Terminologies of traditional medicine should no longer be lost
in translation.
The world's first document listing international standard
terminologies of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) was jointly
launched in Beijing yesterday by the World Health Organization(WHO)
and China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences (CACMS).
The document contains nearly 4,000 terms covering eight
categories including basic theories, disease, acupuncture, and
medical treatments, each with English rendering, definition and
descriptions and a Chinese version, up to 90 percent of which are
commonly used TCM today.
"It's a great pioneering undertaking and a milestone for the
promotion of TCM globally," said Cao Hongxin, the director with
CACMS, which was entrusted by the Western Pacific Region Office
(WPRO), WHO to compile the works.
He said uniform terminologies would be applied in present day
education, practice, research, and information exchanges.
Originated from ancient China, TCM has developed and thrived in
neighboring countries of the Western Pacific Region, sometimes with
certain variations in accordance with local languages and
practices.
That's why some 10 percent of the terms included in the document
are from traditional Korean medicine, Kampo medicine of Japan, and
traditional Vietnamese medicine, Xie Zhufan, a TCM professor with
Peking University, told China Daily.
Xie participated in the work with counterparts from other
countries.
"Given the recent rapid increase in the worldwide use and
exchanges of time-honored medical science, the document just meets
the pressing need of traditional medicine practitioners for a
common language," Seung-hoon Choi, regional traditional medicine
adviser at WPRO, said.
Considering constant updates to the rapidly developing science,
the terminologies would be renewed every three to five years, Choi
said.
"Notably, standardization of traditional medicine is a key step
to facilitate the science, which is proved by the past experience
to be safe, effective, easy, and cost-efficient, going worldwide
and benefiting the human race," Choi said.
A great number of foreigners nowadays turn to TCM for disease
prevention and health maintenance, when modern medicines don't work
well enough.
However some foreign quarters have downplayed the benefits of
TCM and said they should be used in tandem with modern
medicines.
"However, that doesn't alter one of our long time missions, to
promote traditional medicines among member countries," Choi
said.
"It heals diseases."
Choi is one of four out of 3,000 health experts with WHO, who
specialize in traditional medicine.
(China Daily October 17, 2007)