health

To Reach Remote Patients, China Puts a Hospital on a Plane 

Timely reports on issues and events from across China. Drawing on a vast range of sources, these succinct articles provide insights into the significance of each issue in a wider context.

NEWS

A Shanghai hospital has created a clinic aboard an aircraft equipped with diagnostic and surgical facilities. Doctors hope it can help improve healthcare access.

Fan Yiying

Young Chinese Are Diagnosing Themselves With ADHD — and Finding Community Online

Netizens are feeling increasingly seen in ADHD’s diagnostic criteria, commiserating online over lives defined by procrastination and distraction, but experts urge caution over the dangers of self-diagnosis.

Li Xin

Can Ultrasound Alone Treat Alzheimer’s? One Chinese Neurologist Thinks It Might

Inspired by changes observed during his mother’s treatment, a neurologist is testing ultrasound as a standalone therapy for Alzheimer’s, a departure from mainstream research and one still shrouded in questions.

Jiang Xinyi

Among China’s Oldest, Vegans Less Likely to Reach 100: New Study 

Vegetarianism is widely seen as a way to prevent cardiovascular disease and obesity. A new study reveals that for older people, the relationship between diet and health is more complex.

Chen Yiru

Overdoing It: The Cheap Pain Pills Hooking Young Chinese

Translations, cross-publications, and collaborative projects from Sixth Tone’s external partners. 

SIXTH TONE ×

After a clampdown on a popular psychoactive drug, doctors say many young people have switched to abusing a cheaper, addictive alternative.

The  Beijing News

China Begins Clinical Trials of Its First Acne Vaccine

The recombinant, protein-based vaccine is one of only a handful of acne vaccines worldwide promising alternative treatment.

Brain Implant Trial in China Leaves Patients with Gambling, Sexual Urges

Participants in a deep brain stimulation trial for drug addiction say the implants triggered compulsive behavior that upended their lives.

How a Bullied Teenager Built China’s Unlikeliest Music Festival

Articles that cut to the core of contemporary China. In-depth, informed, and carefully crafted, every piece is carried by the voices of the story’s participants.

FEATURES

You and Me, a free experimental music festival in Beijing, grew from one teenager’s search for refuge. Now it faces demolition, debt, and an uncertain future.

Wang Juyi

Hoping to Curb Obesity, Chinese City Implements Health Ordinance

With nearly half of Chinese adults classified as overweight or obese, the policy represents the first time a city has enacted reforms directed at weight loss.

New Chinese Study Links City Childhood to Early Puberty in Girls 

Based on brain scans and survey data from nearly 3,000 young women, researchers used age at first menstruation and personality tests to examine how urban childhood environments shape development.

China Probe Faults Hospital in Baby’s Death After Heart Surgery

An infant died following a routine cardiac surgery in November. Now, the results of an investigation into her death reveal medical malpractice.

He Qitong

China’s Mercury Thermometer Ban Sparks Debate, and a Buying Rush

As authorities move to end production by 2026, households are split between safety concerns and trust in familiar devices.

China Taps Private Insurance for Costly New Drugs

China is asking private insurers to cover certain pricey innovative drugs, pushing toward a multi-tier health-care system that goes beyond state funding.

China Performs First Brain Implant Procedure Under State Pricing

A patient has received a brain implant to help with hand function, the first BCI procedure billed through China’s new regulated pricing system.

Neurodivergence and Depression: Psych and Tech Merge at CIIE

Companies at the eighth China International Import Expo presented AI-driven products aimed at addressing suicidality in children, neurodivergence in schools, and the need for companionship in adults, among other issues.

China Highlights Weight Management Products at 8th CIIE

This year’s import expo features gastric balloons, watches claimed to stimulate fullness, and interactive booths that measure body composition.

Sixth Tone

Banned, Cancer-Linked Dye Found in Chinese Skin Care Products: Report

Amid China’s biggest shopping festival, a third-party testing group has reported that several major skin care brands sold in the country contain trace levels of Sudan Red, a dye banned globally for its potential cancer risk.

Young Chinese Are Singing the Night Away — and Burning Calories

Young people are taking to KTV parlors explicitly so as to lose weight, with some losing multiple kilos over the course of several hours.

Yang  Xinrui 

China’s NeuroWorm Inches Its Way Toward Brain Disorder Breakthroughs

The groundbreaking mobile neural implant developed by Chinese scientists seeks to treat neurological disorders, including Parkinson’s disease.

China Makes HPV Vaccine Free for Girls in National Program

Beginning this year, the vaccine schedule will now protect young girls from the two strains of HPV accounting for most invasive cervical cancers, at no cost to families.