TCM gains ground
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Bryan Anker had spent three years learning Chinese before he came to Linfen. |
The clinic also provides training sessions for foreigners who are interested in TCM.
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Australian Alex Tan has been living and working in China since 2005.
Holding a degree from Australia in both engineering and TCM, he runs Straight Bamboo TCM clinic and a spa in Beijing's hip Sanlitun area, and a TCM practice at The Hutong, an expat-run Chinese cultural center in the heart of Beijing.
"The key focus of TCM is about learning how we can live in accordance with nature to avoid illness and disease," he says.
Li Xiaoli, director of international student affairs at the Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, says as TCM gains more acceptance outside China, the university has seen an increase in international students.
Currently, the university has more than 1,000 international students from all over the world, Li says.
Malaysian Tou Yingxiang is one of them.
He has studied TCM for five years in China, and will continue to study for three more years.
He likes TCM because it is a distinguished practice that not only treats health conditions, but also emphasizes the body's ability to heal, and provides a profound preventive lifestyle perspective to health maintenance.
Tou says more of his friends have become interested in TCM, especially those with Chinese origins, and he hopes to get a position in a Chinese public hospital after he graduates, because he wants to learn more about TCM from top experts there.
Most international students in the university opt to go home to practice TCM, according to Huang Yunyu, deputy director with the International Clinic of Dongzhimen Hospital, which is affiliated to the university.
As for Brigitte Winklehner, the Austrian, she has been bringing together scientists in China and Austria to research TCM mechanisms and efficiency, to promote the ancient practice using new scientific evidence.
