“We are closing the stall, please stop queuing”

 At 3 pm on October 20, by the Xuanwu Lake, Nanjing university student Wang Yu walked out of Gangzi Village Station on Metro Line 4 and headed straight to the large lawn of the Jinling Style Block, where a cultural market called “Travel the World with Traditional Chinese Medicine from Jiangsu Province” was being held. With the collision of medical skills and trendy markets, long queues formed in areas such as the “Wangwenwenqie Hall” and the “Benchao Chinese Medicine Store”.

○  This may be the most popular market in Nanjing in recent months. In parks and lakesides, shopping malls in downtown areas, top-level hospitals, maternal and child health clinics, and community health service centers have become the most conspicuous signs. Red ginseng, Sichuan fritillary bulbs, coptis root, sandalwood and other Chinese medicinal materials are all on display in the stalls. Golden phrases such as “Spring brings life, summer brings growth” and “Autumn brings harvest, winter brings storage” have attracted many people to check in and take photos.

○  “There are not many elderly people here, only young people with skinny skin, and their necks are all red from shaved.” Someone walked by suspiciously, “These are the people who hated wearing long johns under their school uniforms when we were in school.”

○  They want to follow the trend and try new things, but also want to see a serious doctor. Behind the booming traditional Chinese medicine market lies the simple voice of a generation of young people.

01“Unexpectedly popular”

○  After eight years in commercial planning, Liang Peng, head of the marketing department of Jinmao Lanxiu City, was still unprepared for what was happening before him.

○ The 20-stall “Save Crispy Youth” street health market opened at 3 p.m. on the street square. The Chinese medicine doctors never left their seats since then, and a steady stream of people lined up until the stalls closed at 8 p.m. Liang Peng and his colleagues had to take turns persuading people in advance: “We are closing the stalls, don’t line up, there will be more tomorrow.”

○  Three months later, the popularity is still unabated. On September 15, the Mid-Autumn Festival holiday was approaching, and Typhoon “Bebejia” was approaching Nanjing. At the “Crispy Youth Health Market” at Gulou Wuyue Plaza, Zhang Yinhong, the head of the mall’s activities department, “nailed” himself to the scene from morning to night, paying attention to every move here.

○  This is a commercial complex located in the core area of ​​Nanjing’s old city. The surrounding area is crowded with old residential areas with houses more than 20 years old. Cars have to slow down unconsciously when driving here. Bank branches and gold stores popular among the elderly are scattered throughout the streets.

○  But during the two days when the TCM market was open, countless young faces came from all directions, crowding the square in front of the gate which was only a few hundred square meters. Some people took special leave for this purpose, and some came from Yuhua, Jiangning and Liuhe. The back-end data of Xiaohongshu readers collected at the event check-in point showed that most of them were between 18 and 27 years old.

○  Zhang Rongchun, director of the Department of Traditional Chinese Medicine at the Zhongda Hospital affiliated to Southeast University, was in charge of taking the pulse. With one hand, he could find all kinds of diseases in the internal organs, which was called the “first barrier” of the market, so he was the most popular. This chief physician with 30 years of experience had never seen such a grand occasion. In the six hours, he had no time to get up to go to the toilet, so he didn’t dare to drink too much water. For dinner, he had a hamburger brought by the organizer from the mall.

02“Nothing can fool an old Chinese doctor”

○  Before coming to the Chinese Medicine Fair, Wang Yu didn’t think there were any major problems with his health.

○  Like her roommates, she had a good appetite, good sleep, and was energetic. The only time she admitted that she was a “crispy youth” was during the physical examination every semester. But when she stretched out her wrist and tongue, the doctor opposite her asked her directly, “Do you often stay up late and can’t flush the toilet cleanly?”

○  This matches Wang Yu’s life one by one. At peak times, she and her roommates watch two or three variety shows at the same time, can stay up until 12 o’clock every night to sleep, set three or four alarms every five minutes to catch up with the morning classes, and then fall asleep in the afternoon classes. “Liver fire is strong, spleen and stomach are weak, and if this continues for a long time, you will get sick.” She received advice from a doctor.

○ Someone joked on social media that “no illness can escape the diagnosis of traditional Chinese medicine.” Zhang Rongchun used three fingers to draw a picture of this generation of young people – weak spleen and stomach, heavy dampness, loose stools, and poor sleep quality. “In the final analysis, it is caused by bad living habits, such as being easily angry, overthinking, under great pressure, staying up late, and eating spicy and cold food.”

○  In just 6 hours at the market, he saw almost all the current young people. Sometimes, after reminding young people to eat less spicy food, they would blurt out “We just came here after eating hot pot”; in Nanjing, when autumn turns to winter, consuming cold food is a taboo in traditional Chinese medicine, but among the young people coming and going, there are many holding iced fruit tea; when facing a girl who claimed to be often tired, he urged her to “exercise more”, but she half-jokingly said, “It’s because of fatigue that you don’t have the energy to exercise.”

03“It cures diseases and also cures mental exhaustion”

○  After walking around with her 4-year-old daughter, Wang Lin, a post-90s “mom”, stopped in front of the stall of the Xuanwu District Maternal and Child Health Center. After a face-to-face consultation, the doctor determined that her child had an allergic constitution. Following the advice, she bought a bottle of eczema ointment made from Chinese medicine the next day. “I always have Denaide cream at home, so this time I’ll try a Chinese medicine instead.”

○  In the past two years, Wang Lin started buying Chinese medicine sachets and pillows, and always has health teas such as astragalus, hawthorn, and poria in his office. The health concept of “preventive treatment” has permeated into his lifestyle.

○ In fact, traditional Chinese medicine has entered the vision of young people in recent years. The Jiangsu Institute of Pharmaceutical Research Chinese Medicine Hospital is hidden in the alley of Majia Street. Deputy Director Pan Lingfeng found that weight loss has become the choice of many young people with a physique prone to obesity. In her hospital, cases of losing 20 kilograms in a month are everywhere.

○  “Hypertension, high blood lipids, and high uric acid are also becoming more common among young people. In the past, people relied on long-term use of Western medicine to control these conditions. In fact, in traditional Chinese medicine, very good results can be achieved through a combination of dietary adjustments, Chinese medicine, acupuncture, cupping, and other therapeutic methods,” said Pan Lingfeng.

○  Like Wang Lin, Zhao He came to the market to seek professional advice.

○  She described graduation from university as a watershed moment. In the three years since she started working, she has been confronted with the worries of today’s young people that she had only heard about in talk shows.

○  Zhao He works in a design company. As the company is small, she was quickly placed in the main position of the project team despite her young age. “The growth is indeed fast, and various things push you forward, but the pressure is also really great.”

○  The frequency of cleaning the shower drain has quietly increased, as her hair has clogged it. Whenever she gets acne on her face, she loses her mind a little. She will take a few more glances at any skin care product promotions she sees on the short video platform. Sometimes when she can’t sleep at night, she takes out her phone to watch food videos. Unlike when she was looking for snacks in college, she began to control herself from ordering takeout.

○  The smell of mugwort began to waft through the large office with dozens of people. She and her colleagues reduced the number of times they ordered milk tea, and chose to reduce the sugar content again and again.

○  In her opinion, the popularity of the TCM market proves that the “crispness” of this generation of young people is not just a joke. “Some people are really ill, and some people simply feel that their mental state is not good and need some outlet to vent their emotions. Elements such as health preservation and lying down naturally become that outlet.”

○  Therefore, on social platforms, some people describe visiting the TCM market as “getting rid of the odor of work and saving the inner exhaustion of the spirit”, and regard it as a “place to prolong life” and a “recharging station for workers”. Zhao He believes that the workplace and life pressures faced by him and his peers are the same.

04“Good doctors and good medicine complement each other”

○  Xu Bin, deputy director of Zhongda Hospital affiliated to Southeast University, decided to seize the opportunity in front of him.

○ Before being invited to the TCM market for the first time, the elderly TCM doctors in the department once subconsciously asked, “What is a crispy youth?” Now, they truly feel the enthusiasm and appeal of the “crispy youth”. Xu Bin observed that young people have appeared in the TCM department, “like repeat customers”. In the past, health teas, barley soup, etc. were only sold as part of follow-up visits in TCM clinics. Now, he is considering setting up tea bag sales points in the hospital to further meet the needs of young people.

○  Pan Lingfeng also found that Chinese medicine clinics like theirs are popping up in cities like mushrooms after rain. In 2023, the number of Chinese medicine clinics in the country increased by nearly 12,000, a four-fold increase compared to the 3,000 increase in 2022.

○  In recent years, the National Health Commission has expanded the list of “medicine and food of the same origin” several times, and now more than 100 substances have been selected. With the help of the boom of the TCM market, Pan Lingfeng hopes to spread the TCM concept of medicine and food of the same origin more widely. In two months, she and her colleagues designed and launched 5 Chinese herbal teas for removing dampness, nourishing the skin, and calming the nerves, as well as a foot bath medicine bag. Five medicated meal bags for young people’s sub-health conditions are also being developed, all from the medicine and food of the same origin catalog.

○ From the punk health of “coffee milk tea with wolfberry” to the Chinese health of “Chinese herbal sour plum soup”, Chinese herbal teas are now increasingly popular among young people. On September 29, the “National Trend Health Bureau” in Qixia Mountain was bustling with the aroma of medicine. A wide variety of Chinese medicine health teas, foods, and cultural and creative products are dazzling. The healthy and delicious “National Trend Health Products” are deeply favored by citizens.

○  On the evening of October 18, a traditional Chinese medicine night market was opened in the central hall of the Maqun Merchants Garden City Shopping Mall. Stalls offering consultations with famous doctors, appropriate technologies, Chinese herbal teas, meridian testing and traditional Chinese medicine beauty all opened their doors to welcome customers, attracting a large number of citizens to come for consultation and experience.

○  According to the relevant person in charge of Nanjing Hospital of Integrated Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine, in addition to Chinese herbal teas, Chinese herbal facial masks, sachets and various Chinese herbal cultural and creative products have also received very good responses.

○  People often say that “good doctors and good medicine complement each other”, which means that the efficacy of a dose of Chinese medicine is determined by the skills of the pharmacist. However, as time goes by, some Chinese medicine preparation techniques are facing the risk of being lost, and it is urgent to build a studio for the inheritance of old pharmacists.

○  At the beginning of this year, Nanjing announced the first batch of “Nanjing Old Pharmacist Inheritance Studios”, among which six old pharmacist inheritance studios were listed: Xia Qin, Lei Maohua, Li Wen from Nanjing Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Chen Leiyao from Nanjing Hospital of Integrated Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine, Zeng Bailin from Nanjing Lishui District Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, and Zhao Lingang from Nanjing Liuhe District Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine.

○  Behind the “new Chinese health care” is the vivid exploration of traditional Chinese medicine’s active innovation and change. It is hoped that this will attract more young people to pay attention to Chinese medicine and give it new charm.