Hi, I’m Bong

I grew up in a family where the pharmacy drawers were never just furniture. My father is a traditional Chinese medicine pharmacist. At home, conversations over dinner often drifted to herbs, constitutions, seasons, and how a small change in food or breath could shift how someone felt the next morning.

I am not a doctor, and I do not pretend to be one. What I bring is something quieter: years of watching, asking, tasting, and listening. The smell of dried tangerine peel and ginger in winter. The way my grandmother chose a pear over an orange for someone with a dry cough. The careful language people used to say “this food is warming” or “that habit is too draining.”

That lived experience is the soil 5baba grows from.

I started 5baba because I noticed how often wellness content falls into two traps: it either sounds like a medical textbook, or it promises miracles.

Chinese wellness culture has survived for thousands of years not because it is mysterious, but because it is practical, observational, and deeply personal. It asks: How do you sleep? What do you crave in winter? Where do you hold tension? These questions do not replace a doctor’s diagnosis, but they can help people understand themselves better.

5baba is my attempt to translate that culture honestly — without exaggeration, without black-fill SVG icons, and without pretending one tea will fix everything.

Personal experience, not medical advice. Every article on this site is written from observation, memory, and research. If a post touches on health, it includes a clear disclaimer. I never claim to diagnose, treat, or cure.

Specific over vague. I prefer “try three slices of ginger and two red dates simmered for 15 minutes” over “eat warming foods.” Details make ideas usable.

Beautiful but readable. A page should feel calm and human, not like a hospital brochure or a cheap card farm. Every design choice serves the reader.

Always learning. When I get something wrong, I correct it and note the update. Cultural knowledge is alive, and so is this site.