About traditional Chinese culture

• Yīzhōu : Dad, can i ask you a question? Which kind of TCM tends to get lost? 
• Wú Gāng : i don't know. 
• Yīzhōu: you don't know, right. Here's the answer: Ginseng“人参” Do you know why?  Because Rénshēng ( Life, sounds like "Ginseng") Rénshēng dì bù shú. (“人生地不熟”= you're strange to this place) 
• Wú Gāng : What the hell? (Can not understand young people)
•  Yīzhōu: Mom, ask you a question. Do you know which two kinds of TCM are hard to get lost?  Dad just answered an easy to get lost one. Which is the hard one? 
• Shān : Two? 
• Yīzhōu: Two. 
• Shān: I don't know. 
• Yīzhōu: you don't know, right .  Here's the answer: one is ripe Adhesive Rehmannia Root Tuber"熟地", the other one is seeds of Liquidamber Formosana"路路通". One knows the way, one can go any way. 
• Shān : Tell me, didn't you learn these (jokes) from Tóutóu?? 
• Yīzhōu: Yeah, Sūn Tóutóu did it. (All by Sūn Tóutóu)

Director Han Xiaojun takes aim at ‘Gen Z’ in TCM drama

Chinese drama Gen Z, focusing on the inheritance of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), has raised young people's attention and interest in this world renowned heritage. The show's director Han Xiaojun said he hopes "more audiences can benefit from the TV series whether it is the professional knowledge of Chinese medicine or in the deeper realm of life."

The drama, which is currently airing on Chinese streaming site Youku, breaks from traditional urban dramas to use a new production technique to delicately portray the calm professionalism of veteran and young Chinese medicine practitioners.

In the eyes of the director, TCM has always given people an impression that it is heavy and serious. When talking about it, people always think it is a profession made solely of veteran Chinese medicine practitioners, but in fact all these well-known experts grew up step by step from being young students.

"For young people, acceptance must first be put before inheritance and development. After you accept it, you can turn it into your own knowledge and gain understanding. This is particularly important for inheritance, and it is also a process of understanding Chinese medicine," Han told the Global Times on Thursday.

Starring Chinese actors Wu Gang, Zhao Lusi, Luo Yizhou, Zhang Meng and Jiang Shan, the latest show by screenwriter Liu Liu tells the story of three generations of TCM practitioners, how they accepted this traditional medical knowledge and learned to approach traditional Chinese culture with modern thinking under the guidance of their teachers.

Since the series combines two elements, thickness and vitality, the director hopes to keep balance between portray of young people as full of vitality and tension and description of TCM knowledge as calm and stable.

Liu Liu attained a master's degree in TCM, so many of the stories in the show were inspired by her personal experience. Before filming on the series started, the entire cast studied Chinese medicine for a period of time. The actors tried acupuncture and everyone corrected their previous misunderstandings about the subject through study.

The director realized that Chinese medicine is not a single discipline, but integrated with traditional culture, so telling stories about TCM can't ignore its "cultural inheritance."

Han and his team hope to expand the core concepts in a cheerful atmosphere and explain Chinese medicine knowledge through evocative cases instead of boring lectures.

"Chinese medicine is actually very profound, but how can we make everyone understand it quickly? This series can be a key to the treasure house that is China's excellent traditional culture allowing everyone to learn a lot of things, such as how to have a positive lifestyle and attitude toward life," said Han.

For the very first time, China's 24 Solar Terms are used to push forward the story in a series, which has wowed by young audiences with "the aesthetics of the Solar Terms" and the "new knowledge" about them.

The director said that the Solar Terms were mentioned in the original script, but it lacked details about them. "After I saw that, I wanted to shoot them in their entirety, because I really like that, and wish to express Chinese culture in this way," he said.

[...] What makes ‘Gen z’ so recommendable is its depiction of traditional Chinese medicine as part of our precious cultural heritage, allowing more people to see, understand and carry forward this legacy.

The drama expounds on key TCM concepts like the 24 solar terms, the yin-yang nature of the human body, the motivations behind studying TCM (“hoping to use TCM knowledge to help others and oneself, this purpose comes first”), TCM emergency techniques, TCM’s philosophy on life, understanding acupuncture and bone-setting, how Western medicine looks at the disease while TCM looks at the person, and so on – all part of our Chinese cultural inheritance that we must study and pass on to prevent its extinction.

We must allow this extensive and profound heritage that belongs to the Chinese people to be carried forward by the new cultural ebb and flow, with the new wave promoting the old, keeping traditional Chinese medicine’s long-lasting legacy going strong.

 [...]  It’s supposed to be a drama about Chinese medicine, but I’ve never heard so much wisdom about life and human emotions in any drama before. That was the essence of the story.

Visually, it’s also a gem. Some of the drama is recorded in wonderful natural surroundings, and some in beautiful old, traditional interiors. The screen is dominated by the gentle, calming colors of nature, and I must admit that it also gave me a lot of pleasure.

The acting is great, both young and older actors. Zhao Lusi is great in this type of roles. Her young partner was the musical idol Luo Yizhou, inexperienced in acting, but it’s hard not to like him because he is pure sweetness. My favorite character is the mother. The most wonderful woman under the sun. Smart, good, devoted to work and family. Admiring her husband, trusting him almost completely, but not afraid to speak out loud about her feelings, even the difficult ones. She will not refuse help to anyone.

What I missed was an explanation of where Tou Tou came from. I suspect this is an intentional attempt to show that it doesn’t matter what family you come from, what matters is what you do with your life, and that your real family may turn out to be people who are not related to you in any way. I could write and write about this drama, analyzing every aspect of it, every relationship, every case that comes to a family TCM clinic, but it’s best to just watch it. Is this a drama without flaws? No, but still, for me these 40 episodes are a wonderful story about life, family and health.