He checks the pulse of his patients using traditional pressure
points, and writes out meticulous prescriptions in Chinese.
His Spartan clinic located in Hangzhou's He Fang Road, in
Shangcheng District, has no computer or other modern gizmos.
Instead, there are pens and paper and a Chinese book, entitled
Shijinmo Pair Herbs.
The man at the center of all this is a TCM doctor. But
what makes him stand out is that Greg Livingston, 38, is an
American. He is the first Westerner to be granted a license to work
as a TCM physician in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province.
?
Greg Livingston attends
to a young patient in his clinic in Hangzhou of Zhejiang
Province.
Livingston not only dispenses traditional medicines, but is also
working towards a PhD in TCM at Zhejiang Chinese Medicine
University, pouring over texts full of archaic Chinese.
"The reason I'm in China is for the culture," says Livingston.
"I appreciate traditional cultures around the world. They have much
more meaning than most modern cultures."
Childhood interest
But the road to learning has not been easy and it has taken
Livingston more than 12 years of hard work to reach here.
TCM has long been the number one passion in his life.
Unsurprisingly, he grew up in New China Town, San Francisco. He
had many Chinese friends as a child and consequently developed an
interest in Chinese culture food and philosophy at first and later,
traditional medicine.
After earning a Bachelor's degree in Biology in 1990, he began
to study for his Master's in Chinese Medicine at a US university in
1994.
However, Livingston soon realized how futile it was to study TCM
in English.
"Over 99 percent of TCM literature is in Chinese," he says.
"There is a growing number of books in English, but far from the
best material."
"Traditional Chinese Medicine is so deep and complicated that
any serious study of it has to include Chinese. You cannot be a
great doctor if you do not know Chinese. It's that simple."
Livingston sees his four-year Master's program as the beginning
of his quest. He followed it by studying Chinese language and TCM
in China for two years, between 1998 and 1999.
Livingston moved to Hangzhou in 2004 accompanied by his Chinese
wife, who graduated from the Peking Traditional Chinese Medicine
University, and found employment at the Hangzhou North American
International Hospital.
Building trust
Most of Livingston's clients are expatriates. For those
interested in TCM but with limited Chinese vocabulary, Livingston
helps bridge the gap.
"Most foreigners know nothing about TCM," he says. "They demand
explanations for their symptoms, as do many Chinese people."
"What I noticed in China is that people are used to being given
little explanation, often as little as 10 minutes, by doctors who
have to see a large number of patients everyday and don't have the
time to go into details.
"However, I think communication is extremely important when you
are dealing with medical problems. I therefore try to spend a
substantial amount of time explaining their condition to my
patients.
"This is something I want to do, and have to do," he adds.
Livingston says he spends about one hour with his patients on
their first visit to his clinic, so as to understand them
better.
Once he has identified the patient's condition, and understood
the history of their illness, he presents the results of his
diagnosis to his patient, along with possible treatments. "But," he
says, "I let the patient decide."
He admits that the reason he does not have many Chinese patients
is partly because he is not as old as some experienced TCM doctors,
whom the public greatly trust, and partly because he is a
foreigner.
"I do know my level is still far below those elderly TCM
doctors, but I am not that bad," he says, smiling. "I have had more
than 10 years clinical experience in TCM."
Livingston's physical examination follows much the same routine
as experienced TCM doctors, and his excellent Mandarin enables him
to understand every word spoken by his patients.
However, body language is still required in some cases, he
says.
For instance, when he asked a Chinese patient whether she always
dreamed about being chased by a tiger, he pretended to be the wild
animal, flaying his arms around to help her understand his
question.
When asked the difference between TCM and Western medicine he
says: "There are many, but most importantly, TCM views the body as
an organic whole, and considers the entire body in diagnosis and
treatment, whereas Western medicine lacks a complete holistic
understanding and thus tends to focus only on the 'diseased' part
of the body.
"Also TCM is an empirical science, the product of several
thousand years of clinical experience, whereas in the West
scientific research generally comes first and in turn guides
clinical practice."
He gave an example of how to find the best watermelon in a
field. Western medicine would take all the watermelons to a lab for
analysis at a microbiological level, and then produce the
conclusion. The one with the highest index, however, might not have
the best taste. However, TCM is more like a farmer that, from
experience, can immediately point out which watermelon is best.
"TCM uses its own understanding of physiology and pathology to
treat many problems that Western medicine cannot figure out. TCM is
somewhat abstract, while WM is more linear and concerned with
scientific evidence," he added.
Besides working in his clinic, Livingston spends three days
every week studying for his PhD.
One of his biggest obstacles is coping with the ancient TCM
texts.
"If you want to understand TCM on a deeper level, you have to
study the ancient medical texts, which are very meaningful," he
says.
"Yet the problem is that these texts are difficult, even for
Chinese. For a foreigner, the challenge is even greater."
Livingston usually rises at 6 AM, and after morning exercise,
settles down to his PhD studies. A big healthy Chinese breakfast
such as steamed bun, congee and soya milk later, he is ready for
work.
When he returns home, he likes to spend time playing with his
son. Then, he either works on his online blog
(http://www.myspace.com/doclivy), or details the basics of TCM in
his monthly columns in a local English magazine called More.
One of his hobbies is to play the guqin, a zither-like
seven-stringed instrument.
"The process of learning to play guqin is like studying
TCM," he explains. "At first it may be difficult to appreciate.
However, after you put in a lot effort, you begin to realize just
how amazing it is. You sense the philosophy, and you play for
yourself."
"I like the challenge although I do feel frustrated at times,
and am painfully aware of my limitations. What I am trying to do is
go as far as I can," he added.
(China Daily January 24, 2007)
