As a soccer mom, I’ve become accustomed to my child playing soccer in the occasional raining weather. Incidentally, one of my children’s coaches was Dutch and he once said, “In my country, if we stopped playing soccer every time it rained, we would never get to play soccer!” Nevertheless, whenever there have been other Chinese parents on our team, they were the first to express concern that perhaps the same rainy game or practice should be canceled. The common belief is that the cold, wet, dampness taxes the body’s yang energy and can lead to illness. Before the term hypothermia became widely used in English after 1950s, the Chinese was aware of the phenomenon. There is substantial truth to hypothermia even now where dryers, heaters, hot showers are readily available. In short, the awareness stays strong in the minds of many Chinese.
Photo credit to Flickr
