Popping supplements, drinking herbal teas and signing up for lifestyle classes, young Chinese are turning to the wellness industry as work stress and COVID-19 pandemic memories spur a growing interest in health.
These new habits are part of a global wellness boom, but the traditional concept of “yangsheng” (養生, cultivating one’s life force) has given the trend a unique cultural twist in China.
In Shanghai, Annie Huang sat in a trendy cafe-like establishment that sold traditional herbal teas, sipping a bitter concoction purported to protect the body against the summer heat.
Photo: AFP
“Young people today frequently pull all-nighters ... so they want to drink something that they feel is good for their body,” said Huang, who is in her 30s.
Rooted in Taoism and traditional Chinese medicine beliefs, the vast umbrella of yangsheng includes habits such as avoiding foods thought to make the body cold, and targeted massages that purportedly treat a range of ailments.
Capitalizing on the trend, state-run traditional Chinese medicine giants such as Beijing Tongrentang (北京同仁堂) have opened fashionably decorated stores offering “all-nighter water” and goji berry lattes alongside traditional ingredients believed to promote health, such as bird’s nest and ginseng.
Thousands of yangsheng influencers have filled Chinese social media with posts that offer tips on “expelling body dampness,” how to incorporate ginger juice into daily meals and finger exercises that allegedly improve blood circulation.
The passion for yangsheng has even spilled over into tourism, with young people flocking to desert areas to lay on sand in the belief that the practice rids the body of unhealthy dampness.
The world’s second largest economy is battling sluggish consumption against the backdrop of a property crisis and stubborn youth unemployment.
However, health and wellness spending, especially among millennials and Gen Z, remains a bright spot.
Wellness purchases are “definitely increasing more than other categories,” despite many younger spenders tightening their belts overall, said Jason Yu (虞堅), greater China managing director at consumer research firm Kantar Worldpanel (凱度消費者指數).
“Nutrition supplement is one of the categories they really value and that they are willing to actually invest in,” Yu said.
The health craze has taken many forms ranging from medically proven to pseudoscience.
Chinese start-ups are selling everything from vitamin gummies to probiotic powders, vying for attention with traditionally more trusted imported brands.
The trend is inextricably tied to widespread anxiety about the negative health effects of high-pressure modern work culture.
Reports of overworked young people dying at their desks have prompted consumers to spring for “sudden death prevention packs” — combinations of supplements aimed at countering the effects of daily takeout meals and long workdays.
“You think you’re just working, but you’re actually cutting your lifespan,” said one post by a yangsheng-focused office worker influencer on the platform Xiaohongshu.
Young women juggling demanding careers with the pervasive pressure to have children are turning to classes that teach them to optimize their reproductive health.
At a night school in Shanghai, traditional Chinese medicine practitioner Zhang Qinhai pointed to a diagram of a uterus and ovaries as she told her oversubscribed class of mostly young women about the declining chances of a healthy birth at higher maternal ages.
“People are under too much pressure, so they’re in a state of poorer health,” a 33-year-old student said.
Meanwhile, health fears sparked by the COVID-19 pandemic have lingered.
People feel that their immunity has been lowered by the virus and “they may catch colds and fevers more easily,” said Tommy Qin, the owner of a herbal tea cafe.
Yu said he believed perception plays a big part in young consumers’ rush to protect their health.
“Higher awareness of different health issues, especially aided by social media, are really helping [to drive consumption’, because everybody feels they’re not healthy enough,” he said.
‘SWASTICAR’: Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s close association with Donald Trump has prompted opponents to brand him a ‘Nazi’ and resulted in a dramatic drop in sales Demonstrators descended on Tesla Inc dealerships across the US, and in Europe and Canada on Saturday to protest company chief Elon Musk, who has amassed extraordinary power as a top adviser to US President Donald Trump. Waving signs with messages such as “Musk is stealing our money” and “Reclaim our country,” the protests largely took place peacefully following fiery episodes of vandalism on Tesla vehicles, dealerships and other facilities in recent weeks that US officials have denounced as terrorism. Hundreds rallied on Saturday outside the Tesla dealership in Manhattan. Some blasted Musk, the world’s richest man, while others demanded the shuttering of his
ADVERSARIES: The new list includes 11 entities in China and one in Taiwan, which is a local branch of Chinese cloud computing firm Inspur Group The US added dozens of entities to a trade blacklist on Tuesday, the US Department of Commerce said, in part to disrupt Beijing’s artificial intelligence (AI) and advanced computing capabilities. The action affects 80 entities from countries including China, the United Arab Emirates and Iran, with the commerce department citing their “activities contrary to US national security and foreign policy.” Those added to the “entity list” are restricted from obtaining US items and technologies without government authorization. “We will not allow adversaries to exploit American technology to bolster their own militaries and threaten American lives,” US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick said. The entities
Minister of Finance Chuang Tsui-yun (莊翠雲) yesterday told lawmakers that she “would not speculate,” but a “response plan” has been prepared in case Taiwan is targeted by US President Donald Trump’s reciprocal tariffs, which are to be announced on Wednesday next week. The Trump administration, including US Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent, has said that much of the proposed reciprocal tariffs would focus on the 15 countries that have the highest trade surpluses with the US. Bessent has referred to those countries as the “dirty 15,” but has not named them. Last year, Taiwan’s US$73.9 billion trade surplus with the US
Prices of gasoline and diesel products at domestic gas stations are to fall NT$0.2 and NT$0.1 per liter respectively this week, even though international crude oil prices rose last week, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) and Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) said yesterday. International crude oil prices continued rising last week, as the US Energy Information Administration reported a larger-than-expected drop in US commercial crude oil inventories, CPC said in a statement. Based on the company’s floating oil price formula, the cost of crude oil rose 2.38 percent last week from a week earlier, it said. News that US President Donald Trump plans a “secondary
RSS