Interview by Southern Weekly (Nan Fang Zhou Mo 南方周末)
Sequence translated in English (from original Chinese)
When Wu Dihe (Tim Vukan´s Chinese name) first came to China in 2004, he couldn’t speak a word of Chinese. Although he had attended Chinese classes in Germany for two or three months, in real life, he seemed to only use three phrases: “Hello,” “How are you?” and “Is that his book?”
Thanks to the legalization of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) practitioners and the existing Chinese community, the number of Southeast Asian students studying TCM in China has increased significantly in recent years. Students from Europe and America are highly independent and motivated, but face the challenge of a lack of relevant job opportunities after returning home.
“The Chinese names of acupoints incorporate the romantic imagination of the ancient Chinese. For example, ‘Chize’ (尺泽穴), where ‘ze’ (泽) means a small pond in Chinese, implying ‘abundant vital energy.’ If a patient is weak, tonifying can be applied here to stop coughing and clear phlegm. However, after coding, the original acupoint names have disappeared,” Chen Wentian said with regret.
“The internationalization of TCM still relies on hard power, which is clinical efficacy. Secondly, we need to use various channels to help more foreign friends understand the principles of TCM, helping the international community move from ‘understanding’ to ‘accepting’ and then to ‘recognizing’ TCM.”
Go on read the original interview in Chinese
