Identifying herbs by scent: a post-90s young man grows from counter clerk to sales star

Seven or eight years ago, when Shang Yangyang was idly leafing through the "Compendium of Materia Medica" in a library, he was merely curious about the pretty flowers and plants inside. At that time, he never imagined that one day he would actually end up working alongside medicines. After graduating in 2010 with a major in pharmacy from Beijing Experimental Vocational School, this post-90s young man moved between pharmacy counters and hospital dispensaries, and now he has crossed over into sales. Yet, however things change, the fundamentals stay the same: he and pharmacy have never parted company and remain side by side.

Choosing pharmacy as a major purely for its practicality

When talking about why he originally chose pharmacy as his major, Shang Yangyang's thinking was very simple: "practicality." "I had a relative who worked in a hospital, so I felt that knowing some pharmacy would help with my family's health and my own life." It was only after he actually entered the classroom that Shang Yangyang felt he had truly chosen the right place. The smell of medicine, which many people avoid, instead made Shang Yangyang feel especially close and familiar: "I just really love the smell of medicine."

After entering Beijing Experimental Vocational School in 2007, Shang Yangyang's class schedule included both traditional Chinese medicine courses such as "processing of Chinese materia medica" and Western medicine courses such as "analytical chemistry." The integration of Chinese and Western medicine trained a comprehensive way of thinking and the ability to go with it. Even now, when he recalls his school courses, Shang Yangyang still remembers them with relish. "Take the processing of Chinese materia medica, for example. It looks like simple stir-frying, but there is actually a lot to it. The frying time and heat are highly particular; for some herbs, the difference between frying one second more and one second less is huge." But do not let Shang Yangyang's fluent explanation now fool you: when he first "took charge of the wok" in class back then, he was so nervous that even pouring oil made him tremble. "With more experience, you can tell from the color, softness and smell of the herb whether it has been fried just right."

A setback while "inspecting" at an herb base

In addition to professional knowledge study in the classroom, regularly going out for social practice was also a feature of the pharmacy major at Beijing Experimental Vocational School. For Shang Yangyang, however, the social practice of his student days was not all that pleasant. In his second year of high school, under his teacher's leadership, Shang Yangyang and his classmates went to the Anguo herb base in Hebei, one of "China's four major herb bases." Unlike finished medicines, Chinese medicinal herbs come in a huge variety and are hard to tell apart as genuine or fake. Before going, Shang Yangyang was full of ambition, ready to go to the market and really "inspect" things, using the knowledge from his textbooks to be a "discerning eye" for once.

Once at the market, the dazzling array of herbs left Shang Yangyang dumbfounded: red ginseng, white ginseng, mountain ginseng... the ginseng category alone was enough to keep him trying to tell them apart. Never mind distinguishing real from fake; even clearly explaining the names of the various herbs was no easy task. "Only then did I realize how shaky my knowledge was." Shang Yangyang's shame did not remain merely at the level of reflection. After returning to school, he began rereading the textbook on Chinese materia medica. "When you truly settle down to do something, you find that time flies and you cannot hold on to it no matter how you try." In the second semester of his second year of high school, Shang Yangyang took part in the national vocational skills competition and achieved a good result of third prize.

From herb counter clerk to sales star

In 2010, Shang Yangyang started work and became a member of the tablet group at Wangfujing Pharmacy. The tablet group handled nearly a thousand kinds of medicines. Wangfujing Pharmacy had a large flow of people and often received foreign customers, so the pressure on Shang Yangyang and his colleagues can well be imagined. Once, a Russian customer came into the pharmacy. After entering, this customer walked straight up to the staff member, opened his mouth, pointed inside and said "ah" a few times. The staff member, unable to communicate because of the language barrier, was flustered and at a loss. Shang Yangyang and a few others crowded around and guessed for quite a while, bringing out sprays and various other medicines one after another, but still did not guess what medicine this foreigner actually wanted. Later, someone who understood English came, and everyone realized that what the customer wanted was lozenges.

Incidents like this had a great impact on Shang Yangyang. After reporting the situation to the manager, he took the initiative to propose that his colleagues organize collective English study. He prepared the study materials himself and gave up rest time. The results of persisting for more than half a year were remarkable. Shang Yangyang gradually noticed that his colleagues were no longer intimidated when they met foreigners and dared to open their mouths to speak. "It is impossible to say we could reach any very high level, but at least we could simply communicate about the symptoms a medicine is suitable for and how to take it." When mentioning these little details, Shang Yangyang still could not help feeling a bit proud.

At the end of 2013, Shang Yangyang came to Jiangzhong Pharmaceutical and became a terminal supervisor, responsible for the agency of some medicines in Beijing pharmacies, and thereby achieved his first major career transformation. Shang Yangyang said that different positions brought him different kinds of training. If the earlier years at the counter let him solidly build his professional foundation, then the new career field made him begin to shape his character more: how to communicate with people, how to cooperate with people... none of it is anything but a great field of learning. "I am willing, in an ordinary position, to be a solid and dependable person and to work earnestly and conscientiously," said Shang Yangyang.