Tag Archives: medicine

Vietnamese & Buddhist Healing Ritual/Belief

Text

S: “So, my mom, she’s very into like, I guess like folk medicine. She’s Vietnamese and Buddhist. So like whenever we’re feeling sick, like even if it’s not like a cold, like if we’re just like, have a headache or something. Do you guys know, like the suction cup? “

C: “Oh, I’ve heard it.”

S: “Yeah. There’s one that’s called where they like heat up the cup and then do that on your back. But this one, it’s kind of like pressure. So you kind of put the cup on your back and then like there’s like a little pump and then you put the cups all over your back. And then she [S’s mom] says like, oh, the redder your back is like the more sick you are, even though that’s like pretty sure that’s not true. So like as the days go on, like she keeps doing it and like if the redness going on, she’s like, oh, you’re feeling better or something, but she’s like, oh, like helps get the blood flowing and helps all that stuff.”

Context

Whenever anyone in S’s family doesn’t feel well – whether it be an illness like a cold or just a headache – S’s mom will take cups – or coins if there are no cups – and apply a specific amount of pressure. She believes that the redder the back becomes, the sicker one is, and that the combination of the pressure and release helps purge or cure the body of the illness/unwell feeling.

Analysis

This healing ritual seems to have a two part purpose: (1) to determine how ill one is – the redness of the back – and (2) to help the body heal from it whatever is afflicting it. The small change of the color of one’s back stands in for the immaterial presence of an affliction or illness which helps categorize this as a ritual, as well as its repeated, pattern, and symbolic characteristics.

To Keep a Child Healthy: Chinese Proverb on Restoring Balance in Yin and Yang

Age: 57

Interviewee:
My father, who used to be a vet when he was younger, always said this Chinese proverb to us:
“If you want a kid to be healthy, you need to let them be a little hungry and a little cold.”

“想要小儿安，三分饥和寒”

This proverb basically tells us about the importance of restoring balance in order to have a healthy body from the perspective of Chinese Traditional Medicine [zhong yi]. The main idea is that for a child to stay healthy and safe, they should not eat until hungry (a slight sense of hunger is ideal), and they should not be dressed too warmly (a slight sense of cold is actually best for their body).

From the perspective of Chinese Traditional Medicine, the reasoning goes like this: children are believed to have an abundance of “Yang” energy, the one in “Yin” and “Yang”, which runs their body hot and active. Because of this, giving a child too much food can cause internal heat buildup. In Chinese, this is called getting too much fire, which metaphorically says about how it’s like your internal organs are on fire, which can lead to irritation or illness. Similarly, giving a child too many layers of clothes to wear traps heat and makes them prone to fever. This saying, to me, reflects a core philosophy in Chinese Traditional Medicine about health. It’s about how balance is restored by restraining oneself from taking in anything that is “too much” for your body. And this balance is what Chinese traditional medicine really revolves around.


Context:

The interviewee learned this belief in folk medicine from his father, who used to be a vet. My informant’s interpretation of this folk belief is that it is reflective of the Yin and Yang elements crucial to Chinese Traditional Medicine.

Analysis:

This belief about the restoration of balance in Yin and Yang is a folk medical belief transmitted through familial oral tradition.

Cosmological Framework: This belief echoes the Chinese cosmological framework of Yin and Yang—Yin and Yang are evenly divided in half, and imbalance, or having too much of Yang, can make one unhealthy.

Genre Analysis: This proverb in Chinese has an even number of characters in its clauses, which makes it easy to remember and pass down orally. In addition, the last character of each of the clauses is rhyming with each other, adding to this trait from a phonetic perspective. This proverb is also notable for how it encodes complex Chinese Traditional Medicine theory into a compact, easily transmissible form, where people who do not know Chinese Traditional Medicine well can capture the essence of it by hearing this proverb, which is in plain language and is easy to understand.

Vicks Vaporub

Text:

SG: I’m hispanic, from Nicaragua, and a lot of hispanic people use vaporub to cure like, pretty much anything, and it weirdly works. So, at least my mom, she would get a little bit of vaporub, she would put it on a spoon, and then she would put, like, a flame under the spoon to warm it up. And then she would rub it on our chest, our feet and she would put socks on us, behind our ears… And then that would, honestly, kind of help us–it wasn’t a fool-proof cure, but it would feel better the next day.

Context: SG’s family is from Nicaragua, and she is a college student in Southern California. She mentions her mother using Vick’s Vaporub for most any ailment that she or her family had, and that she says it’s a “hispanic mom thing.”

Analysis: I’ve encountered this remedy before–I think this is a very clear way of showing care to the people you love when they’re feeling under the weather. It makes sense that this tradition be passed down through parent to child, through various families, especially in a marginalized community that might have less income, as vaporub is relatively cheap and readily available.

Angayapudi Powder

Nationality: Indian
Age: 18
Occupation: Engineering Major
Residence: Seattle, Washington
Language: English

Informant: “Whenever I’m sick, my mom will mix this powder with rice, and it’s supposed to make your stomach stop hurting. It’s a black powder that doesn’t taste all that good. I’m trying to think of why it helps, but I’m pretty sure that when I asked, she would say to just trust her. It’s a bunch of herbs that are dried and ground with hot rice. It has turmeric, dried ginger, dried cilantro, dried cumin, and dried pepper. They are all Ayurvedic medicines, which is something from my moms culture. I would mainly have it when I was little, and it’s been a long time since she gave me any.”

Me: “Did it actually help?”

Informant: “Definitely! I guess it might’ve just been a placebo effect, but a lot of people believe in this stuff, so there’s probably some truth to it.”

Context: The informant recalls a form of folk medicine that her mom would give her when she was sick as a kid. She seems to believe in its effectiveness, although not wholeheartedly, and connected the medicine to Ayurvedic medicines, which are traditional, holistic indian medicines that have been around for centuries. Although the informant no longer uses the powder, they seemed to remember it positively.

Analysis: This seems to be the informant’s mother’s recipe for an age-old traditional medicinal system that focuses on natural solutions. Ayurvedic medicines are common in India, so much so that they operate similarly to our mainstream medical system, with Ayurvedic professionals having to undergo training and certification just like a doctor would in the states. It is supposedly one of the oldest medicinal systems around, which made it surprising that I couldn’t find anything about this specific powder online, but I suppose that may speak to the originality of the medicine that my Informant’s mother was making.

Mommy’s Magic Medicine

Text: “Growing up a little ritual we had when we were younger kids was that every time we got injured my mom would put Neosporin on our little cut or scrape and call it Mommy’s magic medicine. And so every single time I got hurt as a kid I remember my mom putting the Neosporin on my cut and at the time I didn’t know it was Neosporin, I always only knew it as Mommy’s magic medicine. And so I always felt relieved when that happened and it’s something that has resonated with me my whole life.”

Context: This story was shared by the informant, a law school student, who reflected on a childhood ritual involving minor injuries and the comforting presence of their mother. The informant recalls that whenever they got a cut or scrape, their mother would apply Neosporin while calling it “Mommy’s magic medicine.” At the time, the informant didn’t recognize it as a commercial product—they only understood it as something their mother used to make them feel better. This phrase, repeated over many years, became a deeply ingrained part of their childhood experience and remains a memorable, emotionally significant ritual that they continue to associate with safety, love, and maternal care.

Analysis: This is a great example of folk medicine in a family setting. Even though Neosporin is a store-bought product, the way the mom framed it as “Mommy’s magic medicine” gave it a kind of homemade, personal meaning. It wasn’t just about the ointment—it became a small ritual that the informant associated with healing and comfort. Calling it “magic” added a sense of wonder, and also helped make the pain feel less serious or scary.

This kind of thing is really common in folk medicine, where the emotional support is just as important as the treatment itself. Parents often use little sayings, routines, or made-up names to soothe their kids, and those moments become part of how children learn to handle pain or fear. In this case, the ritual shows how folk practices can exist right alongside modern medicine—what matters is the meaning attached to it. For the informant, that meaning stuck with them, even long after they found out what Neosporin actually was.

Informant Info

Race/Ethnicity: White

Age: 23

Occupation: Student

Residence: Oak Park, CA

Date of Performance: April 22, 2025

Primary Language: English

Other Language(s): N/A

Relationship: Brother