Mental health has long been a stigmatized topic in China. Under Chairman Mao’s rule, psychology was dismissed as a bourgeois self-delusion, and was even banned until the 1970s. But since the early 2000s, growing interest in mental health has created what’s known as a “psycho-boom”: more and more Chinese are opening up about their mental health struggles and seeking treatment. The collective trauma of the COVID-19 pandemic has further allowed people to open up in ways that never before seemed possible. Pop psychology and mindfulness-oriented apps have flourished, giving once-stigmatized discussions of mental wellbeing a new lifestyle cachet. This surge in interest has created a new problem, though—with lack of regulation in mental health care making it difficult for people in need to find reliable therapists.
China's "Psycho Boom" From Life in Lockdown (2021) is currently not available on any services.
VICE News
