Chongqing Traditional Chinese Medicine Geared up to go Global

□ Article / Journalist Tang Gang Tr. by Lei Jing

Chongqing Traditional Chinese Medicine Geared up to go Global

□ Article / Journalist Tang Gang Tr. by Lei Jing

Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) goes down well in foreign countries as it is geared up to go global, and in turn, its popularity accelerates the export of Chongqing TCM.

Strengthened Exchange

As one of the natural sciences with independent intelligence property in China, acupuncture and moxibustion took the lead to be introduced to the rest of the world. Liu Guangrui comes from Chongqing and is the inheritor of the Liu’s acupuncture and healing therapy. He is one of the three people that fall under the category of acupuncture on the list of national intangible cultural heritage. Liu takes acupuncture and fi re heating as the skills for treatment. Since 1990s, he has been working to introduce the therapy worldwide.Tom, the director of Poland Pavilion at the 2010 Shanghai World Expo, visited Liu Guangrui on the first day in the “Chongqing week”. Liu asked Tom that whether he had bad sleeps with much dream and suffered from insomnia. Tom nodded approvingly.Liu advised an acupuncture therapy when he had a thorough knowledge of Tom’s symptom. After an instant treatment, Tom felt completely refreshed, which surprised him greatly. The Expo has introduced the Chongqing acupuncture therapy to the rest of China,as well as the rest of world.

In 2013, Liu went to Mexico to communicated his systematic research on TCM and inherited acupuncture therapy. The Department of Medicine and Homeopathy in Instituto Nacional Politecnico is the fi rst Mexican organization to train professional TCM talents.It was as early as in 1984 that the department and Beijing University of Chinese Medicine sent exchange teachers, students and researchers to each other.

At first, Instituto Nacional Politecnico refused the proposal made by the Chinese embassy to schedule a speech on TCM. So did La Universidad Autnoma Metropolitana. Professor Liu ultimately delivered his speech at museums and communities. Much to his surprise, some teachers from the two universities also came to his lectures and were greatly impressed. Then he was invited to the schools where two hundred and more people attended his lecture, some even having no seat. The minister of the Education Department was there too, inviting Liu to deliver an acupuncture treatment on his aching waist on the spot as a way to demonstrate the therapy to the audience. Liu agreed.When he was doing that, he explained meticulously to the audience who were looking attentively at him.

The live demonstration and Liu’s sound theoretical basis gave people a good impression. The subsequent speech in La Universidad Autnoma Metropolitana also aroused strong echoes and put the Mexican exchange to the climax.

Liu had academic exchanges with scholars in countries like Germany, the United States, Britain, Thailand, and Benin in West Africa, all resonating strongly. In Benin,Liu explained the TCM way to preserve health after a research on the component of compacted lunch in combination with the analyses of local climate,water and earth conditions. The embassy received inundated phone calls to get more information after Liu’s speech. More and more overseas TCM researchers and fanciers come to Chongqing to study the therapy. Francesco was one of them. Liu took the Mexican young man as his student, then gave him the instruments and book to learn the acupuncture and healing therapy of the Liu family. The following foreign visitors, however, were declined with thanks.

Demonstration of the “Soft Power” of Chongqing TCM

Chongqing is the home to a large number of TCM masters and is the city where Wu Zhuoxian, Ling Yikui and Ren Yingqiu once worked. Ma Youdu, a 81-yearold chief expert in instructing TCM health preservation with State Department special allowance, is a TCM scientist, a member of Chongqing TCM Advisory Body and honorary chairman of Chongqing TCM Association.Many of his books are in fl uential and serve as bridges to bring TCM to the rest of the world when translated in multiple languages and widely distributed in overseas countries.

A new interpretation of Chinese Medicine Prescription written by Ma, for example, have been cited by the Japanese work An interpretation of Traditional Chinese Medicine Prescription as the first original Chinese reference book. An Elementary Introduction to the Essence of Traditional Chinese Medicine edited by Ma was published by Taiwan-based Zhiyin Press in traditional Chinese. In 1983, he wrote his first TCM book, Home Adviser on Traditional Chinese Medicine,which was awarded as an excellent piece of science popularization. It later attracted a Japanese Medicine Doctor who visited Ma in Chongqing in attempt to be authorized to deliver a Japanese version of the work. He fi nished the translation in his 70s and had it serialized on the magazine of Research on Chinese Medicine Prescription since 1989. And at the same time, the book was published in traditional Chinese by Taiwan Newton Press. Do a Good Job to Popularize Traditional Chinese Medicine edited by Ma was also awarded as an excellent Chinese piece of science popularization. His efforts play an important role in promoting Chinese culture in overseas countries and regions, as well as in introducing Chongqing and Chinese medicine to the rest of the world. At present,Ma put the essence of the Chinese health preservation and up-to-date health care knowledge in his new work Live a Healthy and Happy Life for a Hundred Years,which has a third edition now and has been reprinted nine times. Some press has offered to translate the book to other countries with the aid of One Belt and One Road Initiative.

Some of the books that were written by Liu Guangrui have translations in different languages and are in fl uential too. For example, Chinese Folk Prescription has a Korean translation, and Chinese Folk Therapy of Children Diseases has a traditional Chinese version.

It is reported that the prescriptions in Chinese Folk Prescription are necessary and useful Chinese medicine knowledge. The book even has a great influence among Korean readers. Few years ago, a Korean publisher happened to meet Liu at an invention meeting in Shanghai. He learned all the information about the book at Liu’s exhibition booth and asked that if it was written by Liu. He got an af fi rmative answer.Then he said that the the book had been reedited several times and its prescriptions had been necessary for Korean families.

You may remember the Korean movie Dae Jang Geum, which mentioned many prescriptions to keep healthy. “Some of them are extracted from my book, such as the usage of peach kernel, radish and chrysanthemum tea,” said Liu Guangrui.

“It is impossible to explain to everyone by myself. A book, therefore, as a vehicle that can reach far and wide is the first step of our mission. Promoting TCM must be under the guidance of Huangdi Neijing and the Book of Changes. That is the foundation for cultural exchanges. TCM is a science about human life, so improved medical skills and sound theoretic basis are of the same importance. We not only emphasize the effect of treatment, but also value the exchange of TCM theories,” added Liu.

Thriving Overseas TCM Industry

Deriving from a time-honored prescription, Ageratumliquid was listed as a typical product that has a history of 30 years in Pharmacopoeia of People's Republic of China. Chongqing Taiji Ageratum Vital Qi Liquid, a reformed product of ageratum liquid, has better effect and is going global at an ever increasing speed.

Ageratum-liquid is a wide-used medicine for cold,especially the cold caused by summer heat. Southeast Asia, South Asia, South America, and Africa promise huge markets for the medicine. In the past two years,Taiji Group has been exploring markets in Southeast Asia and has been granted selling license by Thailand,Malaysia and Indonesia. It invited a famous Thailand movie star as its brand image spokesman in the region.In 2017, Chongqing Taiji Ageratum Vital Qi Liquid generated a sales volume of 1500 million. In the same period, the registering procedures of the product were completed in ten Southeast Asia countries, of which Indonesia contributed a sales volume of 20 million for the first time, said Bai Lixi, director of Chongqing Pharmaceutical Profession Association and chairman of the board of Taiji Group. The Group sets long-term goals: by 2020, to sell 400 million pieces of product, up to 2000 million yuan and make Thailand, Singapore,Indonesia, Malaysia and Laos the international demonstration markets; by 2027, to market Ageratum Vital Qi Liquid in at least 50 countries and regions;by 2037, to achieve an annual revenue of 20 trillion,making Ageratum Vital Qi Liquid the first Chinese traditional medicine that sold all over the world.

(Pictures are provided by the respondents.)