Chinese Turning to Occult to Fight SARS By AUDRA ANG:

While China's government promotes science, thousands of its people are turning to the supernatural to fight SARS.

The resort to tradition has prompted efforts by China's state press and the officially atheist communist government to discourage it...Scores of believers gather at temples or the sorcerer's home, kneeling in prayer before lighted incense and candles. Some burn fake money as an offering to the gods.

He Dazhi, a reporter for the newspaper Sanxiang Metropolitan News, wrote that believers are asked to bow to spiritual scrolls or a statue of Buddha. Gongs or drums occasionally accompany the ceremony...

Farmers and urban residents in the provinces of Anhui in the east, Guangdong in the south and Fujian in the southeast are lighting firecrackers, long used to chase away evil spirits, according to police.

They also are consuming a sugary elixir of boiled mung beans meant to keep the virus away.

The ideas stemmed from a rumor about a baby who purportedly spoke immediately after birth and said firecrackers and "green bean soup" could prevent infection, said an official at Anhui Provincial Public Security Bureau, who would give only his surname, He.

This is not entirely new. And "green bean" is a literal translation of "mung bean" (l� dou). I hate it when journalists do that. Meanwhile, in Taiwan, More turning to herbs for protection by Amber Wang:

Honeysuckle flowers, woad root, pineapple and garlic.

These are just a few of the much sought-after tonics amidst the outbreak of SARS as more people are turning to traditional and alternative remedies to fight off the deadly virus.

And in China, they also go for kimchee, as Brainysmurf mentioned.