Meeting of the Zheng Da Chinese Medicine Club

Today, I attended the first meeting of the Chinese Medicine Club at Zhengda. It is a student group that meets to learn about traditional medicine, inviting teachers to speak and visiting local clinics.

The teacher walks in to the classroom, a Chinese man in his mid-fifties. About fifteen of us are in our seats, ready for the lecture, entitled, "A General Outline of Chinese Medicine", to begin. He asks whether any of us has studied Chinese Medicine. No one has.

Except Mr. Waiguoren (that's Mandarin for me, a foreigner).

He asks me to stand up and introduce myself. In Chinese, I tell the class my name and that I studied Chinese Medicine in the States and that I just got my license. He smiles and thinks this is funny, as does everyone here when they learn I have studied Chinese Medicine in the States.

He gives a basic lecture on the basics of Chinese Medicine--yin/yang, five elements. He writes it all on the board and compares the traditional characters they use in Taiwan with the simplified characters used on the mainland. A lot of meaning is lost, and it's a shame.

He starts to explain the location of the points on the Lung channel and bleeds a point on his thumb (LU-1) for the class. Amazingly, I understand about 80% of the lecture. It is so cool to hear the words that I've learned in Chinese class and the Chinese medical terminology I learned in acupuncture school, here in a class on Chinese Medicine in Taiwan.

I don't know if I can explain the feeling, but it is sort of like watching yourself drive in slow motion soon after you learn how to drive. In slow motion, you press the clutch, shift into gear, push the accelerator, you look at the display, you signal left, you apply the breaks. And, lo and behold, you are driving.

I help the girl next to me locate a point on the Lung channel ("I lived in San Jose for a year when I was little," she says), and then as we go through the channel, I get up and help some of the confused students. Our teacher gives me the go-ahead with a gesture of his hand.

My first lecture on Chinese Medicine, in Chinese! At the end of class, the organizer asks me if I can tutor the class. I tell her my Chinese is pretty bad, but she says it is okay.

As usual, everyone is extremely warm.