Tag Archives: Chinese medicine

Chinese Folk Medicine

Text: “Ever since I was a kid, my mom used Chinese white flower oil on me. We are not Chinese, but she believed heavily in Chinese medicine, and preferred to use it over typical medicine like acetaminophen or ibuprofen. She used it for a variety of reasons. If I had a cold or flu, a stomach pain, muscle aches, or really anything, she rubbed this oil on it. I have no clue if it really worked, I often did feel better after but now I’m not sure if it’s because of placebo or not. This is something that’s been lost since coming to college, as I never took any Chinese medicine with me. Now I just use typical medicine, but it was a core part of my childhood, and I still remember the smell and feeling of the oil.”

Context: 

The informant is half-Taiwanese, but describes Chinese folk medicine. She says that it is common for East Asian people, in general, to use Chinese medicine because many of them share the same beliefs regarding folk medicine. She says that she can remember her mother using Chinese white flower oil on her since she can remember. As she describes, it was a very important medicine for her during her childhood, but she is skeptical about whether it truly works. She is a science major, so believes more in modern and pharmaceutical medicine. She no longer uses the white flower oil now, but still has strong memories associated with it.

Analysis:

This example of Chinese medicine is an example of folk medicine. Folk medicine relies on cultural knowledge that is passed through generations. It is very independent of institutional Western medical systems. The specific white flower oil that the informant describes is an example of contagious magic. Although there are no “active” ingredients in the oil, compared to medications such as acetaminophen and ibuprofen, the oil’s “essence” is believed to transfer healing properties through physical touch. Although essential oils can have certain healing properties, they cannot extend as far as users believe. The informant expresses how he is uncertain about whether the oil truly works. This shows how there can be blurred lines between what actually works as folk medicine and knowledge, and in this case, the placebo effect. Additionally, the informant says he does not use the oil anymore, after moving away to college, which shows how folklore’s performance is highly contextual and often tied to a specific setting and place. 

The informant says that his family is not ethnically Chinese, which shows how intercultural folklore transmission functions, and how it can spread globally. Additionally, the mother’s trust in traditional Chinese healing methods over Western medicine suggests a resistance or uncertainty to institutionalized medicine. This reflects what we were discussing in class, which is the tension between folk knowledge and institutional science. If the user believes that the oil works over a form of institutionalized medicine, this shows how science is not always truth. If there were to be scientific evidence that the oil works, this would also show how folklore can turn into science, as discussed in lecture. 

Folk Medicine: Chopped Onions Heal

Nationality: Chinese/Vietnamese
Age: 21
Occupation: Student
Residence: Diamond Bar, CA
Performance Date: 4/26/20
Primary Language: English

Main Piece:

Okay so recently my grandma has started putting bowls of onion around the house, especially with, like, all the new coronavirus stuff. And she’s done this before, but it’s, like, a pretty common thing for, like, Asian people to do when someone is sick because the idea is that, like, the onion is supposed to suck up all the, like, bad stuff in the air.

Interviewer: Okay. So, and this is something that like your grandma does? Um, is it something that your mom does as well? 

Informant: It’s just my grandma.

Interviewer: You think this is like an East Asian thing or like Vietnamese specifically?

Informant: I’m not sure, I just know it’s supposed to “cancel out the virus” or something like that. Chopped onions specifically.

Interviewer: Nice. Yeah, is it in strategic locations or is it just like generally around the house?

Informant: That’s a good question, they’re just around the house. She leaves a bowl in my room when I’m coughing.

Interviewer: That’s funny.

Informant: Yeah, it is. I smelt like onions for like a long time.

Background:

My informant is a friend and fellow student at USC. She was raised in the LA area but her family is ethnically Chinese and immigrated from Vietnam so she has multiple East Asian influences in her life. She saw this exhibited by her grandmother and it’s simply been something that’s part of life when her grandmother stays with her.

Context:

I had set up a Zoom call with my friend because she said she had some examples of folklore that she could share with me. This sample was shared during that call

Analysis:

Some research shows that this is a relatively well known Chinese folk remedy. It finds its origins in ancient Chinese foot reflexology. While modern science does not corroborate the effectiveness of foot reflexology, it was believed that the nerves in the feet were access points to the internal organs and foot nerves have been a large part of Eastern medicine for millennia. Where this links to onions in a bowl is that in the 1500s it was apparently believed that placing chopped onion around the house could help protect from the bubonic plague. Some people, drawing from Eastern foot reflexology, would even put chopped onion in their socks. It seems that my informant’s grandmother is practicing a folk remedy that takes inspiration from both ancient Eastern medicine as well as European, plague-time beliefs.

To read more about this belief, see the following website:

Cafasso, Jacquelyn. “Will Putting Onions in Your Socks Cure the Flu?” Healthline, 17 May 2017, www.healthline.com/health/cold-flu/onion-in-sock.

Ghosts and Paralysis

Nationality: Chinese American
Age: 21
Occupation: Student at the University of Southern California
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: 3/20/19
Primary Language: Chinese
Language: English

Context:

The informant and I are sitting in the USC Gould Law Cafe around 3:00 pm. She is a Chinese American student at the University of Southern California who was born and raised in Shanghai until she came to America for high school in Maryland. She recounts some of her grandmother’s traditions to cure paralysis. 

Body:

J: “So I got it from my grandma. So it talks about when people are suddenly paralyzed, they have to lie on their back and sometimes they blame it on a ghost. So, they actually say the ghost is dirty and you accidentally bumped into them when you were walking on the street because you can’t see them since they are a ghost but they want to get out – but they can’t. So you have to find someone who is specialized in the ghost theory and they will do some…they’re not like a magician…but they will do some sort of ritual/ceremony in order to get the demon outside of your body.”

A: “Kind of like a witch doctor?”

J: “Yeah like they will do different things like burn paper in order to cure and get out the demon from your body and then you can start to walk. I don’t know if it’s real, but what my grandma said is that it actually happened to one of her sisters and the witch doctor actually worked! I don’t know if she exaggerated some part of it.”

A: “Do you think that’s played into some of your grandma’s beliefs and what they have passed down to you?”

J: “I definitely think that it influenced her generation, but I don’t think it technically was passed down to my mom or me, but it’s still out there but we don’t actually believe it.”

A: “Do you think if you were to be paralyzed that your grandma would want you to have this treatment?”

J: “I don’t think so. What they say about ghosts is that there are less ghosts in the Western country like Europe and America they have less. Whereas in the eastern country, like China and things like that, we have more. Especially the rural parts like where the places aren’t civilized. Where it’s civilized with high rises, ghosts are scared of this because it’s crowded so they tend to move to the countryside and that’s where they are more active.”

A: “Is your grandma from a rural town?

J: “She was born in a rural town then moved to the big city when she was 16”

Takeaways/Thoughts/Analysis:

It is very intriguing regarding the informant’s grandmother and her beliefs that ghosts are stuck to people that then cause them to be paralyzed. This could relate to ancient Chinese medicinal cures as well for ailments and how she believes one has to perform rituals to rid one of the “ghost” of paralysis. This can also be seen as moe plausible due to the “FOAF” (Friend Of A Friend) phenomenon in which the informant’s grandma’s sister was cured from this ritual. An interesting note is one of her last sentences where she describes how ghosts are most active in the countryside since they are scared of cities. This could be due to the fact that usually rural towns are smaller and closer knit communities where stories are passed down more often and this plays into people’s beliefs. They also may not have knowledge on new medicinal technology. Whereas in the city, it can be a whole melting pot of many people from many places and this can cause some stories to be lost, and medicinal discoveries can be more easily known among an urban population.

 

Ghosts Affecting Crying Babies

Nationality: Chinese American
Age: 21
Occupation: Student at the University of Southern California
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: 3/20/19
Primary Language: Chinese
Language: English

Context:

The informant and I are sitting in the USC Gould Law Cafe around 3:00 pm. She is a Chinese American student at the University of Southern California who was born and raised in Shanghai until she came to America for high school in Maryland. She is describing Chinese beliefs about crying children and how there is a belief held that babies cry the most loudly when they have a ghost that is connected to them. 

Body:

J: “So ya know when babies cry really loud during the night? This is blamed to ghosts. Because what they say is that babies are really vulnerable since they are just born and this is kinda like a life stem. When a baby is born, it’s like a small stem then they grow into a tree later. So it refers to their life as a stem and when they are first born, they are really vulnerable so little things like the wind can hurt them so that’s why babies sometimes can see ghosts because they’ve just been born and are more likely to see ghosts than adults.

So when they see a ghost, they can’t say it because they don’t know how to talk. So sometimes when a ghost haunts them in the night, they start crying and crying and crying and some kinds of ghosts will stick to the baby so that they baby will cry for a long time. Like every night they will cry. So what they do is some ritual ceremonies to get it out. Because a lot of babies tend to cry, but only a certain amount of babies cry really loud at night…every night. They have a certain name for them. **See image below for Chinese characters** So that’s the name.”IMG_1342

A: “So that’s for children that cry a lot at night?”

J: “Yep, like during the night some people will hear a baby cry at night and they will call them this.

A: “So to calm the babies at night then, they perform rituals to calm them down?”

J: “Yep”

A: “Have you ever heard of this happening in your family or friends lives?”

J: “One of my mom’s friends actually. But he is kinda old and my grandpa’s age. His grandson would always cry during the night. It didn’t happen after the day he was born but it actually would happen when he was two years old then he would always cry at night. So our friend actually found someone to perform the ritual and he stopped crying at night! It’s weird!”

Takeaways/Thoughts/Analysis:

This contribution that babies cry loudly during the night due to a ghost “sticking” to them can be seen as rational especially since babies don’t know how to communicate what they are seeing or experiencing except for them to cry. This can also be seen as more credible due to “FOAF” (Friend Of A Friend) where the informer had a family friend where the ritual was a success to calm the crying child! The ways of ridding the ghost seem to be rooted in ancient teachings and practices that were passed through from generations. The child’s crying can also be associated with a ghost because a child’s cry can be very aggravating as I am sure it would be to have a ghost possessing your body. To stop the crying and thus, “rid the ghost,” performing such rituals to make it go away would help the child sleep better and thus the care takers as well.  

 

Cold Remedy

Nationality: Chinese American
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Seattle, Washington
Performance Date: 4/24/15
Primary Language: English
Language: Mandarin Chinese, Cantonese, French

Context: My informant first told me this remedy when I was sick with bronchitis. For collection purposes, I asked her about the remedy again and recorded the interview.

Interview Transcript:

Informant: When I was little and I got sick, and I had a runny nose, my grandpa would give me a bowl of brown stuff with ginger in it, and he goes, “Drink this. It’s boiled cola with ginger, and it’ll make you feel better.” And I’d drink it, and he’d tell me to eat all the ginger, and I do, it’s really spicy, and then a couple days later my nose isn’t runny anymore.

Me: Do you think that the remedy helps you?

Informant: Sure. It also tastes pretty good.

Me: It does. How old were you when your grandpa told you about it?

Informant: Three or five?

Me: And was this something that, um, runs in the family? Or did he learn it as a cultural thing?

Informant: Most Chinese people know it.

Me: What type of person would you normally share this with? Anybody, family members, friends?

Informant: People who don’t think I’m crazy.

Me: Do people usually react badly when you tell them about it?

Informant: Hmm… See, I haven’t tried it with anyone who might think I’m crazy.

Me: I see. So it’s more of a self selecting type thing?

Informant: Sure.

Me: How do you think it compares to other cold remedies?

Informant: It tastes better. And I don’t have to swallow any pills.

Analysis:

This remedy is meant to be both enjoyable and healing. Ginger flavored cola is more pleasant to drink than cough syrup, and my informant commented on its good taste. Hot liquids, such as tea and soup, are also commonly consumed by people with sore throats and coughs. This recipe also makes use of the spiciness of ginger to open one’s sinuses. According to the informant, the recipe is most often known by those of Chinese heritage and is commonly used by people within that demographic. My informant commented that she does not share this remedy with those she believes would react skeptically to it. The remedy has not yet gained prominence within Western medicine.