Lululemon Bets on China’s Wellness Boom, Releases Report With Top Academy Tsinghua
Lululemon CEO Calvin McDonald hailed the report as "a call to action, encouraging people to embrace active and healthy lifestyles."
LONDON — Athleisure brand Lululemon earlier this week supported the release of a China Wellbeing Report published by the research center for positive psychology under the department of psychological and cognitive sciences at China’s top academy, Tsinghua University.
Kaiping Peng, principal investigator of the report and a professor in the department of psychological and cognitive sciences at Tsinghua University, said understanding and enhancing the well-being of the Chinese people is one of the most vital subjects today.
To tackle the issue, Peng and his team surveyed more than 50,000 Chinese people and used AI to analyze Chinese written materials, including classic works of Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism, novels and essays from the Ming and Qing dynasties, archives of People’s Daily content, as well as user-generated social media content, to unearth the cultural DNA of Chinese well-being.
The report showed that the respondents placed the least emphasis on social well-being, with only 24.3 percent reporting focusing on it in the past year, whereas mental and physical well-being scored 62.9 percent and 53.8 percent, respectively.
It also showed that there are significant intergenerational differences when it comes to overall well-being and sources of stress. Younger generations, especially Gen Z, expressed a stronger sense of “Neijuan,” a popular term describing an endless cycle of internal competition, than older groups, who tend to report greater well-being.
At the end of the report, seven tips were offered to improve well-being, including finding joy in movement and experiencing the joy of “flow,” a state of mind psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi invented to describe when one is fully in a suitable challenge with an optimal level of difficulty, the person forgets time and themselves and becomes an organic part of the activity.
Other tips included maintaining a balanced diet; cultivating optimism and taking a proactive approach to “Neijuan”; accepting and caring for your emotions; retaining childlike curiosity; reducing screen time and being present in real life; building meaningful connections, and giving back to the community.
In an interview, Peng said the report is also aimed at showing how the Chinese perceive well-being differently from the West. The professor has more than 6.5 million followers on Chinese social media and has published 15 books and more than 300 papers in the area of positive psychology.
“The Chinese people embody a collectivist spirit, so our sense of well-being is rooted in social relationships and collective harmony. Social harmony takes precedence, and we often link our personal well-being to the well-being of our families, clans, communities and society at large,” he said.
“Westerners tend to view well-being as a personal choice, emphasizing individual achievement and self-actualization. They place greater emphasis on personal rights, freedom, independence and uniqueness. Thus, well-being stems from pursuing and achieving personal goals, valuing passion and dreams, even if it means forging ahead alone,” Peng added.
Secondly, Peng observed that the concept of personal well-being in China is closely tied to others’ evaluations. For instance, parents’ well-being largely depends on their children’s success, while children’s well-being is closely tied to their parents’ health and recognition.
“In Western societies, the self is independent, so well-being is more of an internal psychological state. While interpersonal relationships are certainly important, the ultimate responsibility for well-being still lies with the individual,” he said.
Lastly, Peng noted that well-being in the Chinese mindset is a long-term, dynamic equilibrium because of Taoist and Confucian influences, while Westerners’ take on it places greater emphasis on amplifying positive emotions, pursuing a sustained state of high positive affect through joy and contentment.
“Of course, amidst globalization, Chinese and Western perspectives on well-being are increasingly influencing each other. Today’s young Chinese are increasingly seeking new balances between family responsibilities and personal dreams, collective recognition and self-expression,” he added.
Calvin McDonald, chief executive officer of Lululemon, said the brand and Tsinghua have a shared commitment to advance well-being and foster healthier communities.
He visited the Beijing-based Tsinghua in May and was impressed by the energy on the campus as he cycled through the grounds alongside members of the Tsinghua community.
Through the Lululemon Center for Social Impact, the brand last year donated to the Tsinghua University Education Foundation, which enabled the university’s Center for Counselling and Psychological Development to continue to offer physical and mental health programs for the students.
This year, the two decided to work together to delve deeper into the research of what well-being means for Chinese people today, and how brands like Lululemon can better cater to Chinese consumers with insights gained from the report.
“The report goes beyond academic research. It’s a call to action, encouraging people to embrace active and healthy lifestyles,” McDonald said.
“By combining Tsinghua’s academic leadership with Lululemon’s global expertise in well-being and community engagement, we have a unique opportunity to unlock new pathways to support individuals’ well-being and contribute meaningfully to communities and the broader society,” he added.
In Peng’s expert eyes, socially oriented sports such as group yoga, golfing, dancing, boxing, spinning, and even China’s traditional dragon boat racing have a more pronounced and powerful effect on enhancing well-being.
“Exercise itself releases endorphins, a natural pain-relieving hormone, while social interaction releases oxytocin, a love hormone that enhances trust, belonging and emotional bonds between people while reducing feelings of loneliness. When endorphins and oxytocin combine, they create a particularly potent chemical effect in the brain that promotes happiness,” he said.
The report provides academic approval and guidance to Lululemon’s strategy in mainland China, a region that contributed $1 billion in net revenue in fiscal 2024.
San Yan Ng, managing director of Lululemon China, said the brand has been connecting itself with the idea of well-being since 2021, by hosting a series of “Wellbeing for All” events and conversations to help people explore their own path to well-being.
Now, with the report showing that the sense of well-being has been deeply rooted in the cultural DNA of the Chinese people, and that the Chinese perspectives of well-being are multifaceted, inclusive and transcendent, the brand’s fifth “Wellbeing for All” activation will see Lululemon stores across China transform into community hubs, hosting yoga, running and training activities, and hosting well-being-themed conversations with opinion leaders from various fields.
In October, Lululemon will also partner with the Los Angeles-based artist Geoff McFetridge to present the concept of a Wellbeing Playground in Shanghai.
One can argue that Lululemon has helped popularize the concept of networking during group sports activities in China since 2016. In May, the brand hosted a yoga class with more than 5,000 attendees in the Workers’ Stadium in Beijing, the biggest of its kind in China’s history.
The brand, which currently operates more than 160 stores in mainland China, has been smart about curating the right mix of ambassadors to reach different demographics in China, with director, actress, screenwriter Jia Ling, as well as singer, songwriter, actress and fashion icon Chris Lee.
Lululemon’s Chinese New Year campaigns in the past few years, featuring Lee, Academy Award-winner Michelle Yeoh, table tennis legend Ni Xialian and emerging actor Ken Wu, have also met with positive reactions for their nuanced executions, blending sportswear with functionality and Chinese sensibility.
The success of Lululemon in mainland China remains crucial, as it continues to be a bright spot for the brand amid a tough trading period in North America.
In the second quarter of 2025, ending Aug. 3, net revenues and comparable sales in mainland China grew 25 percent and 17 percent, respectively. While the Americas division saw revenues inch up 1 percent, and comparable sales drop 4 percent in the period.
