Tianren Culture Teams with the Global Wellness Institute to Expand Reach of The Wellness Moonshot to Millions in China


The Wellness Moonshot: China shares techniques and tools to improve dietary, respiratory and mental health issues, and is disseminated via WeChat, the largest social media platform in mainland China with over one billion active monthly users.

The Global Wellness Institute’s (GWI) The Wellness Moonshot: A World Free of Preventable Disease is a campaign to eradicate preventable lifestyle disease worldwide. It’s a goal as ambitious as it is urgent. To reach individuals globally, the GWI has partnered with organizations and companies that reach unique populations in order to address their specific health and wellness challenges with curated content. This is exactly what GWI’s partnership with Tianren Culture, a Chinese-based, next-generation social platform whose mission is to drive positive values and lifestyles, achieves. The Wellness Moonshot: China shares techniques and tools to improve dietary, respiratory and mental health issues and is disseminated via WeChat, the largest social media platform in mainland China with over one billion active monthly users.

“To move the needle on preventable disease means galvanizing people to make everyday health changes, and to do that you need partners grounded in the culture, the language, the health needs of the population—and you need to reach them where they live—and in China, that is WeChat. Wellness messaging that resonates is not one-size-fits-all,” said Susie Ellis, GWI chair and CEO. “We have an amazing partner in Tianren Culture that is dramatically extending The Wellness Moonshot’s reach to the 1.4 billion people in China, or 18% of the world population. They understand how to reach Chinese people with health advice that resonates, and they’re creating powerful, even poetic, content grounded in the Eastern philosophy that wellbeing comes from a harmony between humans and nature.”

The Wellness Moonshot: China creatively aligns engaging wellness advice with China’s ancient calendar based on 24 solar terms—as health habits naturally connected to the seasons are a crucial component of Traditional Chinese Medicine. For example, the March China Moonshot encourages stretching and highlights two sacred Chinese calendar dates: March 9th, the Awakening of Insects – time to get out and stretch your limbs; and March 20th, the Spring Equinox – time to nourish and replenish the body with specific herbs and foods.

Tianren Culture, whose vision is “One Health, One Wellness,” works with NGOs, investors and business partners to create high-impact social innovation initiatives to improve people’s physical and mental health—from supporting plant-based food innovation to investing in scientific research to promoting meditation to tackle the mental wellness crisis. It was co-founded by Chinese entrepreneur Victor Koo, chairman of Heyi Holdings; founder and former chairman and CEO of popular Chinese video streaming service, Youku; and a new GWI Advisory Board Member.

With extraordinary recent economic growth and urbanization, China is suddenly facing a health crisis born of the shift to more sedentary lives and killer Western diets. Chronic, preventable diseases are growing like wildfire: More than 50% of Chinese adults are now overweight or obese (doubling in two decades); one in five Chinese people suffer from hypertension, which kills more people there than any disease; and China has the largest number of adult diabetics (16.4 million) in the world. A World Bank report predicts that chronic disease will triple among Chinese people over 40 by 2030, and a December report on the crisis from the government led the nation to launch a new initiative, “Healthy China 2030,” to try to curb the runaway obesity and chronic disease rates.

“As China’s economic development evolves, the health issues of the Chinese population have also changed dramatically, with lifestyle-related, chronic diseases now being the leading cause of death,” said Victor Koo, co-founder and CEO of Tianren Culture. “Against this backdrop, Tianren Culture joined GWI’s Wellness Moonshot in 2020 to do its part in making the world free of preventable diseases by introducing evidence-based wellness concepts to the Chinese audience. In 2021, Tianren Culture has gone even further, working with GWI to develop a Chinese version of The Wellness Moonshot Calendar, leveraging the ancient wellness wisdom of the 24 solar terms annually.”

The Global Wellness Institute has also forged strategic partnerships with leading organizations in India and Israel. Any country can lead its own moonshot charge and adapt the wellness content from the GWI’s platform for its own culture. Learn more about how your company, community or country can partner with The Wellness Moonshot: A World Free of Preventable Disease. Contact Kendra Kobler (Kendra.Kobler(at)globalwellnessinstitute.org) with questions.

About the Global Wellness Institute: The Global Wellness Institute (GWI), a nonprofit 501(c)(3), is considered the leading global research and educational resource for the global wellness industry and is known for introducing major industry initiatives and regional events that bring together leaders to chart the future. GWI positively impacts global health and wellness by educating public institutions, businesses and individuals on how they can work to prevent disease, reduce stress, and enhance the overall quality of life. Its mission is to empower wellness worldwide.

Share article on social media or email:

Leave a Reply