An Explanation About Stopping Weibo, WeChat Moments, and Toutiao Updates and Removing Some Readers
Dear readers:
I am very sorry to announce that, due to my limited personal energy, I have made some adjustments: I am stopping updates to Weibo, WeChat Moments, and Toutiao micro-posts; my past short posts on Toutiao and Weibo have all been deleted; and, unable to endure the disturbance, I have also removed some readers I have never met in person.
From now on I will focus on systematic writing. My articles will be published on my personal website, WeChat official account, Sina Blog, and Toutiao account.
As someone in medicine, my total followers across various social media already exceed 15,000; I still keep over 2,000 WeChat contacts alone (having gradually deleted two or three thousand; I can only say sorry to those removed), and the number keeps growing.
That number means nothing to many opinion leaders pursuing influence, but for a physician with no assistant it is terrifying. It means I would be plunged into an enormous volume of consultations, unable to extricate myself.
Some of my articles have been read hundreds of thousands of times, many of those views coming from other platforms pirating or reposting my work without permission. Most readers have all kinds of health questions to ask; at peak I received consultation messages from over a thousand people a day.
If this continued, my work and life would be completely ruined.
I am already a middle-aged man in my years of "no doubt"; my life has entered its second half. I know my remaining time is limited, and time is very precious to me.
I spent most of my first half of life studying and reading. After university I lived near the National Library for nearly twenty years, soaking in the library and reading all kinds of books. Most of my second half will probably still be spent in that library. Having studied for half a lifetime, I ultimately hope to leave behind some academic results in the form of written work.
"Establishing words" has been one of the spiritual pursuits of Chinese scholars since ancient times, and a social responsibility of intellectuals. I need to replan my time and writing direction, and write something systematic to leave to my children and grandchildren.
So a drastic reduction in the time and energy spent on social networks is unavoidable. I hope you will understand.
Since my mother developed gastric cancer over ten years ago, I have made many cancer friends online and was once one of China's most influential cancer group moderators.
To relieve my mother's suffering, I studied medicine diligently and used what I learned to help many fellow patients. Later, at the request of cancer friends, I began writing medical articles, and have not stopped since. Over more than ten years I have written millions of words, but most were casual, unsystematic, and unsatisfying to me.
Now I am forty, and my clinical practice is busy. I know I have limited usable time left and can no longer wait or delay; so day by day I want to reduce worldly affairs, calm my mind, and settle into study and writing. Apart from seeing patients, everything else that can be cut will be cut.
Too many patients come to me; I cannot satisfy everyone. I can only spend my limited energy on patients who trust me and have followed me long-term.
I know many patients and families regard me as a spiritual pillar, and after I stop some micro-updates they will need time to adjust. But I believe they will gradually adapt to the new reading format. I will publish my articles as I write them. If I come across good natural therapies or effective medicines and formulas, I will also write them up and publish them.
Just to ensure quality, I now read quite a lot of literature for every article, so my writing speed will not be as fast as before.
Do not worry—I will still be with you, just in a different way.
Also, more and more new readers have been referred by my patients and past readers; some friends overstate me seriously, far from the facts, leading new readers to have unrealistic expectations. I am deeply alarmed by this. I hope everyone will read my articles and others' introductions of me rationally.
Since I turned thirty I have opposed authority and had no wish to set myself up as one. I oppose superstition and oppose others' superstition of me. If some of my words have caused readers to misunderstand me or over-superstitiously revere me, I offer my deep apologies and hope you can be more rational; overestimation and unrealistic expectations only bring me pressure.
Finally, I wish healthy readers everlasting health, and ill readers a speedy recovery!
Zhou Zhiyuan
June 7, 2018