Everything is Pan: The Resurgence of Panzhu and Prayer Beads in China

One day while browsing on Zhihu, a Chinese online question-and-answer platform similar to Quora, I stumbled upon an interesting means of relieving agitation and easing the mind into a state of serenity: by rubbing a string of small prayer beads (盘串 pánchuàn) for a few seconds, one could achieve a sense of bliss that goes just beyond the comfort that comes from rubbing the beads.

Says one Zhihu user: "as you observe the edges and corners, you can see them morphing with each use, becoming smoother and shinier by the day. They've been a witness to my own growth, from an impetuous and inexperienced young adult into a calm and sophisticated man." Thus, it's not just serenity, but seeing the process of change nourished by daily effort; the faded edges a record of personal growth.

This sentiment was expanded upon by a friend of mine, Mia Meng, who has incorporated prayer beads into her daily routine. On her way to work one day, an elderly man using the beads caught her attention. "He used some special oil to rub on the beads that made them gleam bright, which is something I hadn't seen before." Even though Meng had to move on and get to work, the image of the old man slowly rubbing each bead stuck in her mind.

"I entered a new world that day; just by rubbing the beads one by one, you can find serenity…" Having practiced Buddhism since childhood, Meng believes when certain things come into our lives, they were destined to do so.

Prayer beads themselves are a product of Buddhism that can be traced back to the religion's flourishing in the Central Plains during the Wei (386-534 CE), Jin (265-420 CE), and Northern and Southern Dynasties (420-589 CE) periods. The practice of handling or rubbing the beads, known as 盘珠 pánzhū, was, and still is, used as a means of meditating on mantras or sutras with each bead.

The beads initially gained popularity in China as a spiritual weapon for warding off evil spirits, spreading from monasteries into the hands of lay practitioners. Until recently, the beads themselves were seen as a sign of faith or simply as a means for old people to pass the time, but this is changing. Prayer beads and the practice of panzhu, now shortnened to 盘 pán, have gone viral since around 2022. The beads can now be seen in the hands of younger Chinese, all the way down to elementary school children, who often trade the beads at school amongst friends along with using them for their modern purpose of stress relief, according to an article on the phenomenon in The Paper.

One Xiaohongshu user, 牛奶酱油, posted about the beads' use at the elementary school she teaches at in Suzhou. "My students said pan-ing beads can help them relieve pressure, they only use them when they feel stressful", she writes in the post. "I am not going to prevent them to do this activity. From the perspective of a teacher, as long as the small objects are safe and won't distract them from the classes, it is always reasonable to allow them to use during the leisure time."

But the use of prayer beads amongst schoolchildren has its critics. Another Xiaohongshu user said of their use in schools: "This is all about marketing. Children generally lack good judgment skills, so once they see a popular thing, they'll understandably get their parents to buy it."

Whether or not their prevalence in elementary school playgrounds is a byproduct of good marketing or not remains unanswered, but there's no denying that the beads have been flourishing in the spotlight from 2020 until present, thanks in part to the rising fad of "China chic". 

China chic, or 国潮 guócháo (lit. national tide), is used to describe modern products infused with traditional Chinese elements or traditional products redesigned with modern tastes in mind. The rise of such products, according to a 2022 report from China Daily, can be seen as the finding of a sense of identity and national pride.

As a part of the China chic trend, the beads are indeed stimulating economic potential and making considerable profits on the market. According to the survey on iimedia, a third party data mining and analysis institution, the number of China chic artifacts users in the e-commerce industry has reached 60.85 million, and the transaction scale has reached RMB 163 billion. It's speculated that the overall user scale exceeded 100 million people in 2023, with the transaction scale exceeding RMB 500 billion. 

Meanwhile, the market effect is imperceptibly changing users' attitudes towards pan items, overvaluing the materials rather than the practice. On Xiaohongshu, the material of the bead strings that the users share are numerous, including linden seed, incense wood, and all kinds of primitive and genuine wood. Jade and agate, traditional materials for pan beads, are also popular, but whereas agate can fetch a few RMB, hetian jade ranges from RMB 10,000 to 100,000 per piece. 

Terms like pan and 包浆 bāojiāng (toning), the shine the beads take on with constant rubbing over time, have made their way online. The latter term has morphed into 电子包浆 diànzǐ bāojiāng (digital toning), used in reference to images, gifs, and memes on which the original watermarks or user names have faded overtime due to being shared so much. As for pan, the phrase has become "盘他/她" (pán tā) which means stroke, squeeze and rub it till it becomes shiny. 

Ungratified by the limited choices of artifacts, netizens have upgraded the Pan objects to all the things that can be stroked and rubbed, including fluffy pets. Pán tā is also used for things that you are going to invest money or time, like binge watching TV shows or coveting an expensive bag. Soon after, the hashtag 万物皆可盘 wànwù jiēkě pán (Everything is up for Pan) became a trending topic on shortform video app Douyin. Douyin users have been seen posting all kinds objects for Pan-ing for fun, from spiky hedgehogs to pieces of coal.

Back on Xiaohongshu, one of the most up and coming prayer bead materials is bamboo, which is peeled and polished by specific tools, splitting into pieces at the length of the hands. It takes on a texture of jade and a golden color, making it one of the hot sellers in the Pan community. Some people seek unique and exclusive objects for themselves, including bone, corn, lobster claw, river snail shell, and even their own teeth. From bead strings to "Everything is up for Pan", pan beads have broken through their original purpose, as a means for letting go of stress in various ways for Chinese people. 

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Images: Henan TV, Wikimedia Commons, Xiaohongshu, Douyin (via Zhihu user 外游社)