Today, we had a shortened Chinese class so we could learn Chinese Calligraphy (中国书法). We had a calligraphy master come in who was in his eighties, and he spoke about the 5000 year history of calligraphy. He said that writing regular Chinese characters is like walking and calligraphy is like dancing. He kept emphasizing the beauty of this style of writing. We learned how to paint lines, dots, and the character for people (ren 人). He went around and helped us execute the writing, mostly by putting his hand over ours to guide its motion. At the end, we got to take him our Chinese names for him to write, and he did mine in cursive calligraphy. My Chinese name is Bai He 百合, and when he wrote it in the different font, it became epically beautiful. After I told him my name, he said he needed to prepare before he could write such a beautiful name, which was pretty neat. I really enjoyed the lesson, and I think the art is so beautiful.
In the afternoon's TCM class, we learned about acupuncture, moxibustion, and Qigong. Acu-moxibustion is the category of non-drug therapies in TCM. Acupuncture is also called needling and involves placing a needle in a specific point on the body to achieve a certain effect. Moxibustion is placing moxa wool that has been set on fire atop one of these points (moxa wool is made from dried and aged mugwort leaves). The theory behind it is that the key organs each have a meridian with acupoints along it that when stimulated will restore proper health. For instance, a treatment to the big toe is connected to the liver, which regulates reproduction, so an acupuncture needle to the big toe can help with a reproductive problem. Moxibustion can be either direct or indirect depending on the problem, and indirect moxibustion involves placing the burning herb on top of ginger or another barrier that is on the skin. Other treatments in this non-drug category include cupping and tuina (massage).
When the professor showed a slide of acupuncture needles with burning moxa on top, one of the students asked about it, and we had about half an hour of the class as demonstration. Four students had acupuncture in various places for various things. There is a point near the elbow that is connected to the shoulder, and two students had that one, one of whom had the moxa burning on the needle which heated her entire arm. One girl had a needle in her hand to help with a cold, and another had one in her wrist and one in her forehead to help with sleep. It was really cool to watch, and I videoed the whole thing. It was so much better to observe the treatments and have them explained live than to simply go through the slides.
After the demo, we did go through the slides, but he moved pretty fast and kept only to relevant information. After we finished talking about acu-moxibustion, we moved onto Qigong. Qigong is an exercise and meditation regimen to aid flow of Qi through the body and be generally preventative. We got to get out of our seats and learn Ba Duan Jin 八段锦 which are eight forms that directly relate to TCM. The first one is breathing, the second one is a motion like shooting a bow and arrow, the third one is pressing one hand up and one hand down and is related to the spleen, for the fourth one you arch your back by pushing your ribcage forward and twist to the back for a good stretch, the fifth one is in a deep horse stance and you sweep your head in a circular motion toward the ground and up again, the sixth one is a forward stretch for the kidneys and back, the seventh one is for the liver and you punch out and then pull your hand back with force, and finally the eight one is seven repetitions of rising to releve and then falling back onto your heels. It was really cool and fun to do the forms, and I think I'm going to try to take up a soft martial art because it was really relaxing. We then learned some history and theory of Qigong before our class ended.
Today was by far the best lecture we have had in the entire Public Health sequence. The slides were to the point, and we had a strong experiential component. Between that and calligraphy, today was fantastic. However, when I was walking back from lunch, a bird pooped on me, so that kind of marred my outlook when coupled with feeling tired and a little sniffly. Gotta take the bad with the good, but I'm going to focus on the awesome things that happened today instead of the bird poop.
After class, I finished my Chinese homework, studied my characters for tomorrow's tingxie, and worked with my photos for a while. I have my combined total of photographs and videos from this trip is 1425, so I think I'm doing a good job of documenting everything both visually and verbally. I didn't really do anything special for dinner or afterward because I was tired, so I stayed home and had an early night.
Today is awesome because I witnessed expert calligraphy and learned Qigong. Today is notsome because of bird poop.
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