{"id":697,"date":"2014-05-22T18:28:24","date_gmt":"2014-05-22T18:28:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/?p=697"},"modified":"2014-05-22T18:28:41","modified_gmt":"2014-05-22T18:28:41","slug":"candy-for-the-eternally-spotless-mind-now-banned-in-china","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/candy-for-the-eternally-spotless-mind-now-banned-in-china","title":{"rendered":"Candy for the Eternally Spotless Mind Now Banned in China"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #444444;line-height: 1.7\">5:46 am HKT May 22, 2014<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/files\/2014\/05\/BN-CW729_charli_G_20140521061645.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"BN-CW729_charli_G_20140521061645\" src=\"http:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/files\/2014\/05\/BN-CW729_charli_G_20140521061645-300x200.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Sure, maybe you\u2019ve tried Willy Wonka\u2019s Gobstoppers. But have you tried \u201cregret medicine\u201d? Associated Press<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>In \u201cWilly Wonka,\u201d the candy maker delights children with his everlasting gobstoppers and \u2018scrumdiddlyumptious\u2019 chocolate bars. China\u2019s candy makers, on the other hand, offer sweets pitched to the more modern consumer.<\/p>\n<p>Feeling full of malaise, regrets or like a loser? China\u2019s candy makers have the cure for you. On the popular e-commerce site Taobao, numerous vendors have popped up selling \u201cmedicine\u201d that purports to address any number of such ailments. In addition to cures for garden-variety unhappiness, some candies promise to deliver long life without aging and better luck with the ladies, for apparently bargain sums as low as 7 yuan (just over $1) per bottle.<\/p>\n<p>More In Medicine<br \/>\nA Top U.S. Hospital Starts Giving Out Chinese Herbs as Treatment<br \/>\nShould Schools Get Consent Before Giving Kids Medicine?<br \/>\nThe candies are jokes, and are described by sellers in some cases as gifts suitable for April Fool\u2019s Day. But the government isn\u2019t amused.<\/p>\n<p>This week, the China Food and Drug Administration issued a notice telling consumers to steer clear of such items, which often come packaged in white bottles that wouldn\u2019t look out of place in a pharmacy. In the notice, the government slammed such candies for \u201cmisleading consumers\u201d and banned their sale.<\/p>\n<p>Reached by phone Wednesday, one Shanghai-based Taobao vendor of so-called \u201cregret medicine\u201d said she was angered by the government\u2019s dictum. The vendor, surnamed Hu, said she expects to lose thousands of yuan as she still has some 25,000 bottles of \u201cregret medicine\u201d on hand and more in her inventory.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is really unfair,\u201d she said. \u201cNobody gave us any notice or tested [our product safety]. If they came here, I would definitely cooperate. But no one showed up.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey do not respect the consumers or us,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>In its notice, the government in particular warned consumers to avoid \u201cregret medicine,\u201d \u201cbreak-up medicine\u201d and \u201cforget past romance potion.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThese products haven\u2019t gotten any kind of production approval from government agencies, and their labeling isn\u2019t standardized,\u201d the notice ran, citing concerns about safety involving such products.<\/p>\n<p>\u2013 Te-Ping Chen and Dantong Ma. Follow Te-Ping on Twitter at @tepingchen<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>From\u00a0http:\/\/blogs.wsj.com\/chinarealtime\/2014\/05\/22\/candy-for-the-eternally-spotless-mind-now-banned-in-china\/<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>5:46 am HKT May 22, 2014 Sure, maybe you &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/candy-for-the-eternally-spotless-mind-now-banned-in-china\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[195,194,1343],"views":1048,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/697"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=697"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/697\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":700,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/697\/revisions\/700"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=697"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=697"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=697"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}