Going bananas? Stressed-out China office staff cultivate desktop fruit to battle workplace stress

Burned-out young workers in China have found yet another novel way of alleviating workplace stress – cultivating bananas in the office.

Employee cultivators of the fruit describe the process by which it ripens as “stop banana green”, or ting zhi jiao lu, in Mandarin, which sounds similar to “stop anxiety” in English.

The trend gained popularity on Xiaohongshu, China’s Instagram, where related posts have attracted more than 22,000 likes.

The anxiety-busting bananas are typically bought when they are green with the stems still attached, allowing them to be cultivated in vases of water.

After a week or so of nurturing they are ready to eat.

This process of waiting for the bananas to ripen is considered a fun distraction from tension at work.