Therapy makes a comeback in a China searching for meaning
Outlawed under Mao , therapy is making a comeback in a country where sweeping changes have left many people isolated and unhappy
The first year of college was lonely for the young medical student. Brought up in a poor village, he had little in common with his wealthier urban peers. He made no friends. No-one listened to him. All he did was study.
Instead of begrudging the other students their advantages, or bemoaning cliques, Zhang Yin concluded that the problem lay inside. Agonised by his sense of isolation, he turned to a counsellor for help.
Chinese people have been hungering … for something for a long time
What began as a search for meaning in his life became his vocation: he is researching stress and depression at Changsha University and hopes to train as an existential therapist. "I want to know how others relieve their pain and anxiety and discomfort," the 24-year-old said.
Zhang's enthusiasm for the "talking cure" reflects a surge in interest as China's citizens seek meaning beyond the quest for prosperity.
"Chinese people have been hungering and searching for something for a long time, since the collapse of Maoism. Every so often there's a certain 'fever' sweeping the country," said Professor Huang Hsuan-ying, an Australian ethnographer.
"It fits into that long-term search for something that is not only material."