China’s educational authorities have approved a new undergraduate program that will teach students how to "nourish life through traditional Chinese medicine." Sixty students will be enrolled in the brand new program this September.

The major will be offered at Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine (NUCM) and will take five years to complete. It will focus not only on conventional subjects like traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) theories, acupuncture and massage, but will also emphasize nerve-soothing arts such as tea ceremonies, Qi Gong and flower-arranging.

The major is named after “yangsheng,” or “life nourishment,” a fundamental TCM concept that focuses on the treatment and prevention of disease. It stresses the importance of fostering health and well-being by nurturing the body, mind and spirit.

“The new major’s establishment is in accordance with the needs of modern patients. Due to fast-paced social and economic development in China ... more and more people are suffering from chronic diseases related to lifestyle,” Chen Diping, secretary of the Party committee at NUCM, told Thepaper.cn.

According to Chen, public focus on healthcare has shifted from curing diseases to spiritual vitality. Anxiety and sub-optimal health have also become commonplace among young people. Under such circumstances, yangsheng is set to become a major research area.

Though it has great potential, yangsheng as a medical principle is still unregulated in China, and it lacks dedicated professionals. Among 20 million medical workers who provide TCM healthcare nationwide, very few hold degrees or even specialize in the concept of yangsheng. Meanwhile, fraud related to TCM healthcare has been a major social problem in recent years.