I

n the 16-square-meter room, with the closed window locking all the cigarette smoke inside, Zhao Yingzi, the 25-year-old Hangzhou native, barely moved her body — except her fingers and arms — for five hours.

Mahjong tiles, discarded by the game’s four players, are scattered across the center of the green, square table, face up with the Chinese characters.

One day last year, after she returned home from playing mahjong, Zhao was browsing the internet and one breaking news story caught her attention. It said that a mahjong player from Jiangsu province almost had his legs amputated due to deep vein thrombosis, caused by sitting still and playing for four hours without drinking any water.

Zhao immediately reposted the news to her mahjong buddies. All sorts of feelings welled up in her mind, mostly shock, fear and regret.

Since then, she frequently visits a massage health club.

She goes at least once a week to have her painful shoulders and numb legs massaged, the former for periarthritis and the latter to relieve the effects of a sedentary lifestyle.

“Bad habits and behaviors might not trigger illness right away, but they are like ticking time bombs without a clear countdown,” Zhao says.

Zhao sees her addiction to mahjong as a stubborn disease, for which she has no confidence or determination to eradicate. Equally, she does not want to be killed or badly harmed by it, so she employs preventative remedies, such as massage.

“I’m unaware of how unhealthy I could be,” she admits. “All I can sense is tiredness.

“So, when I’m trying to make up for it, I can only tell if my tiredness is relieved, but I do feel better. It’s a comfort, physically and psychologically.”

Zhao’s lifestyle is not alone among Chinese youth. For example, many young people watch videos or play games on their smartphones for many hours without a break, but to relieve the inevitable eyestrain, they apply expensive eyedrops. Zhao and her peers have a new name — the health-preserving punk — coined online and being used a lot of late.

Freedom or discipline

According to an article on the website, Sohu, the nickname developed from a post on the micro blogging site, Sina Weibo. Internet user, Memehan, posted a status saying, “I and my sister smoked a cigarette and had a lozenge right away, killing ourselves and trying to keep healthy at the same time.” Another user links such an attitude toward life with the rebellious spirit and indifference of punk culture, and commented that their behavior is “preserving health in a punk way”. Such a cool statement soon spread around.

Xie Xiaofei, a psychology professor at Peking University, claims that the pleasure is too strong for youngsters to resist.

“Everyone pursues sensual pleasures derived from numerous forms of entertainment, that’s human nature. However, the act of self-discipline has to be cultivated through practice, and that’s what people lack,” Xie says.

Running a clothing distribution business with two partners, Zhao gets up at 7 am and sometimes spends over 11 hours working.

The trip to the clothing factory in the city’s Yuhang district is a half-hour drive, which does not bother her that much. She also travels to Japan and South Korea, where she picks up samples from local markets and a 14-member

Everyone pursues sensual pleasures derived from numerous forms of entertainment, that’s human nature. However, the act of self-discipline has to be cultivated through practice, and that’s what people lack.” psychology professor at Peking University

Xie Xiaofei,