During our two months back-packing through China in 1996- where we didn’t see The Great Wall or the Terra Cotta Warriors, or any other popular major sites- we had the opportunity to demonstrate our work at the huge Chengdu Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital.
This came about after a nice man at a little restaurant introduced himself in excellent English, saying ‘hello My name is Robert, and I am very interesting.’ This was, of course ‘very interesting,’ so we invited him to sit and tells us why. He told us he was available to take us anywhere we wanted to go and, after enquiring as to our profession, jumped at the chance to offer us a visit to the huge Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital where he would translate for us. Price for the service negotiated and we were off to the hospital.
We got to see the huge pharmacy where patients took their scripts. There were hundreds of draws filled with all manner of plant, insect or animal bits from which the prescriptions were filled.
The doctors there in two bodywork departments proved extremely interested in what we were doing, initially being pretty sceptical, after all, as one lady doctor (through our interpreter) said “what can Australians show us about bodywork?”
She showed us what she was teaching – a form of acupressure using brass implements – so we asked if we could show her what we did. “If you must,” she said with a condescending laugh. Lisa did a quick shoulder and arm treatment on her, through heavy clothing, and her attitude changed hugely.
She kept us talking for ages about what we did until we felt a bit guilty about her students just hanging about bored in the background and suggested she’d better get back to them. Then she confided with a sheepish look – “don’t say I said this, but the almighty made us all equal – we are all the same – and we (her and us) are fortunate because we are able to help people.”
We then went to the traditional massage department where I worked on a doctor. They too were fascinated and were most interested in the neck and jaw work we did. It was a lovely enlightening experience.
We got back to our hotel that night late to find a message from the Traditional Chinese Medicine University asking us to contact them about giving demonstrations there. Unfortunately, we were unable to accept as we’d booked a flight to Lhasa at 5am next morning and when we came back from Tibet a couple of weeks later I was ill (from the after-effects of oxygen deprivation and an abscessed tooth) and all I wanted to do was die. But it was nice that we’d had a positive impact at the hospital; enough of an impact for them to create interest at the uni. And who knows what might have come of that.
