Chinese medical halls slowly vanishing due to costs and demand
Quieter days: Liew checking the herbs on display at his shop in Chulia Street, George Town. —KT GOH/The Star
GEORGE TOWN: Once a popular place for people to get traditional herbs, a century-old medical hall here now stands mostly quiet with the shelves lined with jars meant more for show than trade.
“We stopped selling Chinese herbs in 2014,” said Liew Kong Choy, who has run the shop in Chulia Street for decades.
“Too expensive. The stuff from China got too costly.”
These days, Liew sells balm, oil and a few home remedies to the elderly who still walk in.
But not many do these days.
“Young people go to pharmacies now,” he said. “They don’t believe in this like their parents did.”
Now, they are vanishing. It is partly due to the escalating cost.
“Red dates, wolfberries, ginseng and most Chinese herbs have gone up by 10% to 15% over the past six months,” said Teoh Hai Wei, 43, who still runs a hall nearby.
“Some of the prices vary and depend on the season, some just follow China.”
He said supply problems and shifting demand made the trade harder to manage.
Penang wholesaler Lai Ee Li compared the business to the stock market.
“Prices change every few months,” she said. “Before Chinese New Year, they go up. After that, they drop.
“Depends on the season, what illnesses are spreading and what people think will work.”
She said demand for tiger milk mushroom increases when there’s a spike in respiratory illness. That means the price jumps in tandem.
Other items that have recently gone up include chrysanthemum, lo han guo, barley and hei ko – all rising by between 5% and 15% in bulk.
Even so, Chinese patent medicine still sells, though the numbers have been volatile.
In 2022, China exported traditional Chinese medicine worth US$54.2mil (RM230.4mil) to Malaysia – a 138% jump over the previous year.
But in 2023, the figure fell to US$32.5mil (RM138.2mil), a 40% drop.
“2022 was a surge year because people turned to traditional Chinese medicine during the Covid-19 pandemic,” said Malaysian Chinese Medical Association president Heng Aik Teng.
“2023 was more of a correction.”
He said rising costs in China also pushed up prices and made it harder for exporters.
Demand in the region, especially in price-sensitive countries, has dropped since the pandemic.
Back in Chulia Street, Liew doesn’t talk about global trade figures.
He just sees fewer people walk past his door.
“I’m still here. But it’s not like before,” he said.
And I don’t just mean the traffic jams or construction drills outside your office window. I mean the constant pinging of notifications. The flood of messages, e-mails, deadlines, expectations. Everyone – and everything – seems to want a piece of your attention.
We rarely realise it, but attention is a precious currency. Once spent, it doesn’t come back easily. And yet, we give it away so freely.
That’s why I’ve come to believe this: In a world full of noise, protecting your quiet is one of the most powerful things you can do.
I’m not talking about silence in the literal sense – although that’s a good start. I’m talking about those little pockets of time where your mind can simply breathe. A morning walk before the world wakes up. A cup of tea in the late afternoon, steam curling softly into the air. The solitude of a hot shower after a long day. Moments where you’re not doing anything for anyone, but simply being.
It’s in those moments, more often than not, that your best thoughts arrive.
I can’t count how many times an idea for an article, a teaching strategy, or a long-delayed solution to a lingering problem popped up, not during a meeting, or while staring at a screen but while tying my shoelaces before a slow run. Or while absentmindedly folding the laundry. Or during the quiet stretch of road between the city and home.
That quiet is not wasted time. It’s integrating time. It’s when all the loose threads of our thoughts
find ways to knot themselves into something useful, or at least something meaningful.
Rumi, the 13th-century Persian poet wrote, “There is a voice that doesn’t use words. Listen.” But how can we possibly hear it when our ears, eyes, and minds are constantly being pulled in a dozen directions?
We can’t. Not unless we make space for it.
The irony is that we tend to undervalue these gentle moments. We label them as idle or unproductive. We try to fill every pause with something – a scroll through social media, a podcast, a reply to a text message. But not every blank space needs to be filled. Some of them are sacred.
It reminds me of a lesson I learned (or rather, re-learned) during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic. Those years, 2020 and 2021, was a strange period of time – heavy, uncertain, and unusually quiet in all the right ways. With no meetings to rush to and no travel on the calendar, I found myself rediscovering the small joys: walking around my neighbourhood without a destination, sipping kopi while watching the rain, or just sitting still – doing nothing, really – and feeling OK with that.
Somewhere in that stillness, clarity returned. Not suddenly, not dramatically, but slowly. Thought by thought, breath by breath. And I realised how often I had traded away my quiet for noise disguised as urgency.
Even now, the temptation is always there to squeeze more into the day, to reply faster, to be perpetually available. But I’ve learned to put boundaries around those moments that keep me anchored.
A walk is a walk. A bath is a bath. A cup of tea is sacred. No phones, no multitasking, no performance. Just me, being human.
So here’s my gentle challenge to you: Find your quiet. Guard it like it’s something valuable – because it is. Whether it’s 10 minutes in the morning, or an hour on weekends, protect that time. Make it yours. Make it non-negotiable.
You don’t need to meditate or write a poem. You don’t need to come out of it with anything profound. Just let your mind wander. Let your shoulders drop. Let yourself be.
And if someone asks why you’re “doing nothing”, smile and say, “I’m protecting my quiet”. Because in that space, your sanity lives. Your clarity returns. Your soul exhales.
And honestly? The world can wait.
dr nahrizul Adib Kadri is a professor of biomedical engineering at the Faculty of Engineering, and the Principal of Ibnu Sina Residential College, Universiti Malaya.
Have something you feel strongly about? Get on your soapbox and preach to us at lifestyle@ thestar.com.my so that we can share your opinion with the world. The views expressed here are entirely the writer’s own. - By NAHRIZUL ADIB KADRI
Artifacts on display during a bronze repatriation ceremony in Abuja, the capital of Nigeria on December 20, 2022. Photo: VCG
Cultural artifacts are more than historical remnants; they embody the spirit of a nation and a civilization.
In recent years, some countries have not only stepped up cultural preservation efforts, but also worked actively to recover artifacts looted during colonial times. Recently, the Global Times interviewed officials in Egypt and Nigeria, as well as representatives from civil groups in Japan and other countries, to learn how those looted treasures are making their way home.
'We cannot leave this to the next generation'
On June 14, 2025, Japanese civic organization Chinese Cultural Relics Return Movement Promotion Association hosted a public lecture in Tokyo that focused on Japan's wartime archaeological activities and cultural relics looted from China and called for the return of looted cultural relics and the reconstruction of related academic ethics, according to the Xinhua News Agency.
Founded in 2021, the civic group seeks to push for the return of relics taken during the First Sino-Japanese War, also known as the Jiawu War (1894-95), the Russo-Japanese War (1904-05) and the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression (1931-45).
Keiichiro Ichinose, a Japanese lawyer and the group's founder, told the Global Times that returning these artifacts is a necessary reckoning with Japan's imperialist and colonial past.
In 2012, the Palace Museum in Beijing published a catalogue listing 15,245 rare Chinese cultural artifacts that entered Japan between the First Sino-Japanese War and the end of World War II in 1945. From 1931 to 1945, Japan looted 1,879 crates of Chinese cultural relics. The total number of items is incalculable, according to Xinhua.
Among these are several artifacts the association is specifically demanding be returned, such as three Chinese stone lions looted from Northeast China's Liaoning Province. Two of them are displayed outside the notorious Yasukuni Shrine, while the third is housed in the Tochigi Prefecture. Another item is the Chinese Tang Honglu well Stele of the Tang Dynasty (618-907), looted from Dalian, Northeast China's Liaoning Province, in 1908 and currently stored out of public view in the Fukiage Garden of Japan's Imperial Palace as "national property," according to Xinhua.
Ichinose told the Global Times that since March 2022, the association has been sending formal requests to the Yasukuni Shrine demanding the return of Chinese cultural property. It was not until May 18, 2023, that they secured their first - and so far only - meeting with shrine staff.
"That day, we spoke with the Yasukuni Shrine's general affairs director and section chief," Ichinose recalled.
"We submitted a second request on July 26, 2023. On August 9, we received a response saying there were 'no developments to report at this time.'"
"Still, we submitted a third request on October 4, 2023. On October 18, we got a reply stating that Yasukuni had already 'expressed its stance' and would not offer another meeting," he said.
"At the same year, We sent a fourth petition on November 30, and received a reply on December 13, that was essentially a repeat of their previous response," Ichinose said. "Even when we presented new evidence, the shrine refused to comment. We will continue to press firmly to prevent them from thinking this issue can simply be ignored."
The Chinese Tang Honglu well Stele is considered one of the most significant Chinese artifacts looted by Japan. Ichinose said the association had attempted to negotiate with the Imperial Household Agency through a Japanese lawmaker. However, when the supportive lawmaker lost his seat, talks stalled. The group is currently reaching out to other lawmakers in hopes of reviving the discussion.
Today, many Western countries are returning cultural artifacts looted during colonial times, but Japan shows a negative attitude. Ichinose pointed out this stems from the Japanese government's failure to fully reflect on its history of aggression and colonization. As a result, Tokyo has little intention of addressing these lingering historical injustices, including the return of looted artifacts.
According to him, the Chinese Cultural Relics Return Movement Promotion Association holds regular meetings every month to discuss future actions. Each year, it also organizes two major public gatherings calling on the Japanese government to return looted Chinese relics.
When the association was established in 2021, Ichinose found, very few Japanese people - apart from a handful of scholars - were even aware of Japan's looting of Chinese cultural property.
In recent years, as the group's efforts expanded, media attention increased, and more citizens began voluntarily participating in its events.
"Returning looted Chinese artifacts should have been resolved in the last century," Ichinose told the Global Times. "It keeps getting delayed. As Japanese citizens, we believe it's our responsibility to urge the government to act - we cannot pass this burden on to the next generation."
Return of a mummy head
On May 12, 2025, Egypt's Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced it had recovered 25 smuggled cultural relics of significant historical and artistic value following negotiations with the US, marking the country's latest success in reclaiming looted artifacts, Xinhua reported. Mohamed Ismail Khaled, secretary-general of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, told the Global Times that since 2014, Egypt has successfully retrieved more than 30,000 cultural artifacts.
"As someone who has long worked in the field of cultural repatriation, I know that behind every returned artifact lies the tireless effort and perseverance of many people. These relics are not just witnesses of history - they are essential components of our national cultural identity," he said.
In August 2024, three smuggled artifacts, which belong to the Late Period of Ancient Egypt (747-332 BC), were returned to Egypt from the Netherlands: a blue porcelain ushabti statue, part of a wooden coffin decorated with inscriptions of goddess Isis, and a head of mummy in a good state of preservation with remains of teeth and hair, the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities said in a statement, Xinhua reported.
Khaled said the figurine and coffin fragment were found inside an antique store in the Netherlands, and the Dutch and Egyptian authorities conducted necessary investigations that showed they were illegally smuggled from Egypt, reported Xinhua.
A Dutch individual handed over the mummified head, which he had inherited from a family member, to local authorities, according to AP News.
According to Egyptian media, Leiden University later conducted a chemical analysis of the resin preservatives on the mummified head. The composition matched mummies excavated in Alexandria from the same period, and the skull bore surgical perforations consistent with medical texts from Egypt's Ptolemaic Dynasty (305-30 BC). On this basis, Dutch authorities decided to return the mummy head to Egypt.
Although Egypt has made notable strides in recovering artifacts, Professor Alnajib Alabdulla from the Department of History at Cairo University told the Global Times that the repatriation process remains deeply challenging.
First, many relics were taken illegally decades or even centuries ago, and there is often little documentation or hard evidence, which severely hampers recovery efforts. Second, the legal systems and cultural policies of different countries vary widely, complicating negotiations. Lastly, some artifacts are now in private collections or on the auction market, making it extremely time- and resource-intensive to trace their provenance, according to Alabdulla.
Alabdulla said that Egypt plans to sign more bilateral agreements and long-term cooperation mechanisms on cultural protection and restitution. The country will also build a comprehensive digital database to document each artifact for easier identification and tracking.
Restoring African dignity
Recently, at the National Museum of Ethnology in Leiden, the Netherlands, a staff member wearing blue latex gloves carefully removed a priceless artifact from its display, gently placed it on a padded surface, and wrapped it in several layers of special protective paper.
According to AFP, the item was a Benin Bronze, an invaluable artifact looted from present-day Nigeria more than 120 years ago. It is now being prepared for repatriation.
Rev. Anamah N.U.B, head of the Cultural Industries and Heritage at Nigeria's Ministry of Art, Culture, Tourism and the Creative Economy, told the Global Times that as an ancient African civilization, Nigeria has spent decades working to reclaim its looted cultural heritage.
Anamah said that in recent years, Nigeria's Ministry of Foreign Affairs has led the charge in recovering these treasures. As a result, countries such as the UK, the US, and Germany have already returned or committed to returning certain artifacts.
"However, some countries or institutions in possession of looted relics often show reluctance to return them," Anamah said.
He said that these countries should not only return the artifacts but also pay reparations to the source nations, as they have benefited economically from these items over the past centuries.
As the global push for artifact repatriation gains momentum, not only governments but also civil organizations are playing a crucial role in driving the process forward.
One such organization is Open Restitution Africa, founded in 2020. It aims to reshape the global narrative to center African voices in heritage discourse.
Members of Open Restitution Africa shared extensive documentation with the Global Times, detailing the historical significance of various African artifacts, their illicit removal from the continent, and the current status of their repatriation efforts.
In 1830, the Véro brothers, French specimen makers, exhumed the remains of a warrior in what is now around Botswana and South Africa and turned the body into a display specimen. After changing hands several times, the remains were put on public display in 1916 at a museum in Spain, under the label "The Negro of Banyoles," according to the BBC.
For decades, the exhibit went unchallenged - until 1991, when Alphonse Arcelin, a Haitian doctor of African descent, wrote to Banyoles authorities demanding the remains be returned for burial.
His call was initially met with resistance from local politicians and the public. Following years of intense negotiations, the human remains were returned home in 2000.
According to the Open Restitution Africa, returning the remains of "The Negro of Banyoles" and ensuring a proper burial was vital - not only for restoring the dignity of the deceased but also for affirming the dignity of all the people of Africa.
The Federal Court has ordered Public Bank to pay RM30 million each in equitable, exemplary, and aggravated damages to National Feedlot Corporation and three others for disclosing its accounts to the public.
PUTRAJAYA: The Federal Court has ordered Public Bank Bhd to pay RM90mil in damages to National Feedlot Corporation ( Corp), its chairman Datuk Mohamad Salleh Ismail, and three subsidiary companies for breaching confidentiality by leaking bank account information.
A three-judge panel, chaired by Chief Judge of Malaya Justice Hasnah Mohammed, made the decision on the quantum of damages here yesterday.
The court ordered the bank to pay RM30mil for equitable damages, RM30mil for aggravated damages and another RM30mil for exemplary damages.
It also imposed a 2% interest on the total, beginning yesterday, until the amount is paid off.
Other judges on the bench were Chief Judge of Sabah and Sarawak Justice Abdul Rahman Sebli and Federal Court judge Justice Abu Bakar Jais.
On May 26, the same panel dismissed Public Bank’s appeal in the lawsuit filed by Corp and four others.
The panel unanimously dismissed the bank’s appeal to overturn the Court of Appeal’s August 2023 decision on grounds that common law was not applicable in the case.
It ordered Public Bank to pay RM300,000 in costs to Corp and others.
Regarding a cross-appeal by Corp and others against the Court of Appeal’s award of RM10,000 in nominal damages, the court allowed the appeal but deferred the decision on the damages’ quantum until Wednesday.
On Aug 30, 2023, the Court of Appeal allowed an appeal by Mohamad Salleh and its subsidiaries against Public Bank for breaching contract confidentiality.
The appellate court found a serious misappreciation of evidence, warranting appellate intervention, and ordered Public Bank to pay RM500,000 in costs.
The lawsuit, filed on May 22, 2012, alleged the bank breached confidentiality by allowing banking transaction details to be revealed by then PKR vice-president Datuk Seri Rafizi Ramli, who recently resigned as Economy Minister.
They claimed the breach caused irreparable loss and damage to their business reputation under the Banking and Financial Institutions Act.
On July 29, 2019, the High Court dismissed the lawsuit against the bank.
When met by the media later, Mohamad Salleh thanked his legal team.
“My family and I... my wife and children, we went through several hardships over the years.
3 days ago — Selain NFCorp, Public Bank perlu bayar ganti rugi kepada Mohamad Salleh (kiri), National Meat and Livestock Corporation Sdn Bhd, Agroscience .
Smoke billows in the distance from an oil refinery following an Israeli strike on the Iranian capital Tehran. (Photo by ATTA KENARE / AFP)
WASHINGTON/DUBAI/JERUSALEM: President Donald Trump called on Tuesday for Iran's unconditional surrender and warned US patience was wearing thin, but said there was no intention to kill Iran's leader "for now", as the Israel-Iran air war raged for a fifth day.
Explosions were reported in Tehran and the city of Isfahan in central Iran, while Israel said Iran fired more missiles late on Tuesday and early Wednesday. Air raid sirens sounded in southern and central Israel, and explosions were heard over Tel Aviv. The Israeli military said it had conducted strikes on 12 missile launch sites and storage facilities in Tehran.
Trump's comments, delivered via social media, suggested a more aggressive stance toward Iran as he weighs whether to deepen US involvement.
"We know exactly where the so-called 'Supreme Leader' is hiding," he wrote on Truth Social. "We are not going to take him out (kill!), at least not for now... Our patience is wearing thin."
Three minutes later, he posted, "UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER!"
Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei could face the same fate as Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, who was toppled in a US-led invasion and hanged in 2006 after a trial.
"I warn the Iranian dictator against continuing to commit war crimes and fire missiles at Israeli citizens," Katz told top Israeli military officials.
Trump's sometimes contradictory and cryptic messaging about the conflict between close US ally Israel and longtime foe Iran has deepened the uncertainty surrounding the crisis. His public comments have ranged from military threats to diplomatic overtures — not uncommon for a president known for an often erratic approach to foreign policy.
Trump said on Monday that he might send US Middle East Envoy Steve Witkoff or Vice President JD Vance to meet Iranian officials. The president said his early departure from the Group of Seven nations summit in Canada had "nothing to do" with working on a ceasefire deal, and that something "much bigger" was expected.
Britain's leader Keir Starmer said there was no indication the US was about to enter the conflict.
Trump met for 90 minutes with his National Security Council on Tuesday afternoon to discuss the conflict, a White House official said. Details were not immediately available.
The US is deploying more fighter aircraft to the Middle East and extending the deployment of other warplanes, three US officials told Reuters. The move follows other deployments that US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth described as defensive in nature. The US has so far only taken defensive actions in the current conflict with Iran, including helping to shoot down missiles fired toward Israel.
Women react as they check the destruction in the northern Arab-Israeli city of Tamra. (Photo by AHMAD GHARABLI / AFP)
Regional Influence Weakens
Khamenei's main military and security advisers have been killed by Israeli strikes, hollowing out his inner circle and raising the risk of strategic errors, according to five people familiar with his decision-making process.
The Israeli military said on Tuesday it had killed Iran's wartime chief of staff Ali Shadmani, four days after he replaced another top commander killed in the strikes.
With Iranian leaders suffering their most dangerous security breach since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, the country's cybersecurity command banned officials from using communications devices and mobile phones, Fars news agency reported.
Israel launched a "massive cyber war" against Iran's digital infrastructure, Iranian media reported.
Ever since Iran-backed Hamas attacked Israel on Oct 7, 2023, and triggered the Gaza war, Khamenei's regional influence has waned as Israel has pounded Iran's proxies — from Hamas in Gaza to Hizbollah in Lebanon, the Houthis in Yemen and militias in Iraq. Iran's close ally, Syria's autocratic president Bashar al-Assad, has been ousted.
Israel launched its air war — its largest ever on Iran — on Friday after saying it had concluded the Islamic Republic was on the verge of developing a nuclear weapon.
Iran denies seeking nuclear weapons and has pointed to its right to nuclear technology for peaceful purposes, including enrichment, as a party to the international Non-Proliferation Treaty.
Israel, which is not a party to the NPT, is the only country in the Middle East believed to have nuclear weapons. Israel does not deny or confirm that.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has stressed that he will not back down until Iran's nuclear development is disabled, while Trump says the Israeli assault could end if Iran agrees to strict curbs on enrichment.
Before Israel's attack began, the 35-nation board of governors of the UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, declared Iran in breach of its non-proliferation obligations for the first time in almost 20 years.
The IAEA said on Tuesday an Israeli strike directly hit the underground enrichment halls at the Natanz facility.
The Iranian news website Eghtesadonline, which covers economic news, reported on Tuesday that Iran arrested a foreigner for filming "sensitive" areas at the Bushehr nuclear power plant for Israel's spy agency Mossad.
People take cover inside a cable car tunnel following a missile attack from Iran on Israel, at Haifa, Israel June 17, 2025. REUTERS/Itay Cohen
Iranian security forces also arrested a "terrorist team" linked to Israel with explosives in a town southwest of the capital Tehran, Iranian state media reported.
Oil Markets on Alert
Israel says it now has control of Iranian airspace and intends to escalate the campaign in coming days.
But Israel will struggle to deal a knock-out blow to deeply buried nuclear sites like Fordow, which is dug beneath a mountain, without the US joining the attack. Israel's Katz said Fordow was an issue that will be addressed.
Iran has so far fired nearly 400 ballistic missiles and hundreds of drones towards Israel, with about 35 missiles penetrating Israel's defensive shield, Israeli officials say.
Iran's Revolutionary Guards said they hit Israel's Military Intelligence Directorate and the foreign intelligence service Mossad's operational centre early on Tuesday. There was no Israeli confirmation.
Iranian officials have reported 224 deaths, mostly civilians, while Israel said 24 civilians had been killed. Residents of both countries have been evacuated or fled.
Global oil markets are on high alert following strikes on sites including the world's biggest gas field, South Pars, shared by Iran and Qatar.
As a country with special influence over Israel, the US should particularly adopt an objective and impartial stance, take due responsibility, and play a positive and constructive role in de-escalating tensions and preventing the conflict from further expanding.
