and institutional contexts”, and say such accounts “may also provoke fear among readers”, which “may explain, in part”, why residents surveyed believed people with HIV should be kept apart. [02]
Those hedges are the authors’ own. A possible path, not a proven cause: nothing here measures what any reader took from any article.
15 / THE DOOR OF THE CLINIC
And then the door.
“Doctors and health workers would be very fierce to the patient, even though the patient is shy, and they said ‘Oh, let me wash my hands, I don’t want to get infected.’”A market worker, interviewed in eastern China. [04]
“We are afraid the doctors may have some discrimination against us, afraid of being looked down on.”A sex worker, same study. [04]
Lieber and colleagues found these beliefs define a condition warranting “the avoidance of infected persons and dismissal by medical professionals”. [04] Twenty years on, people on Weibo still describe using public opinion to reverse a refusal of treatment. [14]
16 / THE LONG WAY ROUND
So people
go round it.
- 1The pharmacyTreat it yourself first. Nobody has to be told.
- 2A private clinicConvenient, and private. Expensive, often ineffective.
- 3The public hospitalBest care, lowest cost — and the last place people go.
The public hospital is “often as the last resort, and despite being broadly acknowledged as the best quality and lower cost care”. [04] Stigma does not only hurt feelings. It changes the order in which people ask for help — and how late.
Interviews with about a hundred people in one eastern Chinese city, 2006: sex workers, STD clinic patients, market and migrant workers. The study is about HIV and STD stigma in general, not about the press. It shows the consequence exists; it does not show what caused it. [04]
17 / THE CORRECTION IS HELD DOWN
Depoliticized
and soft.
The organisations best placed to reframe HIV are limited by regulation to what one study calls “depoliticized and soft” work. Breaking that invites closure, silencing or discipline.
To survive, NGOs collaborate with government and praise it on social media to reduce political risk and gain legitimacy. The counter-narrative arrives pre-softened.
Huang identifies three reporting failures: long central denial, censorship limiting information, and local cover-ups. HIV is tied to the blood trade, homosexuality, medical malpractice and the sex trade — subjects treated as at odds with a harmonious society. [05]
18 / AND THE SUBJECT IS FADING
Coverage of HIV in Chinese media peaked in 2011.
Two documented points from a 39,141-article corpus, 2010–2024; the intervening years are not shown because we do not hold the annual figures. Generic terminology now appears in 55.95% of articles — better words, fewer people, less attention. [03]
19 / NOBODY HAD TO INTEND THIS
It happens
behind our backs.
“Ideological reproduction therefore takes place here inadvertently, unconsciously, ‘behind men’s backs’.”Hall, Encoding/Decoding, p. 172. [16]
Hall argues the professional code of journalism operates inside the dominant code rather than against it. Reporters apply craft criteria — newsworthiness, clarity, balance — and reproduce the hegemonic definition anyway.
This is why the argument on this site is not an accusation. No editor needs to want any of it.
20 / THEY RENAMED THEMSELVES
A-friends.
Eating candy.
- high-risk groupA-friend
- AIDS patientA-baby
- taking medicationeating candy
On Weibo, the wording used by the press — high-risk group、AIDS patient、taking medication — is set against the wording used inside the community: A-friend、A-baby、eating candy, and “sugar baby”.
The study is explicit about the purpose: this vocabulary deconstructs the atmosphere of terror and despair created by news media. Some mark their usernames with the letter A, or with 艾.
Hall would call this the oppositional code: the message is understood exactly, then retotalised within an alternative framework. It is the place where, in his words, the politics of signification is joined. [14][16]
21 / AND IT SOMETIMES WORKS
Hundreds reposted it.
When an A-friend with Kaposi’s sarcoma asked for help on Weibo, the community amplified it until it had force. Members describe using public opinion to reverse refusals of treatment. [14]
1 / 4
Illustration. The names are invented; the study records the reposting, not the accounts.
22 / AND WHAT IT COSTS
Visibility
cuts both ways.
ClimbSlide
- Others like you
- Knowing more than some doctors
- Hundreds reposting
- Found by colleagues
- Told they deserve it
- Worn down by others’ misfortune
Some who win a case then delete their own posts and ask others to delete the reposts: protection to some, betrayal to others. [14]
“Climb” and “slide” are the study’s own terms. The curve is a diagram of them, not data. [14]
23 / MEDICINE HAS CHANGED
U equals U.UU.
Undetectable equals untransmittable.Undetectable = Untransmittable
People living with HIV who take antiretroviral treatment and maintain an undetectable viral load do not transmit HIV to sexual partners.
It is not passed on by hugging or sharing food. With treatment, HIV is a manageable chronic condition. [06]
Why does the old belief outlast the new fact? Appadurai’s disjuncture: information and ideas travel at different speeds. A lens, not HIV evidence. [07]
24 / THREE WAYS TO READ IT
“He wants his own experience to serve as a warning to the high-risk group.”China News Service, 12 November 2008 — the reporter’s account of what a student, given the name Gong Wei, wanted. You met this sentence on view 07.
The report means to warn people about a risk. What do you make of 高危人群 inside it?
Three positions for comparing readings, not three kinds of people. One click does not make you one of them.
You skipped the first question.
Risk needs describing precisely. A person does not need defining by a label.
That last line is ours. A diagnosis becomes a stigma when it is made to stand for someone’s character, identity or right to belong; use “person living with HIV” rather than “AIDS victim”. [08] UNAIDS advises describing behaviours and situations rather than naming a group. [19]
25 / EXTENDED READING
The same machine,
running now.
Everything you have just read was published research about HIV, between 2000 and 2024. It can be read as history.
In September 2026, over two days, a Japanese wire story about a drug shortage became a Chinese headline about an outbreak — and the explanation offered was dating apps. A different disease, a different country, the same machinery, in public, this week.
How syphilis is being stigmatised in China, in 2026A separate piece. It proves nothing about HIV; it shows the mechanism is not finished.
26 / THE READING ROOM 1 / 7
Follow the evidence.
Research, archives and theory serve different purposes.
Interpretive comments are our wording, unless marked as quotations.
Read
Ren, Hust & Zhang (2014)
Chinese newspapers’ coverage of HIV transmission over a decade (2000–2010): where HIV stigma arises
Chinese Journal of Communication, 7(3), 267–284. Newspaper framing · existing project referenceLi, Wu, Yu & Shi (2026)
Constructing HIV/AIDS in Chinese media (2010–2024): A mixed-methods study
PLOS ONE, 21(5), e0349242. Changing language and visibility · existing project reference27 / THE READING ROOM 2 / 7
Follow the evidence.
Research, archives and theory serve different purposes.
Interpretive comments are our wording, unless marked as quotations.
Lieber et al. (2006)
HIV/STD stigmatization fears as health-seeking barriers in China
AIDS and Behavior, 10(5), 463–471. Free full text at PubMed Central. Interviews in eastern China · stigma as a barrier to careFu & Zhang (2019)
NGOs’ HIV/AIDS discourse on social media and websites: Technology affordances and strategic communication across media platforms
International Journal of Communication, 13, 181–205. Alternative narratives · existing project referenceWorld Health Organization (2026)
HIV and AIDS
Fact sheet · updated 27 July 2026. Medical facts · existing project reference28 / THE READING ROOM 3 / 7
Follow the evidence.
Research, archives and theory serve different purposes.
Interpretive comments are our wording, unless marked as quotations.
Appadurai (1990)
Disjuncture and difference in the global cultural economy
Theory, Culture & Society, 7(2–3), 295–310. Theory of uneven cultural flows · existing project referenceUNAIDS (2024)
UNAIDS terminology guidelines
Language guidance · 1 July 2024. People-first language · existing project referenceBowles (2014)
Representation
In S. Cunningham & S. Turnbull (eds), The media and communications in Australia, 4th ed., Allen & Unwin. Course framework · chapter located and checked29 / THE READING ROOM 4 / 7
Follow the evidence.
Research, archives and theory serve different purposes.
Interpretive comments are our wording, unless marked as quotations.
Entman (1993)
Framing: Toward clarification of a fractured paradigm
Journal of Communication, 43(4), 51–58. Definition of framing · paraphrasedZhang / Shanghai Daily (2004)
An AIDS Fighter’s Sad Battle
30 November 2004 · republished by Sina. Archival reporting · recalls a label criticallyTIME (1985)
AIDS: A Growing Threat
Claudia Wallis · TIME, 12 August 1985. US context for “gay plague” · not a Chinese headline30 / THE READING ROOM 5 / 7
Follow the evidence.
Research, archives and theory serve different purposes.
Interpretive comments are our wording, unless marked as quotations.
Gewirtz (2020)
‘Loving Capitalism Disease’: AIDS and ideology in the People’s Republic of China, 1984–2000
Past & Present, 249(1), 251–294. Historical research · ideology and disease languageZeng, Zhao & Ming (2025)
Navigating visibility on Weibo among people living with HIV: qualitative study
Journal of Medical Internet Research, 27, e72490. Interviews with 30 participants · every quoted voice on this siteDong, Chang & Chen (2008)
Reporting AIDS and the invisible victims in China: official knowledge as news in the People’s Daily, 1986–2002
Journal of Health Communication, 13(4), 357–374. National-press silence · added for this revision31 / THE READING ROOM 6 / 7
Follow the evidence.
Research, archives and theory serve different purposes.
Interpretive comments are our wording, unless marked as quotations.
Hall (1980/2006)
Encoding/decoding
In M. G. Durham & D. M. Kellner (eds), Media and cultural studies: key works, pp. 163–173. Blackwell. Course reading · three reading positionsWu et al. (2007)
Evolution of China’s response to HIV/AIDS
The Lancet, 369(9562), 679–690. Plasma economy and policy timeline · co-authored by China CDCTuchman (1978)
The symbolic annihilation of women by the mass media
In G. Tuchman, A. K. Daniels & J. Benét (eds.), Hearth and Home: Images of Women in the Mass Media. Oxford University Press. Where the term comes from · Ren et al. name it but cite Tuchman’s other 1978 book; this is the one that carries it32 / THE READING ROOM 7 / 7
Follow the evidence.
Research, archives and theory serve different purposes.
Interpretive comments are our wording, unless marked as quotations.
UNAIDS (2011)
Terminology Guidelines
UNAIDS, October 2011, p. 12. Why “high-risk group” is advised against · quoted from p. 12People’s Daily (1986)
Health Ministry official states: no AIDS has occurred in our country
People’s Daily, 31 October 1986, p. 1. Xinhua dispatch. Newspaper archive mirror. Where the border was drawn · read in the archive, not through a studyPeople’s Daily (1989)
China finds 32 people infected with the AIDS virus
People’s Daily, 2 December 1989, p. 3. Newspaper archive mirror. The numbers arrive; the border holds · read in the archiveContent analysis shows how the press wrote, not how audiences thought. The 643-article study samples eight outlets in the weeks around World AIDS Day, alternate years 2000–2010. The interview study describes thirty participants, not a population. Twelve newspaper articles are not numbered here: they are opened in full on views 02 and 08, each with its masthead, its date and a link to the original.
33 / WHERE TO GET HELP
If any of this
brought something to mind.
This reading is about Chinese newspapers, 2000–2024. The services below are in Australia, which is where it was made. None of these links is tracked, and none of them is us.
- MHAHS ↗Multicultural HIV and Hepatitis Service, New South Wales. Free resources in many languages, Chinese among them.
- NAPWHA ↗The national association of people living with HIV — run by people living with HIV.
- Healthdirect ↗Government health advice and a service finder, nationwide.
- Health Equity Matters ↗The national federation of HIV organisations. It was called AFAO until recently.
- ACON ↗New South Wales.
- Thorne Harbour Health ↗Victoria and South Australia.
- emen8 ↗Sexual health for men into men. Also published in Chinese.
Links only, each to the organisation’s own page. We have not written any telephone number here: one typed from memory is worse than none, and every one of these prints its own. Checked 24 September 2026.