The mechanism of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is still incompletely understood in the world although large amount of investigations have been carried out on it. There are many studies on the pathophysiology of IBS in China, which has huge amount of population suffering from IBS with special ethnicity and culture, including Mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. We collected the literatures to show the results and discuss whether there were any differences in the pathophysiologic findings between China and other countries, whether there were any differences among different subtypes and how the pathophysiology correlated with the manifestations of patients. Gene polymorphism, disturbances of gastrointestinal motility, visceral hypersensitivity, intestinal infection and inflammation, psychological disturbances, food hypersensitivity and intolerance, and altered gut microflora were reviewed in this paper. Some conflicting outcomes between China and other countries were noted although most of them were similar.