Must we be literate in Chinese to be good CHM/AP practitioners?

[Guest guest]

Hi Alon, Ken, et al,

 

I have sung dumb for some time on the question of whether or not

CHM herbalists need to be able to read Chinese. Alon's mail

prompts a response.

 

He wrote:

> Ken ... No one is saying that it is not good and needed to know

> the meaning of the words... the argument and question is can you

> only learn their meaning through the study of Chinese, or can

> somebody explain these meanings. As i said to me its a question of

> risk and reward.

 

Ken, IMO, it is desirable, if not essential, that senior teachers and

writers on CHM be able to research their material in written and

spoken Chinese. Every school & formal training course in CHM

should have at least one teacher fluent in Chinese.

 

However, IMO, Alon speaks for most western members of the CHM

profession. Most of us are illliterate in Chinese, and the effort and

time needed to bring us up to speed could, IMO, be better spent

learning from good teachers, and reading (in our own languages)

good texts - whether written by experienced clinicians, or by

Chinese scholars.

 

I look forward to the day when CHA, or some other leader in the

field, will compile and make available detailed lists of the Chinese

terminology, WITH their western translation.

 

I do NOT accept that Chinese MUST be an inscrutible or

undecipherable language and that their unique theories/paradigms

and terminology cannot be translated into meaningful terms in our

own languages.

 

What we need are top-class communicators and for scholars like

Wiseman et al (and the names mentioned in CHA for several

weeks now) to have their writings digitised and easily searchable.

 

Then, we could use the Pinyin terms in discussion, referring back,

if necessary, to the digitised files for their meanings.

 

Bob, Ken, Z'ev, Emmanuel, Jason, et al, how long must we

wait for top class digitised material?

 

I had hoped that rapid advances in translation software might have

us further down the road to understanding by now. Clearly, we have

a long way to go yet. Though I find Wenlin an eyeopener, it is far to

slow for routine use by people like me, an illiterate in Chinese.

 

So, Ken, I wish that I could read Chinese, but I am what I am and

must get on with AP and herbalism as best I can. At 61, I do not

see much point in slogging to learn Chinese to the extent

necessary for me to do my own translations of modern (not to

mention classical) Chinese texts.

 

Bob, any sign of a digital version of Wiseman's Dictionary on the

horizon? IMO, we need the glossaries, the synonyms, and their

translations in digital form ASAP.

 

Who will do it, said the Little Red Hen?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Best regards,

 

Email: <

 

WORK : Teagasc Research Management, Sandymount Ave., Dublin 4, Ireland

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[Guest guest]

There are two things that drive the market for such things: demand and

capitalization.

 

There must be a perceived need for such material, and that needs to

come from the professional CM community. Since the demand is not great

at this time, educating our own students and fellow practitioners is

where demand can be built.

 

Secondly, capitalization of online databases and archives has to come

from a surplus of funds to support these things, or interested venture

capitalists. These resources do not seem to be available at this time.

 

This is very unfortunate, considering the vast funding, contributions

and government support given to all types of biomedical research and

data bases.

 

Such capitalization can also improve the accuracy and quality of

research and clinical trials in Chinese medicine.

 

 

On Oct 27, 2003, at 1:52 PM, wrote:

 

> Bob, Ken, Z'ev, Emmanuel, Jason, et al, how long must we

> wait for top class digitised material?

>

> I had hoped that rapid advances in translation software might have

> us further down the road to understanding by now. Clearly, we have

> a long way to go yet. Though I find Wenlin an eyeopener, it is far to

> slow for routine use by people like me, an illiterate in Chinese.