Yoga helps people keep their spirits up

An ancient form of exercise is helping combat a modern disease after videos of a yoga instructor became popular online. Zuo Shufen, 34, never imagined that videos of her practicing yoga, while hospitalized after she was infected by the novel coronavirus in a Wuhan makeshift hospital, would be such an internet sensation.

The video has been watched more than 14 million times on Douyin, a popular video-sharing platform, known as TikTok overseas.

Infected by the virus, she was hospitalized on Feb 13.

"When I first arrived there, I was very upset," says Zuo in a phone interview with China Daily conducted after she recovered and left hospital on Feb 29.

"Talking about the virus with other patients made me feel worried," Zuo recalls. She needed something to bolster her spirits.

The instructor, with five years' experience under her belt, practiced yoga every day when she was healthy, so, she resumed doing it in a corner of the hospital every afternoon. She also found time to upload videos on Douyin to record her life in hospital.

At first, she practiced by herself, but it didn't take long to draw the attention of an administrative staff member, who then suggested to Zuo that she could teach yoga to the other patients.

"Ten people wanted to join in, so each of us was given a mat and we started practicing together the next day," Zuo says.

The hospital soon realized the benefits of the yoga class.

On Feb 28, a video of the class, headed by Zuo, was uploaded to micro-blogging platform Sina Weibo by The Beijing News on its official account. The video quickly received more than 440,000 views. Zuo's Douyin account also saw a surge in viewership, with 47,000 new followers and more than 1.3 million "likes".

People encouraged her with comments under her video post on Douyin, hailing her positive attitude and wishing her a full and speedy recovery.

Proof of the video's popularity that day was the data provided by Chinese search engine Baidu to China Central Television. During its News 1 Plus 1, a daily program broadcast every workday from 9:30 pm, the figures showed that "yoga classes" was one of the most searched topics by internet users in Wuhan on Feb 28. The peak time search for the topic increased by 354 percent. It also took first place for the most attention nationwide, according to the data.

"I didn't expect to get so many people's attention," Zuo says. "Yoga moves helped me to get rid of anxiety, and I just wanted to do something good for my health and that of my sick friends."

Zuo started to learn yoga eight years ago and became a yoga instructor in Wuhan three years later. She opened her own studio in 2017. From 2013, Zuo took part in several yoga workshops, some of which were held by established yoga teachers, such as Wang Xiangdong, who's known in the field as an experienced master, specializing in Ashtanga yoga.