It has been a few years now since I started investigating the Spa phenomenon. The Spa phenomenon is what we might call the first Holliday Resort type of business in western culture. In fact it is a start of the flourishing tourism industry, that ofcourse, and sending your kid on a reconnaissance mission to get to know the capitals in Europe… both were cultural habits of the wealthy. Now they are accessible for anyone, good for us.
The root thought of the Spa phenomenon is health based. Most Spa’s were centered around Spa’s, springs with mineral rich waters which since ancient times were popular due to claims of healing properties. Now ofcourse the Spa is disengaged from wells, although water pools or baths are still quite common in a spa. In recent years we see Spa owners have embraced New Age thinking, spirituality and practices to provide new interesting services to their customers. They also developed in sync a new Spa language in appearances and advertisement that seems to work, well … to a degree. There is after all a need for innovation, which means it is only partially successful.
In China things are different. The art of pampering is a specialty of the many courts China has known over its vast area of land and history. We still recognize this in the success or lack of it of many companies active in China. Shopping malls are in fact shopping courts. Visitors are representing themselves as courtisans that require to be pampered. When you enter a Chinese shop usually there will be someone in attendance of you immediately. When you enter a western shop there is not. A main company like C&A, Dutch by origin, like myself, typically shows only a few costumers because it requires a typical small section of interested people in Chinese society, that isolate themselves more from the common. Chinese costumers miss someone standing by their side to help them. They feel unwelcome. Westerners in the same situation feel their privacy is secured. Chinese warehouses usually are more full of customers, not only because of their style of articles, but also due to the style of service.
The art of Pampering and medicine are also deeply intertwined. Chinese health ideology knows several branches:
• Self cultivation and (xiusheng and neidan)
• Healthsports (yangsheng)
• Care and Beauty ( Meirong, Anmo and Yangsheng)
• Medicine ( zhongyao, waidan)
• Education and professionalism (xuexi)
It is usually left up to the person how serious they take the trajectory, but it is not uncommon to just want to be pampered and if you pick up some skills or knowledge along the way then that is a boon.
This formula has several aspects that can be very instructive and attractive to modern Spa’s. The model I developed myself and am now offering to a variety of interested parties tries to bridge the gap between the two, but on the side also offers to bridge the gap between Spa and medicine and sports in the west, not just recreational, but also educational.
The Chinese formula ideology is to support people in functioning independently within the wide arena of health, sports and beauty practices. The goal is to make them experts in themselves, in oppostion what modern Spa, Medicine and Sports ideologies propose.
Traditionally that concept is only weakly enforced in the offer to the Chinese customer. A mixed Western/Chinese formula is what allows the customer to more pro-actively engage with the program. It allows for more value for their money, typical western needs for efficiency. That is what the program I developed does. It is suitable to Sport centers, Health centers, Spa’s and even Spiritual centers. All these enterprises border on Chinese Health Ideology in so far that they easily implement it with proper guidance. It is not only holistic in nature, it aims also to be all inclusive in its service to the costumer. The customer should come out more ready to engage with life, not just relaxed.