Centenarian has no secret of longevity
Print Edition
ZHU Rugong talks loudly, thinks fast and smiles a lot. The 103-year-old retired doctor of traditional Chinese medicine is a celebrity of sorts in her community. She is always being asked for her secret to long life.
“As a matter of fact, there is no secret at all,” she said. “If there has to be one, then it should be not to worry.”
Zhu operated a clinic for two decades after graduating from the Shanghai Traditional Chinese Medicine University in 1941, and then worked as a doctor in Longhua Hospital for 20 years.
In 1981, after she retired, Zhu flew to the United States, where she spent two decades promoting traditional medicine.
In 2001, she returned to Songjiang to live with her daughter Lu Yanyao.
“She loves playing mahjong and plays it well,” her daughter said.
Zhu gets up at 6 every morning, takes a one-hour nap at noon and goes to sleep at 11pm, after a bit of bedtime reading.
She dotes on soybean milk. Her daughter bought a machine to make the milk at home every day.
“I add a spoonful of powdered malt extract, which makes the milk so delicious,” Zhu said.
Despite her age, Zhu is not fussy about what she eats.
“But I eat slowly, chewing carefully and savoring every mouthful,” she confided.
In the afternoon, she enjoys a light snack and always has a bowl of cooked American ginseng every day.
Zhu and her husband, the renowned traditional medicine doctor Lu Shouyan, who died in 1969, created an acupuncture therapy that is now listed as a China Intangible Cultural Heritage. Her daughter Lu still applies the therapy to Zhu every day for about 15 minutes.
“Generosity and tolerance, I think, are the keys to longevity,” Lu said. “They helped my mother endure the hardships of the cultural revolution (1967-77).”
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