Wasai---Chinese Kong Fu

One of my first fears of living in Taiwan as a foreigner was shet if something really serious should happen and I have t go to the hospital—communication will be a problem and god-only-knows what they might do to me. After a few years, sure enough my worst fear was realized. A back injury was really getting to be serious, my toes were going numb and it getting harder and harder to walk around. I knew it was getting serious when it was getting too painful to sit down. I only had two choices now—to live the rest of my life lying downed or go see a doctor. First I went to a highly recommended Western medical practitioner and she insisted that it was very serious and I would require surgery if I ever wanted to keep my legs. With nothing to lose I sent to a Chinese Gong Fu to mater. He told me it would take three massage treatments but that I would be okay after that. He didn’t tell me the treatments were more like torture and that he provided no anesthesia! During each massage I literally screamed in pain “hun tong, hun tong!” but he also didn’t tell me that every time I cried out he just went at me even harder to get all the pain out of me.



After three treatments one day I happened to sit down at my desk, and exactly what the little man said came true—all the pain and numbness that had been turning me into a cripple had simply disappeared. I still wonder about the differences between Western and Chinese medicine but now my suspicions have switched allegiances.

Submitted to Wasai Taiwan by: Tim Allen (Hsinchu)

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