From LA Times:
An attack on the traditional healing arts has inflamed adherents and sparked a debate about Western healthcare.
The fur is flying, not to mention the acupuncture needles, the firewort and the $15,000-a-pound bull gallstones. China’s ancient healing arts, as integral to national identity as the Great Wall or steamed dumplings, have become embroiled in the country’s struggle to balance tradition and modernity.
A relatively obscure professor at a regional university kicked off the controversy in October with an online petition calling for traditional medicine to be stripped from the Chinese Constitution. It has a protected status here that, at least in theory, guarantees it equal footing with its Western counterpart.[Full Text]
