Ni Hao,
Again, apologies for my long silence. Lots to tell...
I'm sitting at my computer on a friday evening, drinking tea, eating toast from the stall outside, and listening to late junction (I love online radio!). It's getting quite cold now; this morning I left the flat at 7.30 and the world outside was bathed in clean, clear sharp sunlight; the trees are starting to lose their leaves and were covered in a thin layer of frost, and there was something magical about the light reflecting off the hordes of cyclists meandering down Xueyuan Lu. I stopped to buy a pancake for breakfast on the way, and ate it sitting by the canal, watching a group of elderly men and women taking part in a morning fan dance, complete with a portable tape player. Often, in the morning, there are groups practising Tai Chi, dancing, drumming, and singing, which is really lovely to see - old age here is a whole nother kettle of fish. We started at a new hospital this week, the China-Japan Friendship Hospital (Zhong Ri Yiyuan), which is bigger and grander, and a whole 45 minutes cycle ride away- great on a day like today, but when the famous Beijing dusty winds kick in, time to dive for a taxi! Outside the flat right now are lots of little glowing stalls with people huddled round for warmth, serving everything from spicy tofu to grilled aubergine to freshly made popcorn - you can have your food grilled, barbecued or boiled in a big hotpot as you wish, and come home with a meal for 5 quai (35p). Needless to say, I'm becoming addicted to this way of eating - it's also a fun way to interact with the community and the popcorn man never fails to chuckle when he sees us coming! I'm slowly beginning realise that you could quite happily live without ever actually leaving the complex- i keep discovering new things, like hidden enormous vegetable shops. This is what I like best about Beijing - not the largeness but the smallness, the way it is like a set of Russian dolls and everything has something else hidden inside, if you will only have a look.
I guess this way of living stems from the time that everybody lived in the old hutongs, and it was necessary to live very much together. There are, well, really a lot of people in China... I can never get used to the sheer volume of humanity in Beijing, and the way of living is naturally far more collective than the West. One of the doctors, Dr. Zhang, was talking to us about the difference in western and eastern sensibilities the other day. He said, in Europe you each have your own plate of food, whilst in china we all eat from the same one. There are advantages and disadvantages to both. He was using this to explain the method of studying TCM, but it applies to a lot of what we see. The patients, for example, are completely uninhibited about seeing a doctor with students and multiple onlookers present, and appear, on the whole, pretty uncomplaining. I've never seen ill people smile so much! And if you catch their eye, they will always grin back, or crack a joke. People here seem far less wrapped up in their own personal absorptions and problems.
Otherwise, life is going on as usual..I joined the Beijing Hikers club, who go for hikes in the mountains outside Beijing every weekend, which is wonderful to be able to get out of the city for a day. It's difficult to walk on your own here, as detailed maps are banned, reserved for use by military only (yes, they're paranoid..), and most easy-to get to places are filled with throngs of chinese tourists. The group, organised by an energetic Beijing girl named Huijie, takes groups along wild paths they've found themselves. I've been on 3 walks so far, two of which were along pretty hillside paths, valleys, through villages complete with farmers and goats, and stunning views of autumnal coloured trees. Then last Saturday, I, accompanied by Matt who stayed with us for a few days en route to New Zealand overland (oh yes, he so beats me!), decided to tackle the 15km Great Wall walk. Now, this may not sound like much, but when it's 7 hours of walking up steps..and down steps..and up..and really far up...and all the way down, we were completely jelly legged by the end! But it lived up to all expectations- it truly is extraordinary, a long line of grey stoned towers reaching into the morning mist in a distinctly lord of the rings - esque fashion (helped by matt's excellent gandalf impressions..). I just started reading a fascinating book entitled 'The Great Wall: China against the world' which I really ought to stop watching Desperate Housewives (to which Lorena and I are completely addicted..) and get into, so next time maybe I'll be able to tell you lots of fascinating historical snippets..At one point, we had to cut across the mountains with the help of a local farmer due to a heavily armed military post. There certainly appears to be a strong military presence aroung beijing, but I have no idea how this compares to England, for example. It's also noticeable dry - water shortage is a big problem, and the desert is getting closer every day - there's something really sad about seeing villages built around dried-out rivers. Just an hour or two from Beijing, the contrast in lifestyles couldn't be bigger.
We're 8 weeks into the placement now..so far it's been 2 weeks in..the 'foreign' department, 2 weeks in Neurology (I already told you about these), then 1 week in Respiratory (of which, unfortunately, I only experienced 1 day due to catching all the patients' diseases on the first day and then spending the rest of the week in bed!), then 2 weeks in Cardiology and Gerontology (old people), and now, one week in Acupuncture.
Generally, it's all going along very nicely. The patients continue to be varied and interesting - with all sorts of conditions and methods of treatment. Each doctor has their own remedies and methods, and of course each patient is considered individually. I think that it could be easy to look critically at the diagnostic methods and say that they are not in-depth enough, but that would, in my view, be a very foolish assumption that disregards the vast experience of the hospital doctors. Also, the combination with Western medical methods, paticularly imaging (MRI, CT, Xray etc) and the knowledge of conventional drug therapy when necessary, makes the treatment highly effective. I found a quote the other day, from a book on blood stasis, which sums up the philosophy for me, and kind of what I believe myself:
'Integrated medicine (Zhong Xi Yi He Jie) objectively applies methods from both disciplines [conventional Western medicine and traditional Chinese medicine] to find the ideal treatment for the particular type of disease. It is truly a 'holistic' medicine, because it does not reject any therapies, and chooses the most pragmatic way without following any dogma.'
(Gunter R. Neeb)
The doctors have been as kind and patient as ever; as well as the ones I've already mentioned, Dr. Cheng Wei Wei from Gerontology was very lovely, and never failed to make jokes and try hard to explain things to us. She must have been in her late 50's but had an incredible youthfulness and energy- after she'd finished treating patients for the day, she'd go off to Tsinghua university for her English lessons, staying until late in the evening, explaining that what she liked to do best was to study. The doctors work so hard here - and still manage to maintain good humour and patience. If you show you are enthusiastic, they will go out of their way to be helpful. On our last day in Gerontology, we asked Dr. Cheng to show us the pharmacy- she not only did this, complete with giant vats of boiling herbs a la Hogwarts, but whisked us around half thewhospital, introducing us to loads of doctors, nurses, and research students, all of who seemed to be her best friend, and wanted their pictures taken with us..She even took us inside the research labs, where people with wild hair (well, one at least) worked away on giant computers and murmered darkly about genetics...
Some of the acupuncture doctors we have met in the Zhongri this week have been brilliant as well: there was the afternoon session with Dr. Xu Rong-dong who taught us about Chinese needle technique (none of this guide tube nonsense here - it's all about finger strength!) and discussed the concept of Shen in needling and the necessity of cultivating one's own harmonious internal state. There was Dr. Zhang, who explained why it's so hard for us to grasp the Chinese way of learning - first you learn and remember, then understand (oh yes, I've heard that before [sigh]) - also that you cannot expect to get all your questions answered. The best away is to think about it yourself. This can potentially be frustrating. For example, this afternoon when there were hardly any patients, Dr. Zhang treated Marga, a group member, for neck pain. He inserted a needle either side of her knuckle, which immediately relieved it. He had invented this technique himself, which he discovered by chance one day by pressing points on a friend's hand after she had hurt herself. But why it worked? Well that was something we had to figure out for ourselves. Chinese medicine thinking is all about flexibility, about thinking in different ways in different directions, of finding contradictions and not being worried by them, of accepting that there is no set answer and no linear logic. Which basically means that everybody will give you a different answer! Most of the time is leaves you feeling pretty stupid, and feeling that you know nothing but I guess that's all part of the process. Everyone has something to teach you, if you are only willing, at least that's my opinion...
I have so much admiration and respect for the doctors here, they're the kind of people I've wanted to meet for a long time, and their knowledge and gentleness is truly inspiring. The students too- the amount of work they put it puts us to shame, although granted, it's an entirely different lifestyle - you live at the university, eat in the canteen, and spend the rest of the time in class or under supervision - so unlike the often difficult balance of study, work, social life, looking after oneself etc etc that being a student in britain seems to entail. But, when you throw into the balance a whole load of westerners who act in a way which is basically, to my mind, totally disrespectful - not bothering to turn up, not being interested but instead choosing to be critical - it certainly makes you feel embarrassed to be European. Which brings me to the issue which has slightly been dominating life lately. It's an interesting ethical dilemma.
Basically, it goes something like this- members of my group, being generally pretty enthusiastic had, including myself, been growing steadily more annoyed with the tendancy of a certain proportion of the class not turning up regularly (technically, in order to get our degree from BUCM - Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, we have to attend 100% of the placement) and being really negative about it all, not to mention going to all sorts of pathetically sneaky measures to make it appear that they had actually attended. So a decision was reached to contact our head of course in the UK and explain what was going on, as, ethically, this did not seem to be acceptable. Due to all sorts of reasons that i don't want to go into now, i found myself incredibly torn on this issue, which although i totally agreed with in principle, after several days of agonizing, decided I could not be part of p- despite my personal opinion, I could see a lot of different points of view and implications and people more involved than myeself being affected, which is maybe a bit wishy-washy sitting on the fence but there you go. But it went ahead anyway, and now, unsurprisingly, WWIII is now truly underway within the class and i'm counting the days until I'm rid of all their pettiness for ever. Did that sound bitter? It wasn't meant to be, but there's nothing like a small dispute to bring out the worst in people. I'm totally happy with my little group and have a few other good friends, including my lovely flatmate of course, but, as I said, in comparison to the kind of people we're surrounded by, embarassing embarassing embarassing. But then, i really don't want to be self righteous as this is not the right motivation at all, and is every bit as arrogant. However, it's all a big learning experience in itself...
But enough of that, and back to the present. I'm liking beijing better and better as it gets colder - the smog has disappeared mostly to be replaced with lovely clear autumn days, and things become gradually more familiar. China, like Chinese medicine, is to me one big mass of contradictions. People are so friendly and helpful- and yet I have been told that this doesn't last, that is hard to get beneath the surface and nothing comes for free. Whether this is true, i don't know. You can get anything, anywhere- and yet the workmanship is so shoddy that it quickly falls apart. The recycling system is wonderful, but the amount of over-packaging and plastic bags used for absolutely everything is crazy. Food is revered, but is full of chemicals - our teacher even warned us not to eat unpeeled vegetables due to the high pesticide content. There is enormous wisdom, but surprising blinkered-ness the few times I've managed to bring up politics, I'm shocked at how indoctrinated people seem to be - one of the doctors the other day said that government is like cooking a small pancake - you don't want to turn it too often or it will break. A fair enough point- but in defence of a repressive one-party state with an appalling human rights method? We were talking to an expat Chinese man visiting from the US, and I noticed that when he said words like 'democracy' he noticeably hushed his voice. In a hospital room, in English. Says it all really. We have no idea of what's really going on beneath the surface. The government is apparently committed to 'cleaning up' the environment, especially beijing in preparation for the Olympics - and yet pollution is worse than ever. China's speedy development combined with the recent awareness of global environmental issues has created an unprecedented problem, and tehre are no easy answers. A recent NY times article comments thus:
'But just as the speed and scale of China’s rise as an economic power have no clear parallel in history, so its pollution problem has shattered all precedents. Environmental degradation is now so severe, with such stark domestic and international repercussions, that pollution poses not only a major long-term burden on the Chinese public but also an acute political challenge to the ruling Communist Party.
Public health is reeling. Pollution has made cancer China’s leading cause of death, the Ministry of Health says. Ambient air pollution alone is blamed for hundreds of thousands of deaths each year. Nearly 500 million people lack access to safe drinking water.
Chinese cities often seem wrapped in a toxic gray shroud. Only 1 percent of the country’s 560 million city dwellers breathe air considered safe by the European Union.
Environmental woes that might be considered catastrophic in some countries can seem commonplace in China: industrial cities where people rarely see the sun; children killed or sickened by lead poisoning or other types of local pollution; a coastline so swamped by algal red tides that large sections of the ocean no longer sustain marine life.
China is choking on its own success. The economy is on a historic run, posting a succession of double-digit growth rates. But the growth derives, now more than at any time in the recent past, from a staggering expansion of heavy industry and urbanization that requires colossal inputs of energy, almost all from coal, the most readily available, and dirtiest, source.
“It is a very awkward situation for the country because our greatest achievement is also our biggest burden,” says Wang Jinnan, one of China’s leading environmental researchers. “There is pressure for change, but many people refuse to accept that we need a new approach so soon.”
Indeed, Britain, the United States and Japan polluted their way to prosperity and worried about environmental damage only after their economies matured and their urban middle classes demanded blue skies and safe drinking water.
But China is more like a teenage smoker with emphysema. The costs of pollution have mounted well before it is ready to curtail economic development. But the price of business as usual — including the predicted effects of global warming on China itself — strikes many of its own experts and some senior officials as intolerably high.
“Typically, industrial countries deal with green problems when they are rich,” said Ren Yong, a climate expert at the Center for Environment and Economy in Beijing. “We have to deal with them while we are still poor. There is no model for us to follow.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/26/world/asia/26china.html?_r=2&oref=slogin&oref=slogin
So...I'll leave you there, as my eyes are closing and my bed is calling...oh yeah, you can see I'm living it up over here! After all these confusing conundrums, here is a little Taoism to help us along:
'Let us not be confused
With kaleidoscopic reality
Using wisdom and courage to act
Let us not add to the confusion'
And
'At first, form is needed
Then doubt and inhibition must be dispelled
Eventually, form is celebrated with joy
And expression becomes formless'
Oh yes, it's all about yin and yang, baby...
Back soon, i hope with more meanderings...so..goodnight!