What do you get when balanced health and being Chinese start trending online at the same time?

The rise of “Chinamaxxing” and a growing appetite for cupping reels and the like has launched traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) content into the mainstream – where it now stands as the perfect combination of holistic healing and all things Chinese.

Millennials and Gen Z – the latter dubbed the “crispy generation” in a self-deprecating nod to their seemingly fragile bodies – are increasingly wary of pharmaceutical quick fixes. Instead, they seek root-cause solutions to chronic issues such as period pain, bloating, insomnia and anxiety – which are not seen as isolated symptoms but as signals of a deeper imbalance.

TCM, with its holistic framework of qi – the vital energy that creates balance in the body – offers exactly the kind of whole-body narrative they crave.

“Chinese medicine doesn’t just treat the surface-level things you can observe – it treats disharmony … In Chinese medicine, we see physical, mental and spiritual health all together,” says Elizabeth Yau, a Hong Kong-based TCM influencer with more than 25,000 followers on Instagram.

Yau studied TCM at the University of Hong Kong for six years – two of them spent focusing on Western medicine alongside medical students – and holds a master’s degree in sports nutrition.