{"id":313012,"date":"2026-03-04T19:36:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-04T19:36:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/313012\/"},"modified":"2026-03-04T19:36:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-04T19:36:07","slug":"gen-z-flocks-to-chinese-medicine-as-trust-in-us-health-system-plummets-its-so-personalized-to-being-human-health-wellbeing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/313012\/","title":{"rendered":"Gen Z flocks to Chinese medicine as trust in US health system plummets: \u2018It\u2019s so personalized to being human\u2019 | Health & wellbeing"},"content":{"rendered":"

Did you drink ice water today? If you did, that was \u201cnot very Chinese of you\u201d, according to Sherry Zhu, a 23-year-old Chinese American creator based in New Jersey<\/a>. If you were really serious about \u201cbecoming Chinese\u201d, you would be sipping hot water every day, she warned in a TikTok<\/a> video with millions of views. \u201cI really do feel like, digestion-wise, a lot better when I\u2019m drinking hot water,\u201d she later explained to GQ<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Zhu\u2019s guidance is taken from traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), a health system that dates back 5,000 years and offers a holistic approach to treating symptoms \u2013 physically, emotionally and spiritually. Other creators of Chinese descent have their own TCM hacks: keep your feet warm<\/a> and your periods will be more bearable. Drink tea made with goji berries<\/a>, jujubes and ginger as a cure-all. Move your body every day to promote the flow of qi, or internal energy. \u201cDo my Chinese baddie routine with me,\u201d they caption their videos in half-authoritative, half-joking tones. \u201cAdvice from your Chinese big sister.\u201d<\/p>\n

Creators of non-Asian descent have been eager to prove they can follow directions. \u201cDay one of being Chinese,\u201d they post, showing off pots of boiled apple or savory breakfasts (both better for digestion, according to TCM). \u201cIt has come to my attention that we are all suddenly Chinese,\u201d a white health influencer declared as she bumbled through her first congee recipe.<\/p>\n

double quotation markWhen Americans don\u2019t trust their own institutions \u2026 they become more willing to look for alternative reference pointsShaoyu Yuan<\/p>\n

Why are Americans drawn to Chinese wellness tips \u2013 and expressing interest in \u201cbecoming Chinese\u201d or \u201cbeing in a very Chinese time\u201d of their lives? It\u2019s tied to what some have dubbed \u201cChinamaxxing\u201d<\/a>, a recent trend begun by Americans, involving the sharing of memes and videos in praise of Chinese culture.<\/p>\n

Ironically, Chinamaxxing was a response to Donald Trump\u2019s economic targeting of the country in 2025. Between a bungled trade war, flip-flopping restrictions on Chinese tech<\/a> and a fudged TikTok ban, the US began to look feeble in comparison with its geopolitical rival. With a sense of subversiveness, young Americans started professing fascination<\/a> with Chinese culture. Influencers such as iShowSpeed and Hasan Piker traveled to China to produce content<\/a>, while the US market embraced Chinese cultural goods, such as Labubus, the video game Black Myth: Wukong and Adidas\u2019s athleisure spin on the Tang suit.<\/p>\n

A traditional Chinese medicine practitioner performs a pulse diagnosis. Photograph: Jade Gao\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen Americans don\u2019t trust their own institutions, media or political class, they become more willing to look for alternative reference points,\u201d said Shaoyu Yuan, a scholar of international relations and New York University professor, over email. \u201cPublic debates over TikTok, sanctions, export controls and \u2018decoupling\u2019<\/a> signal to many young people that China is central to the future, whether they like it or not.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chinamaxxing also comes as Americans\u2019 trust in the US healthcare system plummets<\/a>. RFK Jr has consistently cast doubt on vaccines and other conventional medicine while promoting \u201calternative\u201d remedies, boosting a wellness market that repackages holistic care from other cultures as luxury treatments. Chinese medicine might seem less \u201cwoo-woo\u201d than it once did now that the US health secretary is bragging about drinking cod liver oil<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Lulu Ge, the founder of Elix, a wellness brand that uses Chinese traditional herbs, makes videos about \u201cavoiding ice drinks and eating warm foods\u201d to promote her brand. For years her content invited mostly skeptical reactions. But when the Chinamaxxing trend exploded in January, she was taken aback by a sudden surge of engagement: Elix\u2019s social channels saw a 250% increase in organic impressions and its site traffic went up 40% week over week.<\/p>\n

Lulu Ge of Elix. Photograph: Courtesy of Lulu Ge<\/p>\n

Ge believes that Americans have become skeptical of the US healthcare system\u2019s emphasis on physician \u201cspecialization\u201d, which can frustrate people seeking treatment for multi-symptom conditions such as long Covid and autoimmune disorders. \u201cChinese medicine really works best for chronic conditions where it touches upon multiple different health systems,\u201d she said. (Numerous studies have shown<\/a> that TCM therapies can play an important role in the prevention and treatment of chronic diseases \u2013 but they can\u2019t be claimed as a cure for all conditions.)<\/p>\n

Promoting TCM is part of China\u2019s soft power strategy. In 2016, Xi Jinping\u2019s administration issued a directive<\/a> for China to \u201cactively introduce TCM to the rest of the world\u201d. In 2020, China\u2019s National Health Commission advised<\/a> the use of TCM in its recommended treatment of Covid-19 and drafted a plan to punish anyone who \u201cslanders\u201d the medicine system (which it later abandoned<\/a>). The government also sent TCM doctors and supplies<\/a> to countries that were particularly affected by the virus\u2019s spread, such as Uzbekistan and Italy. By 2022 the global TCM market had a valuation of $400bn.<\/p>\n

TCM staked out a presence in America in 2021, when beauty creators began scraping their faces with gua sha stones to promote lymphatic drainage, and Covid longhaulers<\/a> sought acupuncture to manage their most mysterious and persistent symptoms. Last year, TikTokers spearheaded a niche \u201cChinese face mapping<\/a>\u201d trend, asking ChatGPT to act as a TCM doctor and offer less-than-trustworthy assessments of their health based on puffy eyes or pale tongues. When cold and flu season hit this year, many were eager to receive and share health tips, culminating in the broader call to Chinamaxx wellness routines. It helped that practices culled from TCM \u2013 such as going to sleep before 11pm \u2013 fit neatly within the \u201cget ready with me\u201d and \u201cbedtime routine\u201d formats so popular on social media.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen someone adopts qigong, acupuncture, cupping therapy, herbal remedies [or] gua sha \u2026 they are not consuming a one-time cultural export. Instead they are building a habit, and habits quietly change how foreignness feels,\u201d Yuan said. \u201cThat doesn\u2019t mean they are \u2018switching sides\u2019, however \u2026 People can be skeptical of Chinese state policies and still find Chinese wellness practices useful or interesting.\u201d<\/p>\n

double quotation markThere is a medicine tied to [TCM], but there\u2019s almost a lapse in communication or understanding of why our parents told us [about it]Dr Felice Chan<\/p>\n

Some Asian American creators and writers have found this online obsession with China jarring, especially because people of Asian descent in the US were harassed, assaulted and even killed during Covid times. Others have called out white creators for assuming authority on Chinese practices \u2013 like the non-Asians claiming to offer the wisdom of a \u201cChinese grandmother<\/a>\u201d via recipes for waterless chicken soup. \u201cWhat a privilege it is, to be able to try on someone else\u2019s identity for a day without inheriting any of the consequences,\u201d wrote<\/a> Faith Xue, the editor-in-chief of Coveteur.<\/p>\n

One Chinese American creator questioned her decision<\/a> to post a video of \u201cChinese baddie tips\u201d to promote her tea business. After seeing how \u201csaturated\u201d the trend had become, she wondered whether content about TCM was \u201cappreciation or extraction\u201d of Chinese culture.<\/p>\n

Dr Felice Chan, an acupuncturist, doctor of Chinese medicine and co-founder of the skincare brand Moonbow, said that she loves the visibility around TCM. \u201cIf it gives acupuncturists jobs, if it gives light to other Chinese medicine brands, why not?\u201d she said. But she is aware of \u201csurface level\u201d content that flattens or oversimplifies the health benefits of TCM, which is a shared wisdom best passed down through families, not algorithms.<\/p>\n

Dr Felice Chan. Photograph: Courtesy of Dr Felice Chan<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a reason why your mom told you to wear slippers in the house \u2026 If our feet are cold, our womb is cold, we have bad period cramps, right?\u201d Chan said. \u201cThere is a medicine tied to it, but there\u2019s almost a lapse in communication or understanding of why our parents told us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other creators embrace the familial framing. \u201cI\u2019m spending my nights and weekends on TikTok telling people that they\u2019re part of my Chinese family, that they\u2019re being adopted by my Chinese mom,\u201d Ge said. \u201cWe get people saying, \u2018Can I get adopted?\u2019 We\u2019re doing this together, sis. We\u2019re basically like family.\u201d For Ge, this kind of response \u201cspeaks to this broader desire for community, for belonging\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Chinamaxxing trend blazed on through February, buoyed up by the lunar new year and an influx of content about bringing good fortune in the year of the fire horse. The spiritual nature of such guidance underlined another explanation for TCM\u2019s popularity right now: the system itself can be poetic and mystical, defying the creep of AI and automated systems<\/a> into western healthcare. For instance, according to TCM practitioners, the herbal blend to treat a persistent stuck throat, or \u201cplum pit qi\u201d, can also help quell the emotions<\/a> brought on by \u201ca situation that is figuratively too hard to swallow\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201c[TCM] is very rich with heritage, lineage, tradition [and] extremely rich in symbology,\u201d said Minjung Hwangbo, a student of TCM and content creator. \u201cThis medicine is so personalized to being human, and with the emergence of AI, I think people are craving meaning and a return to humanness.\u201d<\/p>\n

The lunar new year happened on the same day as the beginning of Ramadan, during Black History Month, and shortly after a Super Bowl half-time performance from Bad Bunny that briefly \u201cmade everyone Puerto Rican\u201d. As one X user joked, Americans are \u201cglobalismmaxxing\u201d now \u2013 eager to seek out cross-cultural connections, if only through the lens of a 10-second meme.<\/p>\n