The first week of November every year is a memorable week for IMU Chinese Medicine (CM) students because this is the time for the annual Chinese Medicine Week, where a series of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) practices are showcased at the atrium of the university’s campus in Bukit Jalil. This year, the event was organised by students from cohorts CM 2/16 and CM 1/17 under the supervision of a lecturer, Dr Chep Lee.
Held from 4 November to 6 November, this year’s event was themed “The Circadian Clock of TCM” or ZiWu LiuZhu in Chinese because this event would like to raise the awareness of participants on the state of the human body, in terms of the cyclic circulation of Qi and Blood along the meridians that is synchronised with the hours of the day. The aim of organising this event is to successfully provide exposure on Chinese Medicine at IMU to the public. At the event, several outsiders were seen enquiring about the programme and the IMU Chinese Medicine Clinic. Besides that, the IMU community acquired better understanding towards what this field of complementary medicine has to offer through direct participation in using acupuncture needles on the artificial skin practice model, learning about their own body constitutions at the diagnosis booth, and experiencing tuina, cupping and ear acupressure for themselves.
Keeping up to the theme, the event backdrop was a large ticking clock, reminding participants that the physiological functions of the body change bi-hourly corresponding to the growth and decline of Yin and Yang. Multiple booths were set up by the students during the three-day event, including food and beverage, diagnosis, Tuina and cupping, ear acupressure as well as game booths. The food and beverage booth offered a wide variety of nutritious and nourishing delicacies such as herbal chicken soup, red dates cookies, butterfly pea flower barley drink, roselle tea, chrysanthemum tea, peach resin snow fungus dessert, Osmanthus jelly, soya jelly, herbal jelly, Mochi etc. The students at this booth was very surprised to see most of the food sold out quickly due to overwhelming response.
On the first day of CM Week 2019, it was an honor to have Prof Peter Pook (Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Academic), Prof Toh Chooi Gait (Pro Vice-Chancellor, Strategic Development & International), Christy Chiu (Vice President & Chief Financial Officer), A/Prof Ranjit De Alwis (Acting Director of Centre for Complementary and Alternative Medicine), Dr Hea Ai Sim (Head of Department of Chinese Medicine), Prof Chin Kin Fah (Chairman and Founding Director of Academy for Silent Mentor) and other distinguished guests attending the ribbon-cutting opening ceremony. At the end of the opening ceremony, honorable guests and visitors were welcomed to learn and practice a simple QiGong exercise knows as Arm Swinging Exercise (Ping Shuai Gong), which would aid in body healing through the flow of Qi within the body with long-term practice. The exercise was led by IMU CM Tuina Team 2019, which were made up of second- and third-year CM students.
On the second and the third day of the event, final semester students conducted demonstrations on fire cupping, moxibustion and skin scraping. One student acted as a simulated patient, another demonstrated the therapy, while a third student narrated the procedure and benefits of each therapy to the audience. After the demonstrations, the audience who were interested were given the opportunity to experience the therapy on the spot. All in all, CM Week 2019 went on smoothly and was a great success. There were positive feedback on the event and many participants are looking forward to the event next year. The students were glad to be involved in this event as it was an opportunity to brush up on their soft skills such as leadership, teamwork, communication and professionalism. Video of the event: https://youtu.be/5gCWGOmP8bY
Written by Lim Xin Ying and reviewed by Dr Chep Lee.
