Absolutely Fobulous

Um, seriously?  In South Korea, customs officials are on the lookout for smugglers bringing in capsules filled with powdered human flesh, apparently from dead babies and fetuses.

Since last August, about 17,500 pills were found to have been smuggled from China.  The “medication” is taken to supposedly boost stamina and cure diseases.

Besides being totally disgusting and unethical, the pills are said to be full of bacteria, posing a health risk.  Korean officials are stepping up inspections on shipments from Northeast China to quell this nasty illegal substance.

It truly baffles me how we Chinese people can even think of eating the most ridiculous and gross things, all in the name of “health.”  But then again, people have been known to eat placentas, so maybe this is a weird version of that?

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I’m a huge fan of alternative medicine, especially the kind that comes from the motherland a.k.a. the Far East. I see an acupuncturist regularly and it has done miracles for all kinds of ailments, even my carpal tunnel stricken hand.

Looks like NBA ballers are catching on to the Chinese medicine trend. Mickael Pietrus, a NBA player from the Phoenix Suns, recently sought treatment for his knee from Shaolin monks in the Henan province of China. He had missed 12 games during an NBA season because of his knee, and I guess that drove him to try more unconventional therapies.

The Shaolin temple where he was treated has its own hospital, which also counts Shaquille O’Neal as one of its more famous patients. The medical establishment at the Buddhist temple has been around for a 1,000 years. Apparently Pietrus’ treatment was a success and he claims that he no longer experiences knee pain.

This sounds pretty amazing, and as an avid proponent of Chinese medicine, I’d love to visit this temple one day!

(Thanks, Hubert!)

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In South Korea, parents are stretching the limits in an effort to make their kids taller.  Fearful that being short will result in discrimination and difficulty finding a spouse in the future, parents are sending their kids to growth clinics to undergo acupuncture, aromatherapy, special stretching exercises and expensive growth hormone shots.

As Western ideas of beauty and success become more popular in Asia, parents worry that their short children will be ostracized when they get older.  “In our society, it’s all about looks,” said Seo Hye-kyong, 35, who spends $770 a month on treatments for her 5-year old daughter and 4-year old son. “I’m afraid my daughter is shorter than her peers. I don’t want her to be ridiculed and lose self-confidence because of her height.

Maybe I don’t really understand what it’s like to be short since my brother and I are pretty tall for our family (he’s 6’2″ and I’m 5’6″,) but this really seems kind of silly.  And who knows if these herbal remedies and stretching exercises will really work?

Read the full article here.

I admit the diagrams that illustrate which internal organs correspond with which foot pressure points are a little weird, but I swear there’s truth to it.

In addition to my acupuncture, I also got a traditional Chinese foot massage yesterday and it was amazing.  I have chronically tight shoulder muscles and upon prodding and kneading my feet, Mr. Winn looks up and says in Chinese, “You have very tense shoulders, right?”  Shocked, I asked him how he knew, and he replies nonchalantly, “I can tell everything from your feet.”

During my year living in Shanghai, I fell in love with the intense (and admittedly slightly painful) traditional Chinese foot massages, a.k.a. reflexology.  Unlike western massage, which people get primarily as an expensive luxury, reflexology is seen as a healthy practice that can improve circulation, cure high blood pressure and kidney ailments, and relieve headaches.  It’s cheaper than western massages, too–my wonderful hour-long session was just $20 at Oriental Wellness Center in Oakland Chinatown!

Suzie

So I had my first-ever acupuncture appointment today, and for someone who’s afraid of needles I have to say it was pretty cool. Randy Lam, a jolly man of 72, assured me that he’d been practicing for decades and that he would get my stiff shoulders relaxed. . . by sticking pins in my legs.

Lying face up on the exam bed, Randy stuck three super-fine needles in each of my lower legs, at acupuncture points along the body’s meridian. I could barely feel the needles, so no biggie, right?

But then he “activates” each needle by turning it, and I feel an uncomfortable, deep pressure in at each point. Turning each needle over and over, the pressure in my legs increase to an almost unbearable intensity. Suddenly, out of nowhere, I feel extremely hot and break out in a sweat, my hands clammy and little beads of perspiration on my face. I ask Randy why I’m so hot–he says he’s activated my circulation. . . weird! I start breathing deeply as I feel a low-electric buzz in my brain–the only way I can describe it is that it feels like gentle pins-and-needles in your noggin. Laying there in “meditation,” I massage my right shoulder and, to my surprise, one of the needles in my left leg starts tingling!

After a couple more needles in my hands and feet, my session is over and I feel surprisingly relaxed, the soreness in my legs’ pressure points still lingering. My muscles feel loose. My brain feels calm. . .

Thanks, Randy–Labor Day weekend, here I come.

Suzie

I’ve recently discovered a new celebrity crush.  Jay Sean isn’t your typical R&B singer.

You may be quick to assume by his name that he’s another Sean Paul, Sean Kingston, or Sean Diddy Combs, but Jay Sean is UK’s first Asian R&B singer.

Born of Sikh Punjabi descent and known by his family as Kamaljit Singh Jhooti, this emerging R&B singer decided to put aside his medicine career and take up a stage name, Jay Sean, in order to pursue a career in singing. While it was a risky decision, it sure proved successful.  Collaborating with renowned hip-hop artists like Lil’ Wayne, Jay Sean has created numerous chart-topping hits, with the most recent one being “Down.”

In an interview with The Asian ID Documentary, Jay Sean describes how he defied the norms of his Asian culture to pursue his singing career and how his Asian heritage is an inspiration behind his work.