When You Have Heat-evil

The old building, probably over 50-year old as evidenced in the then characteristic way of showing the owning company's name (literally, "Have Remember Unite" on top-floor) and its trade ("suckling pigs" and "BBQ meat" on the other floors) on the facades, houses a traditional herbal tea store on the ground floor.

The Chinese traditional medical theory has a set of self-justifying, codified logic to explain illnesses of the human body. It believes that when either the Qi (vital energy) circulating through our internal organs is blocked or the Jin Yi (liquid, inclusive of blood and bodily fluid) is lost from the human body, the balance of yi-yang is upset and therefore illnesses take place. The causes are manifold and the syndromes are manifested in exactly eight forms, known as the eight principal syndromes. One of the syndromes is the manifestation of the heat-evil.

The big greenish Chinese characters say, "Leung Cha" or herbal tea. From the wooden fittings of the store, it is safe to say that it has as old an history as the old building itself.

Heat-evil is most rampant from the hot mid-summer to especially the dry winter. This evil causes symptoms of yang and heat in nature, such as fever, noisy breathing, local redness, swelling, heat and pain, constipation and so on. If the symptoms are mild, no worry because a cup of the Chinese herbal tea will do wonder. This is why the Chinese herbal tea stores have survived for so long in history in the local market.

The best-selling herbal teas during the hot and dry seasons are, therefore, those which neutralise or expel the heat-evil attacking the body. As seen from the picture above, these may include the (left to right) hemp seed drink or "Fo Ma Yan", prunella spike drink or "Ha Fu Tso" and mori with chrysanthemum drink or "Ha Song Gu".

The hemp seed drink is for relieving constipation, the prunella spike drink for smoothing out liver-heat and the mori with chrysanthemum drink is for curing heat-related symptoms in the eyes and breathing organs. Where to find one? Check out the shops flanking the ladies' market and the Temple Street night market. There are some in Wan Chai too.

Cheers!

(Note: As always, transliteration is in Cantonese used in Hong Kong)

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