Too busy to be tired, too tired to be busy

Lang Luwen/For China Daily

In the 1970s the Western world gorged itself on fad diets, from Atkins to Scars-dale, and the millions of books about them that were sold helped keep the publishing industry in good shape. About the same time, punk rock music made its world debut.

Turn the clock forward half a century, and dieting and punk have been sewn seamlessly together－in China of all places－to give us pengke yangsheng, the punk diet.

Of course, the thing about fad diets is that often what they most have going for them is a catchy name, and that may well apply to the punk diet. In fact strictly speaking the name seems to describe a lifestyle－an attitude even－rather than a food regime, even if it does relate to what one consumes. Also, as with many new fangled phenomena like this in China, its genesis, or at least the name, seems to have been conceived in cyberspace.

But let's take ourselves away from the internet for a moment and into the real world, and talk about how one can spot a punk dieter. Consider these three pictures: In one hand a young man holds a thermos flask cup with steam pouring out of it, and in the other he holds a glass half full of scotch on the rocks. After staying up for half the night and catching a lot fewer than forty winks a young woman sits there applying the most expensive face pack to her visage. A group of three hits the disco floor, ostensibly to keep fit, and between dances imbibes whiskey soaked in goji berries.

So unlike a conventional diet that runs a straight line emphasizing healthy eating and engaging in physical activity, the punk diet, championed by Generation Z, those born this century, bounces back and forth between extremes, its practitioners taking great delight not only in the irony but in the fact that they are leading an oh-so trendy lifestyle as well.

Unlike a conventional diet that runs a straight line emphasizing healthy eating and engaging in physical activity, the punk diet, championed by Generation Z, those born this century, bounces back and forth between extremes, its practitioners taking great delight not only in the irony but in the fact that they are leading an oh-so trendy lifestyle as well. [Photo provided to China Daily]

However, when you delve below the thin surface of all this, you find that young people do seem to have piled on themselves－or had piled on them－such a weighty load of academic and work pressures that it is no wonder that at such an early age they have cottoned on to the idea that they had better start caring for their health, too.

Last year National Health Insight Report published by Dingxiang Doctor, a dedicated medical information app, said that of the four age groups, the post 1960s, 70s, 80s and 90s, the younger the person was, the dimmer the view they had of their personal health.

"On the one hand is fast-paced work and life generally, and on the other is anxiety about losing one's competitive edge," says Jiang Wenxiu of the Department of Psychiatry, Zhongda Hospital, Southeast University in Jiangsu province.

"Young people always seem to feel that they must do something to defend their hairline, or to resist the fine lines that climb up around the corners of their eyes."

Too busy to be tired, too tired to be busy

By Zhang Lei | China Daily | Updated: 2020-10-31 10:51

Unlike a conventional diet that runs a straight line emphasizing healthy eating and engaging in physical activity, the punk diet, championed by Generation Z, those born this century, bounces back and forth between extremes, its practitioners taking great delight not only in the irony but in the fact that they are leading an oh-so trendy lifestyle as well. [Photo provided to China Daily]

A survey last year by the market consultancy iResearch found that among young people who stay up late at night nearly 42.6 percent usually go to sleep between 10 pm and 11 pm, and nearly 33.7 percent between 11 pm and 12 am. The rest, 23.7 percent, said they go to sleep after midnight and have long-term problems relating to irregular work and rest.

Seventy percent of the late sleepers said they could sleep seven hours a day, and nearly 8 percent said they suffered from severe sleep deprivation, with average sleep of five hours or less. In addition, a comparison of groups with different times for going to sleep found that the earlier the time, the higher the proportion of full sleep (seven hours or more), and the later the time of going to sleep, the greater the proportion of severe sleep deprivation (five hours or less).

"It has almost become routine among young office workers to binge drink coffee when they are busy at work," Jiang says. "They ponder the dark circles under their eyes, and an instant later you see them putting goji berries into the thermos flask they bought in Japan."

Jiang light-heartedly sums up the health regimen of contemporary young people: "They spend half their life skinny dipping and the other half magic potion sipping."

And healthcare companies, always with an eye to marketing opportunities, have spotted this phenomenon. Among them is Tong Ren Tang medicine store, 351 years young, in Beijing. It has created what it calls a "Chinese medicine coffee" that taps into demand and the very name of the new sounds like a health preservation.

That Tong Ren Tang should have decided to become involved in this young mark fits in well with the irony of the punk diet lifestyle, for when many people think of this company what would no doubt cross their minds would be pictures of the quaint old stores in which it plies its wares, the surroundings including carved wooden beams and paintings, old-fashioned containers full of medicine and almost invariably an ancient Chinese doctor with silver hair and white beard.

Tong Ren Tang, one of the most prestigious traditional medicine stores in China, was founded in 1669, the eighth year of the Kangxi Reign in the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), and from 1723 was dedicated to imperial medicine, serving the needs of eight emperors over 188 years.

Goji berry latte, appetizing americano, mother-wort rose latte, diuretic anti-swelling osmanthus honey bean coffee are some of the oh-so-non-traditional drinks it sells.

"We soften the goji berry, squeeze it into a pulp and add it to the coffee," says Li Shengli, barista of Tong Ren Tang Coffee Shop. "What it does is nourish the liver and kidney. For those who often stay up late it's a good idea to drink wolfberry latte."d

On the second floor is the drug store, where registration, consultation and medicine are available. [Photo provided to China Daily]

"In the normal course of events a person feels sick, goes and sees a doctor, has their pulse taken, is given some medicine and goes home," Su was quoted as saying in a recent interview with China News Service.

"We plan to emphasize the equal importance of medicine and food and help people through diet therapy."

A recent iResearch report on health consumption trends among young people found that more than 90 percent of those born this century have a general awareness of the importance of health, more than half of them taking practical steps to do something about it for themselves.