To some people, the term traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) might conjure images of musty medical halls and geriatric practitioners who hover between mystical genius and opportunistic quackery. But Chinese medicine has evolved into something more innovative, and its modern clinics attract a younger set of both practitioners and clients.
TCM has been the main form of health care for Chinese for centuries, but in Hong Kong it languished under British rule as the medicine of choice for largely the old and the poor. Attitudes started changing in the 21st century - a 2002 survey showed more well-to-do people were using TCM.
Internationally, the World Health Organisation has urged its member states to consider, where suitable, inclusion of traditional medicine in their national health systems. Last year, it published a 43-page report, Benchmarks for Training in Traditional Chinese Medicine.
TCM also seems to be attracting a younger crowd. Richard Eu Yee-ming, group chief executive of health care firm Eu Yan Sang International, says most of its TCM clients are between the ages of 25 and 40. Today, about 22 per cent of medical consultations in Hong Kong are provided by Chinese medicine practitioners, the Chinese Medicine Council says. But TCM is still poorly understood, especially by Westerners, in part because its philosophical approach is so different from that of Western allopathic medicine.
TCM is a comprehensive medical system with a 2,500-year history. It deals with promoting health, preventing disease and providing non-invasive, natural means of helping the body to heal itself.
Where allopathic medicine uses a scientific, biochemical approach, Chinese medicine adopts a holistic, systemic and individualistic one.