Traditional Chinese Medicine, or TCM, has lately returned to be the focus of public attention as it proved effective in preventing and curing SARS. The news has greatly heartened over 100,000 domestic and overseas students studying traditional Chinese medicine in universities around China.

In the remote southwest province of Guizhou, Zhou Wenyuan, a herbal doctor in his 50s, held a long-cherished wish that one of his two children should succeed his business and as things turned out they didn't let him down as both of them chose to be a doctor of Traditional Chinese Medicine after they had graduated from high schools.

As a radical departure from the family instruction on the medical skills handed down from their ancestors, that their father received from their grandfather, the sister and brother both went thousands of miles away to attend Beijing University of Chinese Medicine for five years. Only when back home for summer and winter vacations could they acquire knowledge on the rich medical experiences of their father.

"I might have chosen traditional Chinese medicine because of my family tradition, and I have become more and more conscious of the responsibility for me as an offspring of a family of herbalist doctors as well as a modern medical student majoring in traditional Chinese medicine," said the sister, Zhou Lu, who just passed the national graduate school admission examination.

Now in Chinese universities, over 100,000 students -- like Zhou Lu and her brother -- have chosen to study Traditional Chinese Medicine as their specialty in order to relay this ancient subject into modern society.

"The year 1949 (on October 1 of that year the People's Republic of China was founded) is a watershed for Traditional Chinese Medicine. Before that year expertise had been always privately handed down from older generations of families and masters, but afterwards all students of traditional Chinese medicine have been set to receive systematic professional training in higher education institutions," said Wang Minglai, the assistant director of the Research and Education Department of the State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine of China.

China now has 23 colleges and universities of traditional Chinese medicine, with the oldest ones among them established in 1956 in major Chinese cities of Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Chengdu. Also, some medical universities also have set up Traditional Chinese Medicine departments. These schools have trained nearly 180,000 Traditional Chinese Medicine doctors and pharmacists including over 8,000 masters and doctoral students in the past 47 years.

Zheng Shouzeng, the president of Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, said that a contemporary school of Traditional Chinese Medicine should teach basic knowledge and skills of modern medicine as well as expertise of traditional Chinese medicine.

Zhang Yi, a student of 1998 majoring in acupuncture and massage therapy in Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, said that one of the courses he considered most important was the two half-day human anatomy classes that he attended each week.

"The anatomy course makes me have more certainty about my acupuncture treatment. We are really much more fortunate than the doctors of our elder generation, who could only sting themselves for practice," said Zhang.

With the establishment of more than 20 multi-media classrooms on the campus, teachers of Beijing University of Chinese Medicine have been able to use computer-aided education technologies instead of old-fashioned teaching methodologies of purely verbal instructions, wall pictures and model demonstrations to enliven their lectures.

"It is in class that my potential in Traditional Chinese Medicine has been tapped and my interests in the subject have been steadily deepening as I pursue my study of it," said Zhou Lu's brother Zhou Qi.

"Students only lay a foundation' in undergraduate education. To be an excellent herbalist doctor, they need to accumulate experiences in medical practices and in particular, learn from veteran doctors of traditional Chinese medicine. The old-style master-apprentice instructional bond has never been belittled or abandoned," said Zhai Shuangqing, the dean of Beijing University of Chinese Medicine.

A nationwide campaign mobilizing young doctors of Traditional Chinese Medicine to learn about academic heritage from famous veteran herbalist doctors is now underway in China. The movement will take not less than three years. So far 2,243 young doctors have been found with teachers totaling over 1,600 and 1,343 of the students basically completing their study, according to Wang.

(China.org.cn by Chen Chao, July 7, 2003)