In contemporary China, health communication has become an integral component of national strategy and social governance, and the knowledge-production logic of medical and health popular science books is undergoing a subtle yet significant transformation. This study examines both original Chinese worksand translated publications in the field of medical and health publications released in Mainland China in 2024. Focusing on key topics including nutrition and lifestyle, chronic disease prevention, medical humanities, biomedical frontiers, and mental health, and drawing on health communication theory and cultural studies, the article analyzes how these works negotiate the balance between scientific rigor and humanistic expression, as well as the cultural mechanisms underlying their production. The findings indicate that domestic publications largely follow a pragmatic approach, emphasizing immediate transmission of health skills, while translated works employ interdisciplinary integration and narrative strategies to activate structural public cognition and emotional resonance, highlighting a paradigm shift in health writing "functional instruction toward interpretive understanding." Particularly notable is the flourishing scholarship in the history of Chinese medicine, which has encouraged medical and health popular science books to extend toward greater historical depth and cultural richness, demonstrating the modern transformative potential of indigenous knowledge traditions.

medicine  /  health  /  popular science books