11th October is World Traditional Chinese Medicine Day. In 2019, the first "World Traditional Chinese Medicine Day" celebration was held in Hungary capital Budapest . Over the years, with the pace of overseas Chinese going to the world, traditional Chinese medicine has also gone abroad and across the oceans to benefit people from more countries and regions.
Hungary is the first country in Europe to legislate for traditional Chinese medicine. Traditional Chinese medicine has become an indispensable part of the lives of local people. More and more local doctors use holistic therapy to treat patients with traditional Chinese medicine and acupuncture, and many medical universities offer traditional Chinese medicine acupuncture courses.
This is inseparable from the efforts of a group of Hungarian Chinese Medicine people such as Chen Zhen, president of the Central and Eastern European Society of Traditional Chinese Medicine, for more than 30 years. In May this year, Chen Zhen won the Hungarian National Natural Remedies 2022 Person of the Year Award for his outstanding contributions to the health and disease prevention of local people over the past 30 years.
Recently, Chen Zhen told reporters from Nandu and N videos about generations of traditional Chinese medicine practitioners forge ahead, promoting the implementation of traditional Chinese medicine in Hungary and benefiting the general public.
Hungary is waiting for free medical consultations in traditional Chinese medicine. Photo provided by the interviewee
Practice soil and produce gold
"I went to Hungary when I was 26 years old and devoted my best time to traditional Chinese medicine. I have done the work of promoting traditional Chinese medicine overseas throughout my life." Chen Zhen told Nandu reporters.
In 1988, Chen Zhen, who was a master's degree in traditional Chinese medicine at the Heilongjiang Academy of Traditional Chinese Medicine, and two traditional Chinese medicine experts in their 70s set off from Beijing to Budapest, Hungary to inspect the traditional Chinese medicine cooperation projects of the two countries. Since then, Chen Zhen has begun a long journey of promoting traditional Chinese medicine overseas.
After a new arrival, Chen Zhen works in a Sino-Hungarian clinic jointly run by Budapest. In addition to practicing medicine, he devoted himself to studying traditional Chinese medicine. In three years, he compared the 155 commonly used Chinese medicines with Hungarian herbs and found that there are more than 70 kinds of herbs in Hungary, which gave him hope for the development of traditional Chinese medicine in the local area. "There are many herbs in the local area that are the same as in China. We can tell the local people about traditional Chinese medicine culture from the perspectives of medicinal tea , medicinal soup, medicinal porridge, etc., so that they are more easily accepted."
After years of hard work, Chen Zhen founded the Hungarian Oriental Sinopharm Group in 1993. In 2005, Hungarian Oriental Sinopharm Group established the first natural pharmaceutical factory with a Chinese who owned sole proprietorship in Europe and comply with the "Pharmaceutical Production Quality Management Specifications".
Chen Zhen told Nandu reporters that before the legalization of traditional Chinese medicine in Hungary, traditional Chinese medicine was banned locally. " Angelica is not allowed to be used, and lotus leaves that lower blood lipids are not allowed to be used. Then Guangdong people still eat lotus leaves and glutinous rice chicken for breakfast." Chen Zhen believes that the exchanges between the two countries were not enough in the past, so they need to communicate with locals to let them understand the culture of traditional Chinese medicine.
In order to make traditional Chinese medicine firmly rooted in the local area, he decided to publish traditional Chinese medicine books in Hungarian to spread the traditional Chinese medicine culture in languages that locals can understand and understand. In 2002, Chen Zhen published the Hungarian book "Medicinal Diet and Proven Prescriptions", comparing Western medicine treatment plans, traditional Chinese medicine treatment plans, and treatment plans that combine traditional Chinese and Western medicine.
Now, this book has become a monograph on popularizing traditional Chinese medicine in Hungary. Chen Zhen told Nandu reporters that there is a Chinese proverb called "medicine and food are of the same origin". There is also a local Hungarian saying, which means that you can find something that can cure diseases from trees and grass. "I found that some proverbs in Hungarian and Chinese are similar. When you express them in local language, they understand."
Chen Zhen treated patients. Photo provided by the interviewee
Through the silent hard work of overseas Chinese in Hungary for 30 years, traditional Chinese medicine has now accumulated a good mass base in Hungary, and "The Best Medicine to Treat Prevent Diseases" has also had a fixed and exclusive translation name in Hungary.
Chen Zhen said that to achieve sustainable development of traditional Chinese medicine, in order to achieve sustainable development, it is necessary to "cultivate soil to produce gold", go to the local people, and be rooted in the soil of local society. This requires generations of persistent efforts.
promotes legislation
Although traditional Chinese medicine is widely popular among the people, the most difficult thing to truly practice medicine is the legal responsibilities.At that time, because traditional Chinese medicine had not yet been legislated in Hungary, Chen Zhen had been studying how to practice medicine within the scope of local legal permission. "For so many years, I don't know how many times I have studied local laws. I have always insisted on following up on the updates of local laws."
Chen Zhen encountered many difficulties. He gradually realized that traditional Chinese medicine has taken root overseas and not only needs to conduct cultural exchanges with local people, but also needs to be recognized and supported by local laws and governments.
Since 2010, Chen Zhen has insisted on participating in health examination cooperation projects jointly organized by multiple EU countries every year, providing free medical services to the Hungarian people with many medical experts, and gradually expanding the influence of traditional Chinese medicine in the local area. There were crowds of people during free medical consultations, and the queues of Hungarians were so long that it seemed that people couldn't believe that this was in a foreign country. Now, Chen Zhen works for more than 12 hours a day, and there are many senior Hungarian government officials who come to see him for treatment.
Traditional Chinese medicine practitioners such as Chen Zhen provide free medical services to the Hungarian people. Photo provided by the interviewee
In 2013, Hungary officially passed the law on the legalization of traditional Chinese medicine. "In the three months before legislation, we had 126 interactions with the media to promote the status and influence of traditional Chinese medicine around the world." After more than 30 years of relay for two generations of traditional Chinese medicine practitioners, Hungary became the first country in Europe to legislate for traditional Chinese medicine.
In 2014, the Chinese and Hungarian governments signed a letter of intent for cooperation in the field of traditional Chinese medicine. In 2015, Hungary officially promulgated the implementation rules for the legislation of traditional Chinese medicine and took effect. In 2016, the Hungarian government issued an EU medical license to traditional Chinese medicine practitioners, ending the history of traditional Chinese medicine in Hungary that it is necessary to practice medicine under the supervision of Western medicine.
For more than 30 years, Chen Zhen’s team has trained more than 5,000 “foreign traditional Chinese medicine” together with local medical universities. These practitioners are active in the medical field of Central and Eastern European national medical field and have become the main force in the communication and promotion of traditional Chinese medicine.
Going to the world
Since the outbreak of the European epidemic, Hungarian Chinese have used traditional Chinese medicine to provide people-friendly services to help the people build confidence in epidemic prevention and fight the epidemic.
In early 2020, in order to support the fight against the epidemic, Chen Zhen mobilized all parties to quickly transport thousands of doses of anti-epidemic Chinese medicine to the Milan area, Italy within 48 hours. "Previously, we also gave Italian compatriots 650 doses of traditional Chinese medicine decoctions to enhance immunity. We have tried every means to deliver them." Chen Zhen said that everyone raced against time and tried every means to race against time.
Chen Zhen's team also learned from the ancient Chinese medicine prescriptions and China's anti-epidemic experience, boiled Chinese medicine in a big pot, and provided the public with free traditional Chinese medicine tea to enhance the immunity of the locals. They also improved the original prescription based on the traditional Chinese medicine diagnosis and treatment guidance plan, combined with the actual situation of local climate and diet, and boiled nearly 100 kilograms of Chinese medicinal materials into "wet and moisture-relieving and anti-plague drink" for local people to drink on a daily basis.
According to Chen Zhen's recollection, everyone lined up to get the medicine every day. Some people took the thermos cup and took the medicine home for the elderly and children to drink. People from other European countries drove to get the medicine. "A Albanian customer learned from Italy that we donated the epidemic prevention decoctions from Italy, and drove directly from Albania to purchase a lot of them."
In addition, he also organized doctors to build a 24-hour "never closed window", conduct online diagnosis and treatment through telephone, video, etc., and provide patients with home delivery services.
Now, Chen Zhenzheng and his team have strengthened scientific and technological cooperation between China and Hungary governments and supported by science and technology, and gained a foothold in the international development of traditional Chinese medicine. He believes that "with the support of law and technology, we can promote the implementation of service trade." From 2002 to 2018, Chen Zhen's team assisted in completing more than 70 government science and technology cooperation projects, organized a number of China-Hungary academic exchange activities, promoted the consultation and construction of the two countries, and carried out scientific and technological cooperation that shared the beauty and the United States.
Chen Zhen believes that cultivating soil to produce gold, focusing on the people, leading by technology, supporting by law, and using efficacy as the criterion are secrets for overseas traditional Chinese medicine promotion.
"I also promote Guangdong's soup culture in Europe. During the epidemic and flu , I advocate everyone making soup." He told Nandu reporters that Europeans love ginger, and ginger milk itself is also a medicinal diet.He advocated that Guangdong's soup culture and some health concepts should be introduced to the whole world, and " Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area still has great potential in the field of traditional Chinese medicine going global."
Produced by: Nandu Instant
Editor: Nandu Intern Reporter Liang Lingfei
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-