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upuncture experiment troves successful, other nembers of the group trot >ut their ailments and olunteer for free medical reatment. Following a tour of the lospital section devoted to nternal medicine, we visit a lepartment that is atempting to integrate Chinese lerbal medicine and conventional medical treatment. lThe discussion of Chinese medicine sounds rather like homeopathy. We are told about treatment and results in this area: Research and experimentation has been carried out on gall bladder patients who have been able to successfully pass stones without operations. The emphasis seems to be on avoiding surgery as much as possible.
At all points, we ask questions, often what appear to be very silly ones. I am embarrassed but our Chinese hosts are patient and answer.
Our group has a member who is a fourth year student of Chinese language and a third year law student. He listens as everything is interpreted and translated hence we have the potential to understand everything that goes on around us.
Language Barriers
The overwhelming feeling we receive, intensified with every experience, is that an exceptional attempt is being made to communicate with us. If we fail to get the whole story, it is probably owing to our inability to ask the right questions. When something seems improbable, we may have failed to take into account crucial facts.
Above all, while it is clear that we are being shown what “they” want us to see, I know that what we are shown hasn’t been specially arranged. One can’t arrange a scene where 1,200 patients arrive at the hospital nor the wards where the ill people are treated. It would be far easier for our Chinese hosts at the hospital to refuse to entertain | us. After all, we are a group ! for the most part of legally trained individuals, not medical personnel.
Even as I write this, I’m ashamed of raising the credibility question. China is poor, simple, struggling to make ends meet. Everyone who talks to us mentions this. They have achieved miracles in a dozen spheres of social, economic and political organization. They probably have no more prospect of solving their problems than we have of solving ours. But they are making a clear effort to do so.
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