In our last post we mentioned the pervasive Chinese health-consciousness. Many Americans are also focused on a healthy lifestyle, but the Chinese concern seems different in at least two ways. First, many of the specific ideas about healthy living are different—and I am still far from understanding them. But second, is the widespread acceptance of their views of healthiness. In the west we know we should eat our vegetables and avoid junk food; the difference in China is they actually do these things! Here are some examples.
Eat your vegetables. The Chinese really do this. They may bypass sweets and meats for a good plate of vegetables. Some of their favorite vegetables are familiar to us, like carrots and broccoli, but many are new to our western tastebuds, like lotus root or numerous kinds of greens. In general, these are all tasty—though the abundant use of garlic or hot pepper can make them harder for us to enjoy. One pleasant surprise is the common use of sweet peppers (bell peppers). They are so expensive in the States and so cheap and plentiful here. What America needs is a good five-cent bell pepper!
One unpleasing aspect of the local diet is the pervasive use of red beans as a flavoring. Red beans show up in many dishes, but also in snacks and desserts, like moon cakes (similar to western fruit cakes) flavored potato chips, red bean flavored croissants, and red bean flavored ice cream. Because I love ice cream, I had to try the red bean variety. Because I love ice cream, I don’t plan to try it again. Somehow, mixing vegetables and desserts violates a basic culinary principle of the universe!
Red bean ice cream
You are what you eat. If you want to improve your eyesight, eat eyes. If you want to strengthen your heart, eat heart. Thus the whole animal gets consumed here. We have a few similar ideas in our western diets, but this sort of thought seems very common in China. A related belief is that it improves your digestion to drink the broth leftover from the cooking of your meat.
Dress warm. The Chinese attitude toward dressing warm is seemingly universal, but difficult for a westerner to understand. On a certain day of the autumn, all the students show up for class in long sleeve shirts and sweaters—even if it is still hot outside. On a later date, everyone puts their coats on, and rebukes us westerners who are still in short sleeves because we are comfortable that way. Once donned, the coats remain on inside and out—due to the poor heating in many buildings (and no heat in some poorer homes!) I’m told that the coats stay on long in the spring as well. Some westerners have tried to explain the Chinese idea of slipping gently into the changes of seasons. Don’t fight the elements, adapt. It probably is healthier to live closer to the natural temperatures than our western practice of overheating our homes in winter and overcooling them in summer. It is certainly healthier for the environment not to use so much fuel fighting nature! Our western mindset seems driven by a high value on personal comfort—so I check the weather forecast everyday to decide what clothes to wear. The Chinese mindset seems to be based on the calendar not the thermometer, dressing according to the season.
Of course, Chinese college students are not always consistent in how they dress. While the girls regularly wear hats or ear muffs in the winter, guys usually don’t. It’s just not cool. As in the west, fashion can trump common sense.
Eat your dumplings. Some of their beliefs seem superstitious. Yesterday, two of our students invited us to go out for dumplings on Thursday December 22. The belief is that this is the coldest day of the winter and so you should eat dumplings. We have heard two explanations: either it is to be strong or to keep your ears from freezing. I don’t know how seriously our Chinese friends hold to this belief, but we plan to enjoy of the dumplings and maybe our ears won’t freeze as a result. To be fair, many of our western beliefs about food are superstitious as well: for example, eating carrots improves your eyesight, or “an apple a day keeps the doctor away” (the Chinese would change that to “a pear a day”).
An unexpected local custom designed to enhance health is the use of pebbles as a paving material for sidewalks. We are told that the pebbles are supposed to massage your feet as you walk and thus stimulate blood flow which encourages general healthiness. A similar reason is given for wearing flip flops with bumpy soles.
At the heart of the Chinese thinking may be the concept of a personal qi (chi)—a spiritual force within each person that if kept in balance produces a general healthiness. Chinese traditional medicine, including acupuncture, is designed to restore health by restoring balance to one’s chi. There are clinics that practice traditional and clinics that practice western style medicine here. Fortunately, our health has been good enough so that we have not had to visit either since we have been here.
Tai chi is an exercise program of slow movements intended to bring balance to one’s qi. It is popular with the elderly in China. It is becoming popular in the west as a yoga-ish exercise intended for stress relief. In China tai chi is also one of the martial arts. I asked a mature Chinese believer what he thinks of tai chi. He replied that he sees no problem with it as an exercise program, but he would not approve of using it as a spiritual practice based on the idea of adjusting one’s personal spirit.
This idea of balance is at the heart of a Chinese worldview. The concept of the complementary pair of forces: yin and yang, is one of many expressions of this ideal of balance. Balance is also a fundamental ideal in interpersonal relationships: social harmony is very important. I am still very far from understanding the ideal of balance, but I am sure that it is the basis for many aspects of Chinese thought and life—including health.
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