If you’ve spent five minutes scrolling TikTok lately, you’ve probably stumbled on a curious new flex: creators declaring they’re “becoming Chinese.”
Across the app, Chinese-American influencers are sharing the wellness rituals rooted in East Asian culture that shape their daily routines, offering tips on how to unlock full “Chinese baddie” status.
And American Gen Z is eating it up. Users are posting clips trying out the habits themselves, with many announcing, “you’ve met me at a very Chinese time in my life.”
The viral trend, dubbed “Chinamaxxing,” has sparked debate about cultural appropriation and the romanticizing of life in a communist society. But it’s also shone a largely positive spotlight on lifestyle practices tied to Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM).
Dating back roughly 5,000 years, TCM takes a holistic approach to wellness, aiming to balance the body physically, emotionally and spiritually.
“A lot of these habits sound quirky on TikTok, but for many of us who grew up in Chinese households, they’re just everyday wellness practices passed down through generations,” Lulu Ge, founder of Elix, a wellness brand inspired by TCM, told The Post.
“What’s interesting now is seeing people rediscover these simple rituals as ways to support digestion, energy and hormonal health.”
Curious about how some of the buzziest trends actually work — and what Western providers make of them — The Post asked Ge and Dr. Jonathan Grecco, an internal medicine specialist at Northwell Health’s Long Island Jewish Forest Hills Hospital, about five of the practices gaining traction online.
Here’s how the experts say they stack up.
Saying no to cold foods and drinks
On TikTok, users are swapping iced lattes and yogurt bowls for steaming mugs of water and bowls of congee — a practice rooted in TCM that steers people away from cold foods and drinks, especially first thing in the morning.
“As a kid, my mom always started the day with warm lemon water or hot herbal teas, and she’d constantly tell me not to drink iced drinks first thing in the morning,” Ge said.
She likens digestion to a “warm cooking pot.” Starting the day with warm liquids or cooked foods helps the system wake up and absorb nutrients.
“Cold drinks can dampen that digestive fire and leave you feeling bloated or sluggish,” Ge added.
Grecco didn’t exactly pour cold water on the idea.
“Studies show that hot meals can accelerate gastric emptying, which may be genuinely beneficial for people who struggle with digestion,” he explained. “Cold foods appear to do the opposite, increasing pressure and sensitivity in the gut.”
Grecco said those who may benefit most include people with functional digestive conditions like IBS or Functional Dyspepsia, where cold intake has been shown to worsen visceral sensitivity and trigger symptoms.
Wearing slippers indoors
“My mom and grandma were constantly yelling at me to put on slippers and not walk around with ‘naked feet,’” Ge said.
Feet, she said, are connected to energy pathways that influence reproductive health.
“There’s a saying that cold feet can lead to a cold uterus, which over time may contribute to issues like painful periods or fertility struggles,” Ge said. “Keeping your feet warm is seen as a simple way to protect circulation and support hormonal balance.”
Grecco noted that Western medicine doesn’t support the idea that cold literally enters through the feet — but slippers aren’t useless.
He cited studies showing slippers cut down the spread of harmful bacteria from floors, and added that cold feet can trigger cold symptoms in about 10% of people by constricting blood flow in the upper respiratory tract.
“The connection between cold feet and illness is real, just not for the reason traditionally given,” Grecco said. “This is a good example of a belief that arrived at a sensible conclusion through imperfect reasoning. The practice is worth keeping, even if the explanation needs updating.”
Walking after a meal
“One of my most viral videos is about what people jokingly call ‘fart walks’ after meals. It sounds funny, but it’s actually rooted in Chinese Medicine,” Ge said.
A gentle 10- to 15-minute walk after eating helps move Qi — the vital energy that, according to TCM, sustains all living beings — and keeps digestion from slowing down, preventing bloating and gas.
“Instead of collapsing on the couch after dinner, a short walk helps your body actually process the meal,” Ge said.
Grecco called this one of the better-studied traditional practices, with modern research aligning closely with what East Asian cultures have long recommended.
“Even a short 10-minute walk after eating can reduce intestinal gas retention by nearly half, and post-meal walking has been shown to outperform pre-meal exercise for managing blood sugar,” he said.
Researchers have also found that lying down after a meal significantly slows gastric emptying compared to standing or walking.
“This is one of those cases where folk wisdom and clinical data are genuinely pointing in the same direction,” Grecco said.
Practice Qigong and breath work daily
“I grew up watching my mom practice Qigong in the mornings, slow movements with deep breathing that looked almost like a moving meditation,” Ge said. “Now when I post about Qigong or breathwork online, those videos often go viral because people can feel how grounding it is.”
These practices help regulate Qi, calm the nervous system and bring the body back into balance, she explained.
Grecco gave the trend a thumbs up, too.
“The daily practice of gentle movement and breathwork, which is central to traditions like Qigong, is among the better-researched areas of Eastern health practice,” he said.
Meta-analyses show Qigong can significantly reduce both depression and anxiety, and during the COVID-19 pandemic, 70% of nurses who practiced it reported measurable drops in emotional exhaustion within just four weeks.
Even a single session has been shown to improve the balance between the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system, helping the body shift out of a stress state. There are also documented boosts in flexibility and cardiovascular health.
“The evidence is consistent that the benefits are most pronounced in those who practice regularly,” Grecco said. “One could conclude that the daily nature of these disciplines is not incidental but rather central to how they work.”
Never sleeping or going outside with wet hair
“This was another rule my mom constantly enforced growing up,” Ge said. “Chinese Medicine teaches that when the body is damp, it’s more vulnerable to cold and wind entering the system.”
Like most kids, Ge admitted she used to ignore the advice — until she started drying her hair before bed and noticed she suffered fewer headaches.
“It’s one of those old-school rules that suddenly makes sense later in life,” she said.
While clinical evidence doesn’t fully back the idea, Grecco said the science isn’t totally dismissive either.
Wet hair in cold or air-conditioned environments can cool the scalp and face, affecting the nasal passages and triggering stress responses in the body, he explained.
“Even a modest drop in nasal tissue temperature significantly compromises the frontline antiviral defenses of the respiratory tract, and population data shows that for every 1°C decrease in temperature, upper respiratory infection risk rises by around 4.3%,” Grecco said.
That means TCM practitioners thousands of years ago were observing a genuine pattern of cold exposure and illness.
“They may have just attributed it to something visible like wet hair, rather than what was happening at a cellular level in the nasal passages,” he said. “The folk belief isn’t wrong in its conclusion; it’s just incomplete in its explanation.”
