What is a Campaign in China? Devising a New Chinese Definition and Term for “Campaign” to Improve Health Communication

Since the introduction to China of campaigns in the 1950s, many scholars have translated “campaign” into different Chinese words, such as 运动 or活动. Retranslated into English, the results are not the original “campaign”. Because there is no exact Chinese translation or definition for campaign, many Chinese scholars who study campaigns have been confused. Therefore, based on the conception of the inverse problem, this research first reviewed the literature from 1997 to 2016 (20 years) from a collection of core journal databases in China and abroad and then extracted 54 disease prevention campaign cases. After analyzing and summarizing the data, this research determined the characteristics of campaigns and deduced the Chinese and English definitions and professional Chinese terms for “campaign” and “health communication campaign”. The goal of this research was to establish effective interactions between Chinese and international researchers in the context of campaign studies.