Lifestyle
The internet loves this L.A. Chinese herb shop. Can its ancient prescriptions really improve your health?
Based on the number of local L.A. content creators that have visited Tian Xiang — a small, nondescript herbal medicine shop in Los Angeles’ Chinatown — you might think it’s the single best Chinese pharmacy in Los Angeles. Its TikTok star, in particular, is rising. You can find more than two dozen videos on the platform of customers touring the business and documenting their alternative healthcare journeys.
One TikTok user, who goes by mooneyegoddess, traveled 2½ hours by train to L.A.’s Union Station in May, then walked several blocks to Chinatown to see the herbal doctor at Tian Xiang. Why?
“After being frustrated with modern doctors not listening to me when I go in, I decided to go to what my spirit connected best with, an herbal doctor,” the caption for her video read.
“And I’m telling you guys, I feel amazing!” she raved in the video.
Another customer gushed over the customization of the herbal prescriptions.
“Oh, you can’t find this in the store, uh-uh, not this, baby!” the user actressamira voiced over a TikTok video of raw herbs being sorted.
Huang at his desk inside the clinic.
From top, left: Dry herbs, roots, and spices inside Tian Xiang.
The appeal is clear. Tian Xiang’s shelves are packed with dried herbs, roots and flowers that make a prism of colors and textures. A wall of wooden drawers stores loose herbs; bulk bins contain varieties of ginseng, goji berries and medicinal spices such as cinnamon and dried turmeric; a display behind the checkout counter showcases bottles of pre-made herbal supplements for nearly every imaginable condition: digestive issues, allergies, immune support, menopause, liver, heart and lung function among them.
What sets the store apart from other retail outlets, though, is the tiny clinic, jammed in a back corner beside a stack of unpacked boxes, barely larger than a walk-in closet. There, a man who goes by Dr. Huang — wearing a plastic surgical glove and medical mask — sits at a small desk behind a protective divider. (He did not go to medical school but has practiced traditional Chinese medicine, he says, for more than 50 years.)
There’s no weeks-long wait to see him, as is so often the case with, say, the U.S. healthcare system. Customers simply drop by, sans appointment, and pay $15 for a few minutes for Huang to assess their condition and prescribe them a customized, herbal remedy. It runs, on average, about $80-$95 for 10 days of daily use. The pharmacy will mix the herbs right there and send customers home with directions for how to prepare the loose tea.
There are more than 50 Chinese herbal apothecaries in the Los Angeles area, according to Willie So, sales director of Chinatown-based Solstice Medicine, a leading distributor of traditional Chinese medicine products since 1979. (He said Solstice Medicine has been providing inventory to Tian Xiang since the store opened.) And while Tian Xiang is a well-stocked and conveniently located one, its social media success is a mystery — even to the people who work there.
David He, the store’s manager, says Tian Xiang began seeing an uptick in business in 2020, at the start of the COVID pandemic, that has become amplified on social media over the last two years.
Store Manager, David He.
A container of dried fruit at Tian Xiang.
“Many Asian people from China and Cambodia and Vietnam came to get medicine for COVID because they believe more in traditional herbs to boost the immune system,” he said through a translator. “And at that time there was no vaccine. The customers felt good, and they posted about it, and then more people started coming. So it’s word of mouth.”
The type of wellness that Tian Xiang was peddling at the time was ripe for TikTok, says Freddy Tran Nager, a digital media professor at USC.
“A lot of alternative wellness trends do exceptionally well on social media, especially since the pandemic, as people look for new ways to be healthy,” he says. “And Asian culture, in particular, has been gaining more popularity online, whether that’s boba drinks or K-pop music — and Asian wellness goes along with it.”
That Tian Xiang is situated on Broadway, a main thoroughfare in Chinatown, didn’t hurt, he adds.
I was intrigued and decided to check out Tian Xiang for myself. I’m currently nursing a gym injury and open to anything that might help ease the pain in my neck and shoulder.
Tian Xiang’s location on Broadway, a main thoroughfare in Chinatown, provides it visibility to the curious wellness seeker.
Tian Xiang has been in the neighborhood for more than 40 years, though it has changed ownership multiple times. It’s a lively place, with a steady stream of customers — “mostly older, mostly repeat visitors and mostly Asian and Hispanic,” He says. They come regularly to treat everything from colds and the flu to infertility and back pain. The late-August afternoon I visited, I saw customers perusing the aisles and consulting with He, who frequently steps out from behind the counter, rubbing his belly or tapping his chest to demonstrate how the herbs might aid their ailments.
Nearby, two employees prepared a prescription for a customer, moving with assembly line-like efficiency in a precise but fluid dance: one ground herbs with a mortar and pestle while the other measured slabs of marbled ginseng on a traditional handheld gram scale. They alternately layered scoops of one ingredient or a sprinkle of another onto pieces of pink paper laid out on the counter top. Side by side, the piles of mixed herbs were like still-life paintings, each sparking with texture. Finally, a third employee packaged the herbs, sealing them in plastic bags.
“The doctor’s ready for you,” He told me, interrupting the mesmerizing show.
Our consultation was quick and to-the-point. Huang had me fill out my name and age on a small sheet of paper. Then he took my pulse. As he cradled my wrist, his forehead wrinkled in concentration. Then he tapped the keyboard on his phone for several minutes, writing into the Google Translate app, before pushing the phone toward me: “Poor blood circulation, weak spleen and stomach, disordered hormones, and a bit,” read the screen.
Huang inside the clinic.
Huang takes reporter Deborah Vankin’s pulse.
Huang hands over his prescription.
Dry herbs, roots, and spices for Deborah Vankin’s customized medicinal tea.
How did he know all this without examining me? He didn’t even look at my tongue, which is typical of a traditional Chinese medicine, or TCM, “tongue and pulse consultation,” I learned from a doctor at UCLA’s Center for East-West Medicine, while researching this piece.
“Experience,” he says through a translator. Huang has been working at Tian Xiang for more than 20 years. Before that, he practiced traditional Chinese medicine for 30 years in the city of Taishan in the Guangdong province of China. He’s a third-generation TCM doctor.
My neck stiffness, he says, is from poor blood circulation — he can tell that by listening to the rhythm and patterns of my pulse on each wrist, not just the number of beats per minute.
Herbal remedies in traditional Chinese medicine have been around for thousands of years, though their efficacy is debatable. Some, such as Dr. KaKit Hui, director of UCLA’s Center for East-West Medicine, say the right combination of herbs for the appropriate ailment can “save lives,” though he stresses the importance of practitioners being properly educated.
“Many conditions — coughing and upper respiratory infections or GI problems — can be helped,” Hui says. “They use herbs for lupus and cancer in China. But you don’t want to use herbs to replace necessary medications or [receive treatment] from someone who doesn’t know what can be mixed with what — herbs can interact with medications — you need someone who knows how to monitor it.”
Others, such as Dr. Craig Hopp of the National Institutes of Health’s National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health, which researches medical approaches outside the Western mainstream, note that Chinese herbs, like supplements, are not FDA regulated and there can be concerns about the purity of the plants and their provenance.
“It can sometimes get a little murky as to where [the herbs] come from,” Hopp says. “Lots of plants look alike and are called similar things, so the taxonomy and the nomenclature can be confusing. Unless you have a very well-trained botanist who knows what they’re looking for, you could be getting something else by the time it gets to an apothecary.”
My prescription — which came in three large plastic bags for six days worth of tea — was $63. It included 16 ingredients, Indian mulberry, golden eye-grass, the deciduous perennial Asian lizard’s tail and the carrot-like plant Szechuan Lovage among them.
The interior of Tian Xiang, a Chinese herbal remedy shop.
He wouldn’t say where, exactly, the herbs come from, just that the store gets them from distributors in Monterey Park and Alhambra, who source them mostly from China, with some coming from Korea, Vietnam and Japan. He did say the herbs are “high quality.”
“My father, he’s 80 and he just had gallbladder surgery and the herbs seem to help,” one customer, Dericia Witalina, said while awaiting herbs her dad was prescribed. Her family lives in the San Fernando Valley and despite the drive, “if we need something, we come here,” she said.
Most, however, visit because it makes them feel healthier, He says.
“Many customers come here not to kill this germ or kill this virus, but it’s more about boosting the general body function.”
No matter how much better TikTok users claim to sleep or feel after drinking their prescribed herbal tea, the consensus on its taste seems to be less enthusiastic. One patron, who goes by 123aram5 on TikTok, summed up their review in two words: “Uh-uh — nope!” Others complained about the woodsy, pungent flavor.
I proceeded with caution, simmering the herbs for about an hour, per the store’s instructions, until they were mushy and the tea was a deep, murky brown. My home smelled like a forest after the rain, which was actually kind of pleasant and soothing.
The taste, however, was rank, nearly impossible to get down. I made a note to next time use a dollop of the honey and yuzu mixture, sold at the store. If there would be a next time.
That night I slept especially deeply. Was it the herbs? A placebo effect? The hot yoga I’d done earlier? Who’s to say. But I’ll take whatever I can get.
Grace Xue contributed reporting for this article, including translating interviews.
Mara is a single mother of two in Minnesota. She and her family have depended on SNAP benefits to make ends meet.
Caroline Yang for NPR
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Caroline Yang for NPR
Although Mara is unemployed, she is busier than ever.
When she is not taking care of her two children, Mara is at her desk applying for jobs. She is surveying her belongings to see what she can pawn off to buy toiletries. Or she is sifting through bills, calculating which ones can wait and which need to be paid right away.
Soon, Mara, a single mom in Minnesota, may have another task on her busy schedule: figuring out how to afford food for her and her family.
That’s because of new work requirements for people receiving aid from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, also known as SNAP or food stamps.
“It would be so beyond hard” to lose SNAP benefits, Mara said. “Without SNAP, there’s no funds for food.” Mara asked for her last name to be withheld given the stigma tied to receiving government assistance. She is also worried that speaking publicly will affect her chances of getting a job.
Previously, SNAP recipients with children under 18 were exempt from work requirements mandating that recipients work, volunteer or participate in job training at least 80 hours a month. But now, under President Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act, that exemption only applies to those with children under 14 — which is how old Mara’s youngest child turned in December.
“It would be so beyond hard” to lose SNAP benefits, Mara said.
Caroline Yang for NPR
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Caroline Yang for NPR
The Trump administration has argued that the mission of the nation’s largest anti-hunger program has failed.
“SNAP was intended to be temporary help for those who encounter tough times. Now, it’s become so bloated that it is leaving fewer resources for those who truly need help,” the White House said in a statement in June.
But policy experts say the SNAP changes do not fully take into account the unique challenges faced by single parents like Mara or the sluggish job market in many parts of the country. They argue that losing food assistance will only create more barriers for recipients struggling to find work.
The timeline for implementing the new SNAP policy varies based on state and county. In Mara’s home state of Minnesota, recipients who don’t qualify for an exemption or meet work requirements will be at risk of losing assistance as early as April 1. Others may have more months depending on when they next need to certify they are eligible for benefits.
Over 100 job applications
Mara imagined she would have a job by now.
It was August when she was let go from her part-time administrative assistant role due to her workplace restructuring. Since then, Mara estimates that she has applied for over 100 positions. She has also attended job fairs and taken free workshops on resume writing.
She has been working since high school, she said, but “ I’ve never been out of work for more than one month, so it’s very difficult.”
Mara spends time working at the computer at CareerForce, a resource for job seekers in Minnesota, on March 4.
Caroline Yang for NPR
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Caroline Yang for NPR
Although she misses her old job, Mara said it didn’t pay enough to support her and her kids, so she relied on SNAP benefits.
Many recipients are part of the low-wage labor market, where job security is often unpredictable and turnover tends to be high, according to Lauren Bauer, a researcher at the Brookings Institution who has studied SNAP extensively.
“SNAP is supposed to be there to help people smooth that and not let the bottom fall out when they experience job loss,” she said. “And this policy doesn’t account for that at all.”
Mara’s lowest point came in November when the government shutdown led to disruptions in SNAP benefits. Not only was she searching for a new job, but she was constantly figuring out where to get her family’s next meal.
“I might be looking for food stuff during the day when I should have been looking for a job,” she said. “Then, I’m trying to make up that time in the evening after my kids go to bed.”
During the pause, Mara turned to food banks, which revealed other challenges. First, food pantries do not always provide enough for an adult and two growing teenagers, she said. Second, they often lack gluten-free foods, which is essential for her daughter who has celiac disease, an autoimmune disorder that causes digestive problems if gluten is consumed. Gluten-free products tend to be more expensive.
If Mara loses access to SNAP again because of the new work requirements, she fears another stretch of long days spent looking for the right food and enough to feed her family.
“I would be so reliant on looking for food shelves or food banks,” she said. “There would not be time to even live.”
“We’re going to see increases in poverty. We’re going to see increases in food insecurity”
The Congressional Budget Office estimates that roughly 2.4 million people will lose food benefits in a typical month over the next decade as a result of the new SNAP requirements — including 300,000 parents like Mara with children 14 or older.
Gina Plata-Nino, the SNAP director at the nonprofit Food Research & Action Center, says many of the affected recipients will be single mothers who make up a majority of single parent households in the U.S. She added that the changes target a group that often lacks or struggles to afford a support system to help care for their children.
“How can they have a full-time job when they need to pick up their children [for] various activities?” she said. “And they are working — just not enough hours because they need to be there present for their children.”
Mara shops for groceries at a local discount grocery store.
Caroline Yang for NPR
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Caroline Yang for NPR
The new law also imposes work requirements on veterans, homeless people, young adults aging out of foster care, and able-bodied adults without dependents from ages 55 to 64.
It also toughened the criteria for waiving work requirements for recipients in areas with high unemployment. Previously, there were multiple ways to determine a weak labor market and secure a waiver. Now, it only applies to places with an unemployment rate above 10%. (Alaska and Hawaii have a different measure.)
For those who fail to meet the work requirement, SNAP provides assistance for up to three months within a three-year span. But Bauer from the Brookings Institution argues that it is not enough and the impact of SNAP changes will be widespread.
“We’re going to see increases in poverty. We’re going to see increases in food insecurity. We’re going to see increasing strain on the charitable food sector,” she said.
Mara holds her favorite anchor ring, which carries the inscription, “God for me provide thee.”
Caroline Yang for NPR
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Caroline Yang for NPR
As anxiety hangs over her head, Mara tries to put on a brave face for her children. She does not want them to worry, explaining that her recent struggles have reminded her how tough life can get as an adult.
“I remind them it’s not their responsibility and they’re not accountable for me or for what’s happening,” she said. “I say, just know you get to be a kid.”
Dylan Dreyer
Savannah Will Likely Come Back … Just Not Sure When
Published
TMZ.com
Dylan Dreyer is giving a small update on her embattled “Today” co-host, Savannah Guthrie, as the search continues for Savannah’s mom, Nancy — telling TMZ she does believe she’ll likely return to the show at some point.
We caught Dylan leaving NBC Tuesday afternoon, and she said while she thinks Savannah will come back, the timing is totally unclear — adding everyone at the show is simply giving her the space she needs because they care about her so much.
TMZ.com
Dylan also reflected on Savannah’s emotional visit to the “TODAY” studio last Thursday, saying the hug they shared was something they both really needed in that moment.
Catch the full clip — Dylan says the visit was incredibly emotional, adding Savannah clearly wants to get back to some sense of normal life … she just doesn’t quite know how yet.
Still, Savannah managed a few smiles during the brief stop by the studio, doing her best to keep moving forward during an incredibly tough time.
TMZ.com
As we reported, Nancy was taken from her Tucson home in the middle of the night on February 1. She was last seen entering the house just before 10 PM on January 31 after dinner with her daughter Annie and Annie’s husband, Tommaso Cioni.
Kevin Kline plays actor Richard Bean, and Laura Linney is his sister-in-law Kristen, in American Classic.
David Giesbrecht/MGM+
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David Giesbrecht/MGM+
American Classic is a hidden gem, in more ways than one. It’s hidden because it’s on MGM+, a stand-alone streaming service that, let’s face it, most people don’t have. But MGM+ is available without subscription for a seven-day free trial, on its website or through Prime Video and Roku. And you should find and watch American Classic, because it’s an absolutely charming and wonderful TV jewel.
Charming, in the way it brings small towns and ordinary people to life, as in Northern Exposure. Wonderful, in the way it reflects the joys of local theater productions, as in Slings & Arrows, and the American Playhouse production of Kurt Vonnegut’s Who Am I This Time?
The creators of American Classic are Michael Hoffman and Bob Martin. Martin co-wrote and co-created Slings & Arrows, so that comparison comes easily. And back in the early 1980s, Who Am I This Time? was about people who transformed onstage from ordinary citizens into extraordinary performers. It’s a conceit that works only if you have brilliant actors to bring it to life convincingly. That American Playhouse production had two young actors — Christopher Walken and Susan Sarandon — so yes, it worked. And American Classic, with its mix of veteran and young actors, does, too.
American Classic begins with Kevin Kline, as Shakespearean actor Richard Bean, confronting a New York Times drama critic about his negative opening-night review of Richard’s King Lear. The next day, Richard’s agent, played by Tony Shalhoub, calls Richard in to tell him his tantrum was captured by cellphone and went viral, and that he has to lay low for a while.
Richard returns home to the small town of Millersburg, Pa., where his parents ran a local theater. Almost everyone we meet is a treasure. His father, who has bouts of dementia, is played by Len Cariou, who starred on Broadway in Sweeney Todd. Richard’s brother, Jon, is played by Jon Tenney of The Closer, and his wife, Kristen, is played by the great Laura Linney, from Ozark and John Adams.
Things get even more complicated because the old theater is now a dinner theater, filling its schedule with performances by touring regional companies. Its survival is at risk, so Richard decides to save the theater by mounting a new production of Thornton Wilder’s Our Town, casting the local small-town residents to play … local small-town residents.
Miranda, Richard’s college-bound niece, continues the family theatrical tradition — and Nell Verlaque, the young actress who plays her, has a breakout role here. She’s terrific — funny, touching, totally natural. And when she takes the stage as Emily in Our Town, she’s heart-wrenching. Playwright Wilder is served magnificently here — and so is William Shakespeare, whose works and words Kline tackles in more than one inspirational scene in this series.
I don’t want to reveal too much about the conflicts, and surprises, in American Classic, but please trust me: The more episodes you watch, the better it gets. The characters evolve, and go in unexpected directions and pairings. Kline’s Richard starts out thinking about only himself, but ends up just the opposite. And if, as Shakespeare wrote, the play’s the thing, the thing here is, the plays we see, and the soliloquies we hear, are spellbinding.
And there’s plenty of fun to be had outside the classics in American Classic. The table reads are the most delightful since the ones in Only Murders in the Building. The dinner-table arguments are the most explosive since the ones in The Bear. Some scenes are take-your-breath-away dramatic. Others are infectiously silly, as when Richard works with a cast member forced upon him by the angel of this new Our Town production.
Take the effort to find, and watch, American Classic. It’ll remind you why, when it’s this good, it’s easy to love the theater. And television.
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