Why Mindfulness is Making Waves (and Money) in China

“Breathe. Be Aware. Find your purpose.”

Master Wang repeats the mantra over and over again as I sit cross-legged at his Live Zen Center on a chilly Thursday evening in Beijing. On the floor in the middle of the room is a candle. Next to it, a still bowl of water. Later in the lesson, we’ll focus on both (the water isn’t actually still, I am to learn, but constantly changing, like the universe; the candle too, represents change, as well as a token of the present). But for now, the Zen master, my two fellow meditation students and I have our eyes closed, trying to find the ‘purpose’ that Master Wang keeps alluding to.

I can’t speak for my companions, but I am struggling. Far from discovering purpose, I am, to be perfectly blunt, bored. But while the session might not cut it for me, meditation is exploding in popularity. Classes now come in all flavors: mindfulness-based stress reduction, transcendental meditation and many more. From therapy couches to Silicon Valley (Google offers an internal course called “search inside yourself,” while eBay offices have dedicated meditation rooms), everyone seems to be jumping on the Zen-wagon.

In China too, meditation schools, courses and ‘experiences’ have mushroomed, particularly in first-tier cities. But with the advent of wellbeing apps, you no longer need to commit to collective teachings. Since launching in 2010, meditation app Headspace has been downloaded by three million users in 150 countries, including China, at roughly RMB80 a month. Adult coloring books – which have been linked to art therapy, easing mental pain and the ability to focus on the present – have also become a huge fad around the world. After its release in China in June, adult coloring title Secret Garden sold three million copies in three months, with Beijing dubbed the “adult coloring-in capital of the world” by its publisher, Laurence King Publishing.

Among the buzzwords of modern wellbeing, ‘mindfulness’ is now one of the most common. In encouraging people to pay more attention to the present, the practice helps promote self-improvement, according to Fionn Wright, a lifestyle coach at Octave Living Room, Shanghai’s first holistic urban wellbeing center, which opened its doors in October.

“Mindfulness is a way for people to get back in touch with their inner values and have a more organic approach to life. It’s a way to improve and better understand the world,” he explains. “We are all conditioned by society, accepted norms and rules in the way we see things. Mindfulness helps us understand what it is that we’re actually seeing, what we are actually thinking. It’s an empowering tool – not a set direction everyone should follow but, rather, a technique which differs from person to person.”

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