Discussion keeps the world turning.
This is Roundtable.
You're listening to Roundtable.
I'm Steve Hatherly today with Fei-Fei and Yushan.
Coming up, we are in the thick of summer.
We're cranking the AC and reaching for anything that's cold.
But for thousands of years, people survived blazing heat without a single modern convenience.
China's traditional playbook was filled with clever, low-tech fixes that kept things bearable.
As the mercury keeps rising outside, we're wondering if these ancient hacks actually are smarter than our energy-guzzling gadgets.
After that, the half-empty bottle of sunscreen in your beach bag.
Don't need to check, you know it's there.
Anyway, is that still protecting you or is it just some fancy lotion?
We'll find out what happens when sunscreen goes bad, how to spot the warning signs and why most people are using way less than they actually need.
Our podcast listeners can find us at Roundtable China on Apple Podcasts.
And please do send us your voice notes to roundtablepodcasts at qq.com.
One more time, roundtablepodcasts at qq.com.
Summer is here and I'm here for it.
And many people around the world are enjoying the warmer temperatures.
And this year and every year there's a struggle to stay cool.
Air conditioners help.
Iced drinks help.
Cooling gadgets, a little portable fan, if you happen to have one of those, those can help too.
But people for a long time have been figuring out how to stay cool in the summertime.
And some of those people were around centuries ago.
And they had some great ideas that we're going to learn about today.
We're going to take a journey through China's traditional understanding of summer because, as temperatures continue to rise around the world, maybe there is something we can learn from the ancient wisdom.
The 24 solar terms is where we'll start a little science-y, I guess, on this topic today.
It's more cultural than science, to be honest, because in China, the traditional Chinese solar calendar divides the year into 24 solar terms.
That's what you mentioned, Steve.
They were created thousands of years ago to guide agricultural production.
But we kind of need to mention it today, particularly today because today marks one of the 24 solar terms Xiao Shu, minor heat.
That's what we are kind of going through, we're experiencing today.
So the minor heat name.
That name stems from an ancient Chinese saying about hot days and The solar term itself.
Before Xiaoshu is the summer solstice, which is followed by three consecutive periods during the hot season.
So ancient Chinese believe that during the hottest season of the year there are three different periods.
There is the first 服, the second 服 and the third 服.
So 服 in Chinese literally means lying down, indicating that you are getting so hot, you're facing the heat so much that you kind of want to lie down.
So 服 in that term means refers to the really hot days.
And at the first Fu period, it's relatively cooler than the second and the third period.
So the solar term during this period is called minor heat.
And the next one is called major heat, the hot but not the hottest yet.
So that's how the ancient Chinese philosophy kind of guide you through the hottest time of the year.
So what did they do, Fei Fei, to keep cool a long, long, long, long, long time ago?
Well, not very surprisingly, actually.
You know, back in, I don't know, 1,000 years ago, for instance, they still use ice, a lot of ice.
We actually have history books and relics telling us that in Shaanxi province, But that was under a different name, I think thousands of years ago.
People would still chop ice in the deep water and stash it away in underground cellars so that during summer this ice can be reused to chill wine, to keep food fresh.
And even I've seen this gadget I'm not saying it's a gadget, but this setup in royal families that they place a big bowl of ice in front of a fan.
So the fan, when the wind is cooler.
You can still do that today too.
Yeah, I've seen European people doing similar things.
So ice, you'd take it from the frozen waters, frozen rivers in the wintertime, bury it deep underground, kind of, in the cellars, and then it would stay frozen and you'd use it in the summertime.
So you said royal families.
Was ice only for rich people?
It's sort of, especially for summers, it's only something that the rich could afford.
At first.
Yeah, it took three times as much stored ice to make up for what melted.
So but yeah, but by the town dynasty, which is about around 1000 years ago.
Smarter storage methods made ice cheaper and some merchants start to sell it.
So it was still pricey, but it's something people at least more people kind of could afford during that period of time.
Huh.
This sounds like a great episode for Made in Ancient China.
Promote the other show.
Check that out on Apple Podcasts.
All right.
So one of the things that they did was clothing related.
The fabrics that they wore.
Those were made of hemp and other materials.
Um, we've seen that from culture to culture though, where people would dress in the lightest materials they could find to help stay cool.
Um, but sometimes it was all about heading outside and and not staying inside, which is kind of counterintuitive.
It's count as a very elegant way of spending times during the summer to, for example, gather a few friends in ancient China to, for example, taking a boat on the lake.
Or going to the mountains.
That's traditionally believed to be where it's the cooler parts of the just, in comparison to markets or city centers.
So that's one way.
That's also deeply believed by many royal families too.
They're building a lot of the cooling palace buildings nearby in the cities that they dwelled in.
Ever since, I think, back in Han Dynasty, they've been having this practice.
And then in Qing Dynasty, we see the royal emperors building cooling palace nearby.
In Beijing, in Hebei,
And it's also become very famous tourist sites these days during summertime.
What's a cooling palace?
It's more of their summer house.
Yeah, in the forest.
In different locations.
Or up in the mountains.
You know why Summer Palace is called Summer Palace?
I don't.
It's because the Forbidden City is getting so hot.
And during summers, some of the royal families would move to Summer Palace.
And they have another one.
Summer Palace is not that far from Forbidden City, though.
Would it really be that much cooler?
The initial time is a bit distant, but they have another location further north part in Chengde.
I'm so stupid.
I was like, you can just take the subway for like a half an hour.
They didn't have that back then.
Yeah, so they have these kind of cool houses built.
I think the summer houses concept is still teched now.
A lot of people still have their summer houses that they travel either around the lake, some water, around that location.
I wanna talk about, okay, so that's how people stayed cool in the past.
There's a way that people are staying cool these days that I think is absolutely amazing.
You sleep with some food.
It's something that sounds like very fake online, that only exists online.
It looks like AI-generated photos, but it's not.
It's true.
It's science-based.
It's called hugging the winter gourd, or some would call it the wax gourd. or 冬瓜 in Chinese.
And it's a very simple three-step method.
First one, you go to your local market and pick out a massive wax gourd.
So this is a melon.
It's a sort of a melon.
Yeah.
And when you say a massive wax gourd, this is human-sized.
Almost a child.
As tall as a five-year-old or something.
Yeah, yeah.
Human size.
The shape of a pillow.
Yes.
Yeah, it's sort of round.
Like a giant, giant eggplant.
Yeah, kind of yeah, but you need to buy that in most of the supermarkets.
Currently they are sold in slice because no one can finish that within single meal.
Yeah, you don't do that.
Yeah, but if you want to cool down, you need to buy the whole one, Correct?
Okay.
And then?
Step two, you give it a scrub and place it on your bed.
Because when it comes to this wax gourd, they call it wax gourd for a reason.
They have a thin layer of white wax outside of that gourd, and you want to scrub it away.
And then the final step is scrub. you hug it tightly and drift off to your sleep.
What's the science behind it?
It cools you down.
It cools you down because that gourd has about 95% of it is water.
So it is one of the highest water content of any gourd.
So with that amount of water, it can sort of cool you down.
It absorbs the heat very slow and stays cool for a really, really long time.
And science says the water content is able to keep the melon skin about 3 to 5 degrees Celsius cooler than the room temperature.
Isn't that amazing?
So it literally works.
Yeah.
But it doesn't work for now.
If you're thinking, all right, after roundtable today, I'm going to the supermarket.
And if they don't have a giant wax gourd, a human sized one, I'm just going to get a watermelon, because that'll probably work.
Right.
Not quite.
Because, yeah sure, watermelon also has as high as 90 of water containing, but their skin is really easy to crack.
So you don't want to hug it and expect it to crack down and explode in the middle of the night.
Oh, yes, you'd be covered in watermelon juice.
Right.
But for winter gourd, or we also call it winter melons.
They, on the other hand, they are kind of dense and sturdy on the cover, protected by that very waxy layer, so that it's not really so easy and crackable for them.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So it's not going to break.
Right.
A long time ago in China did people use those bamboo, or it's called wicker, I guess is the word that we use to describe the the build, if you will.
It's like hollowed out.
Yeah.
I think it's bamboo and it's like hollow on the inside and you just kind of hug it.
It's kind of weaved into a long kind of eggplant-shaped thing, too.
We call it Zhu Furen, as in bamboo, lady bamboo.
A lady bamboo.
Madame bamboo or something.
You can get yourself a lady wax gourd.
It looks weird, but it works.
It definitely works.
But a reminder is that infants and toddlers are not advised to hug a gourd during their sleep, because it can rot.
Oh, yeah.
You don't want to get trapped.
Sure.
But still, it works.
I think some people even complain that they woke up in the middle of night because sometimes getting too cool to stay during the night.
Or if you wake up hungry.
Just keep a spoon.
It's also very delicious.
Why not?
Two birds, one stone, right?
All right.
There you go.
We'll take a break.
And when we come back, is it okay?
More with our summer talk today.
Is it okay to wear last year's sunscreen?
Looking for passion?
How about fiery debate?
Want to hear about current events in China from different perspectives?
Then tune in to Roundtable, where East meets West and understanding is the goal.
The perfect beach weather that we've been waiting for for months has finally arrived.
You are ready to get out there and get a bit of a tan.
So you go to your bathroom, you open up your cabinet and you find last year's sunscreen and you think hmm, is this okay to use or not?
Will it still work or not?
We're gonna solve that question for you today.
Well, speaking of sunscreen, I want everybody that's listening to remember a time frame.
That's three years.
Because most cosmetics last about three years unopened, and sunscreen is definitely no exception on that.
Three years unopened.
Unopened or just as a reference date for whether the open ones have expired or not.
So yes, sunscreen does expire and three years is kind of the maximum that you can preserve it.
But I think most people's concern would be about what if I opened that and I didn't finish that last summer.
Should I throw it away?
I mean, it can be pricey.
I mean, sunscreen can cost money. a lot of money for some brands.
But I think there are also indicators on the bottle or the tube of that sunscreen.
Is that they have this small bottle and sometimes it has a number on that jar that indicates how long this product can last once it's opened.
Some say 12 months, then you will see 12M.
Some say 24 months, then that's 24M.
That is indicating how long.
Under the logo.
The U.S.
Food and Drug Administration requires that sunscreen remain at its original strength for at least three years.
That means that you can use leftover sunscreen from one year to the next, and it's still going to work.
But you have to do the proper storage in order for it to work.
If you don't, then it might not be as effective.
But that's kind of good to know is that you don't have to throw away.
If you have a little bit left maybe a third of a bottle left you can still use it this year as well.
And also if your sunscreen goes bad, it's kind of apparent that you can actually tell, because expired ones they will have changes in color, for example, and also consistency and sometimes even smell.
So these are very obvious signals of whether your sunscreen has gone bad.
And for some particular products it requires you to mix it kind of shake it up a little bit before using.
But once it's shaked up, it should be like a unified piece of liquid for you to apply.
But if after shaking it still refused to mix up the oil and the liquid is like separated, then that's also a very
Big red flag.
If it doesn't come out in the way that you expect it to come out, just buy a new one.
Test it before you use it.
Try the texture.
Smell it a little bit.
And also how to store it.
I think that would be on the list of a lot of people's minds as well.
I'm guessing cool, dry place.
Yeah, of course.
For any cosmetics products.
Just don't leave it in a very hot environment and also not leave it in direct sunlight.
And also you put your cap tightly in.
Don't let more air into that tube or can or jar.
And put your bottles in shade in cool, dry places.
And also sometimes you can wrap them in a towel to keep it clean or place it.
Place it in a cooler place.
Most of the time, i think people would store it in their drawer would be considered a safer place than placing it somewhere in your car.
Yeah yeah, where the sun can get to it.
Yeah um, when you go out in the daytime, do you just on a never mind going to the beach, just going out anywhere do you put sunscreen on?
Every day?
I do now, after Fei-Fei warned me about it.
Oh, really?
Just last week.
I mean, you know... It's a good idea, right?
Half opened and didn't finish.
Sunscreen is not really my problem because I apply them every day winter summer, cloudy weather or sunny weather.
I just apply under different SPF and different thickness on my different layers on my skin, but I will apply sunscreen no matter what.
I just dug out a tube of sunscreen that I bought two years ago.
Hey, now you know.
It's still good.
Well, it smells OK.
It looks OK.
I'm only applying it on my arms and legs anyway.
Yeah, and so far it's been good.
And yeah, after Feifei warned me about how UV lights and sun rays can age your skin pretty obvious and quick.
That's what I'm doing right now.
Just put on those old ones on the external part of your skin that's rougher and less sensitive and yeah, it still works.
Yeah.
Yeah, I need to do more of that.
I only use it when I'm on vacation.
And I used to go for the lower numbers, like 15 or something.
It doesn't work.
Not on beaches.
Well, yeah, see, I do tan, but I need to go.
Here are my colors.
White, red, brown, in that order.
It's not white, brown, red.
We got to go red before we get to brown.
And I used to make the mistake of, you know, not putting on enough.
I wouldn't go to Zuckerberg levels.
Have you ever seen that picture of Mark Zuckerberg?
Surfing?
He looks like a ghost from, you know, the 1600s.
That actually works.
Put on that layer of myself.
How could it not work?
It's like he bathed in it that day.
Anyway, we are out of time.
If you go outside, put on some sunscreen because it's good to protect your skin.
For Feifei and Yushan, I'm Steve.
Thanks for being with us today.
Hope you enjoyed the show.
We did.
And please do come back again next time.
