Traditional Chinese medicine brought this healer closer to her culture – now she’s raising awareness of TCM techniques like guasha, a TikTok favourite

TCM practitioner Debbie Kung spent her childhood trying to fit in with her friends in the United States and ‘didn’t think much about being Asian’

She discovered Chinese medicine while working with designer Diane von Furstenberg – acupuncture left her glowing and set her on a different path in life

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Although Debbie Kung specialises in TCM, it was not a career path that the Taiwanese native had ever thought she’d fall into.

Published: 7:15am, 14 Sep 2021

Debbie Kung, a healer and traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) practitioner in the United States, sometimes gives her American patients advice that surprises them. She doesn’t always advocate doing more exercise, for example, and says the health drinks pushed by other wellness practitioners are not as good for your body as you would think.

Although Kung specialises in TCM, like cupping, acupuncture and guasha, it was not a career path that the Taiwanese native had ever thought she’d fall into, as it was a part of a culture she had tried to reject.

“I really had denied my culture,” she explains in a video interview from Austin, Texas, where she has a thriving practice. “My family had wanted us to fit in with our American friends, and I didn’t think much about being Asian.”

Kung, whose parents moved from Taipei to the US state of Virginia when she was five, ended up stumbling across Chinese medicine the same way many of her patients do – almost purely by chance.

Kung left New York and fashion, and moved to Austin to study a master’s degree in acupuncture.

The healer, who studied graphic design at university, had moved to New York to work in fashion after landing a job with designer Diane von Furstenberg. The stress and long hours took their toll, and Kung turned to acupuncture to relieve some of that stress.