Yummy homework

Food can be a stress reliever. A woman doctor in China switched careers and became a full-time steamed bun (siopao) maker and seller in 2023.

Dr. Dong Min, 48, left her profession due to stress. After graduating from Wuhan University School of Medicine in 1999, she practiced gynecology in Shenzen before co-managing the private clinic of her mother in Wuhan, South China Morning Post (SCMP) reports.

The mother and daughter returned to their hometown of Tianmen in Hubei province when the former retired and Dong worked in a small community hospital and also served as its legal representative.

“As a doctor, I faced considerable mental stress. In addition to treating patients, I had to devote significant energy to managing non-medical affairs, such as dealing with frequent inspections by various government agencies,” Dong tells Changjiang Daily, according to SCMP.

The stress soon went away after Dong quit her job and opened her steamed stuffed bun business in 2023. As the ex-doctor loves baking and running the store, she says the psychological stress is less even if she works 10 hours a day, according to SCMP.

If baking and selling food relieves stress, more so does eating. A new trend among Chinese schoolchildren feeling the pressures of study and homework is eating textbooks and workbooks.

Not the real things but edible versions of their textbooks and workbooks are being wolfed down by primary and secondary school Chinese students.

The snacks, bought online for half a yuan each, are made of rice paper and spring roll wrappers. They come in different forms like textbooks, dictionaries, certificates of merit, and scholarship cards, according to SCMP.

The edible textbooks and workbooks have been posted on social media, driving demand. Some schoolchildren claimed they felt the heavy academic pressure ease after eating the snacks, SCMP reports.

Market regulators, however, warned against eating the snacks as the food coloring used in printing the designs on the rice paper may be industrial grade and not safe to eat.

Inspectors are making the rounds of convenience stores, snack shops, and stationery outlets around schools, urging merchants not to sell the snacks, according to SCMP.