one view from China

[Guest guest]

 

 

> My question for those of you who frequent China, is this going on in

> China as well? Is there a dissatisfaction with TCM that is more a

> maturing of the medicine or is this regional? Is our interest

> because of Sharon getting interested in this and hooking Huang Huang

> up here? Are we interested in Arnaud Versluys because we have an

> interest in Shang Han Lun or was Arnaud Versluys studying SHL

> because that is the trend in China?

 

I've only spent a few years in China, so my view is correspondingly

narrow. From what I've seen, like in much of Asia, students are

required to memorize what their teachers think they should learn.

While students have some study of the classics, and can no doubt

recited entire chapters, I rather doubt that most of them are actually

puzzling through the material they way a western would. The graduate

students I've seen spend a lot of time writing notes for their

teachers and attending to managing the clinic (which is chaotic as a

bus station, just in case you have not been in a real Chinese clinic),

but they really ask questions, or think through things themselves.

They follow and copy.

 

Is Shang Han Lun popular in China like it is now becoming in the US? I

don't think so, but that being said, the serious students are always

looking for inspiring docs to study with. Huang is popular in China,

partly because he is a dynamic and interesting speaker, partly because

he is critical of the " book learning " in the schools, so if anyone has

a touch of rebel spirit they will find him interesting.

 

My understanding from discussions with Huang is that it used to be

that only the State Committee approved medicine could be taught. Some

of the stuff that he currently teaches was just a footnote in those

books, if it was mentioned at all. As China opens up economically, it

is also experiencing more openness in other areas. Medicine is one of

them, so you have people that actually can come out their own ideas,

speak them, use them and teach them. That would have been impossible

in the past.

 

Interestingly enough, Huang's Master's thesis was on the Menghe current.

 

Michael

 

 

[Guest guest]

I guess mine was a silly question. I tend to get angry when I hear about

Americans who are " cut and paste " as I suppose a Chinese would if they are

called unimaginative. But I still believe consciousness comes out of material

conditions... :-)

 

If you are a student where your future job is in the hands of departmental

bureaucrats I guess you would tend to be conservative and be satisfied to write

everything down. Chances are you are going to have a few decades on the fourth

floor of the acupuncture department to figure out the fun stuff. Or at least

that's how it was.

 

Here in the States I see my graduating students grabbing onto as much

information as possible because they've worked so hard and paid so much for that

last chance before they get out there in the world.

Americans also have to be " imaginative " in order to survive economically (or so

they think). " Imagination " is too often just marketing and that certainly isn't

limited citizens of any one country.

 

Americans learn because they are fascinated by it. We may often

be totally off base but it isn't for a lack of enthusiasm. It's gonna take those

Chinese iconoclasts like Huang and Wang who can bridge our desire for something

more than TCM as well as those " classicists " around the world to best explain

the tradition.

 

 

Doug

 

>

> I've only spent a few years in China, so my view is correspondingly

> narrow. From what I've seen, like in much of Asia, students are

> required to memorize what their teachers think they should learn.

> While students have some study of the classics, and can no doubt

> recited entire chapters, I rather doubt that most of them are actually

> puzzling through the material they way a western would. The graduate

> students I've seen spend a lot of time writing notes for their

> teachers and attending to managing the clinic (which is chaotic as a

> bus station, just in case you have not been in a real Chinese clinic),

> but they really ask questions, or think through things themselves.

> They follow and copy.

>

> Is Shang Han Lun popular in China like it is now becoming in the US? I

> don't think so, but that being said, the serious students are always

> looking for inspiring docs to study with. Huang is popular in China,

> partly because he is a dynamic and interesting speaker, partly because

> he is critical of the " book learning " in the schools, so if anyone has

> a touch of rebel spirit they will find him interesting.

>

> My understanding from discussions with Huang is that it used to be

> that only the State Committee approved medicine could be taught. Some

> of the stuff that he currently teaches was just a footnote in those

> books, if it was mentioned at all. As China opens up economically, it

> is also experiencing more openness in other areas. Medicine is one of

> them, so you have people that actually can come out their own ideas,

> speak them, use them and teach them. That would have been impossible

> in the past.

>

> Interestingly enough, Huang's Master's thesis was on the Menghe current.

>

> Michael

>

>