By popular demand from friends back home, I've decided to start blogging (like the general population) about my 1-month adventure in Shanghai. So here I am in my tiny but live-able hotel room I call home on LinglingLu (Lingling road) with my lifeline, my soulmate, my entertainment center and saviour - My MacNotebook.
But back to the title of my first blog ever. No kidding. It's a syndrome....and the type of concept I have been trying to cope with and grasp in the past week.
Since my arrival in Shanghai, I've been thrown into the (concrete) jungle where the roots run deep, I usually struggle (very hard) to locate back home. From speaking mandarin to peeing in doorless public toilets. Yes, we're talking mainland China.
Being trained in western
medicine and one of what they call Xiang-Jiao-Ren 香蕉人. I find myself lost yet bamboozled by this archaic concept of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). So why am I doing this? Anyone who knows me know the 香蕉人 that I am: Studied only 4 years (+ 2 years of Kindy but that hardly counts!) in a Chinese school, until mumsy decided to transfer me to a english-malay medium school for she KNEW I'd fail the Chinese exams and get retained a year before senior school. (yes, that's the kind of 香蕉人 I am). I can hardly read 2 out of 10 words of Chinese.
But back to the question: Why am I doing this? I don't know really. I'm here to learn acupuncture which I've always been interested in acupuncture. But I had no idea they'd make me sit through these bizarre lessons where they brainwash me into thinking the spleen is responsible for digestion, and the anatomical spleen in TCM is not really the spleen in the left hypochondrium in western medicine; and that excess sexual activity will injure the kidney qi (wtf?), resulting in weakness of the lumbar region and knee joints, dizziness, and... tinnitus?!
Oh and damp heat of the liver and the aforementioned spleen is the aetiological factor for middle ear infections. That and much more weirdo concepts have been on my mind in the past 3 days. (Well that and which direction should I head for my next adventure up the metropolitan after class.)
All said and done, whatever weirdo concepts of the human body and illnesses these ancient emperors and sifoos have come up with, lets face it, Chinese medicine have been around since Barney's ancestors were still normal coloured. Not to mention, they still has the highest population in the world despite the once upon a time "one family one child" rule, which means that Chinese medicine has played an important role in maintaining the population!
And as for me, it's about time I ripen as a banana, and understand the art of super-poking, get the stagnant qi's flow and find out where my ancestors hid the spleen!
p.s. doors have been installed in most toilets in major cities in China now. *wink*
hahaha super poke
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