Psychiatric woes

Most Chinese mainlanders who suffer from depression do not get proper treatment due to a lack of psychiatrists and public prejudice, mental health professionals said. The mainland has just 17,000 registered psychiatrists for its 30 million depression patients, according to figures from a Shanghai conference. The imbalance means 90 percent of mainlanders with depression do not get adequate treatment.

The economic cost of depression to the mainland, in medical bills and lost employment opportunities, is nearly US$8 billion.

Reviving Confuctus

Chairman Mao Zedong’s Communism may have helped bury Confucianism in China, but the sage’s teachings are back in fashion there, thanks to a best-seller.  Professor Yu Dan’s book, “Insights on the Analects of Confucius,” has become a huge hit, if only because modern China was caught in its economic growth. -- is able to find spiritual fulfillment in Yu’s book on the philosopher’s message of filial piety and moral righteousness.  The appeal of Yu’s book is that it has made Confucius’ collected teachings easier to understand. Her book has sold more than 3 million copies in four months, a Chinese publishing record.

Buddhist symphony

After ping pong diplomacy, Communist China is now offering Buddhist symphony, which, it says, is earning good marks overseas. The official Xinhua news agency reported China’s first Buddhist symphony providing “Chinese Harmonious Music” was given “thunderous applause” after its performance in Malaysia, which is mostly Muslim. Earlier, the symphony had a similar successful visit in Singapore.  The 160-member symphony offers a “perfect combination of Western orchestra symphony and traditional Chinese Buddhist music,” the report said. The symphony’s theme is “harmonious society begins in the mind.”

Tainted toothpaste

Officials in Panama say they believe a toxic ingredient found in thousands of tubes of toothpaste can be traced back to a manufacturer in China. The discovery of diethylene glycol in toothpaste comes on the heels of a scare over contaminated pet food blamed on a food additive made and manufactured in China. 

The New York Times said that diethylene glycol, which is found in some anti-freeze, has been used before by product counterfeiters as a sweet-tasting, low-cost substitute for glycerin.  Around 100 people died in Panama last year when diethylene glycol was mixed with cold medicine that also was sourced from China.

Viral outbreak

An outbreak of viral fever that sent hundreds of children to hospital in eastern China has been contained after one death, the Xinhua news agency has reported. More than 800 people, mostly children, went down with hand-foot-mouth disease in counties and towns around the city of Linyi, a Shandong provincial health official said. The disease, also known as coxsackie virus, is characterised by mouth sores and fever. Highly contagious among children, it is not normally fatal. Chinese bloggers in Shandong said in early May that 26 children had died in the outbreak. Local media said authorities in Linyi had denied the accusation.