Blind Massage and Not Blind Massage

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6/22/10

Today we listened to a lecture from Lina, a blind masseuse. It was very surprising for me to receive a lecture from her because I had never heard of blind masseuses before. Not only that, but it is actually very common for blind people in China to take up Chinese massage. It is a practical way for them to make a living.

According to Lina’s lecture, there are approximately 16 million people in China with disabilities. About 8 million of those people are blind and a large number of them are masseuses. Many of these masseuses come from the countryside to the city to become educated in TCM and Chinese massage. To help disabled persons, the Chinese government established the China Disabled Person’s Federation (CDPF) in 1988 in Beijing. Every province has a branch and this federation helps people of all disabilities. For blind people, it provides contacts to places for training in massage.

Lina attended the Kunming School for the Blind and Deaf for eleven years and then majored in traditional Chinese massage there for three years. Her English is excellent and she studies very hard at it, listening to all sorts of recordings and news from the internet. One of her favorite pastimes is to listen to classical music through internet sources.

At the Kunming School for the Blind and Deaf, they have medicinal education departments in pediatrics, reflexology, traditional Chinese theory, and acupuncture. When Lina was learning traditional Chinese massage, she learned about bone sizes by using real human bones that were preserved for education purposes. She learned skeletal location and worked with partners to determine where anatomical structures were. She said one of the most difficult challenges was applying the skeletal locations she learned to real people since every person has their own unique body structure.

Lina has been doing clinical massage for several years and says that when using massage to treat a patient, one first needs to pinpoint the area that needs to be treated. The most sensitive points of the body are at crisscrossing areas of muscles. Massage manipulations can thus induce a strong aching sensation. With the one finger meditation manipulation, one can activate a certain meridian and promote circulation of the blood. This kind of manipulation can treat carbuncles.

Massage is effective in treating cervical and lumbar vertebrae problems, headaches, stiff neck, and irregular digestive problems. The treatment for stiff neck is the most effective. When a patient has stiff neck, there is tension and pain in the neck. Tuina therapy relaxes the muscles of the neck and shoulders with kneading, rolling, grasping, and pushing. This is repeated for ten minutes, in which pressure points along the neck and shoulders are massaged. Stiff neck can be cured in this way in 1-2 sessions.

Tuina therapy can be broken down into two categories: An, which is performed mechanically with fingers, elbows, palms, and wrists, and other therapies which rely on oils and creams. When a patient receives a “bad feeling” such as pain in the body, this bad feeling can spread to other organs and parts of the body. Masseuses treat the bad area and other areas that are easily influenced by the bad area.

Lina also gave us a brief account of massage back in ancient times. During the Han Dynasty, there was a physician who specialized in all sub-divisional medical fields. He learned that emotion can sometimes be used to solve certain medical problems. In one particular case, a patient of his had a condition that needed to be treated by extreme anger. The doctor angered the patient in any way he could and moved the patient to such a degree of anger that he wanted to kill the doctor. The patient was someone of great political influence, so the doctor was killed for angering him. After becoming so angry, the patient’s health gradually became better and better, and it was then that the patient realized what he had done. He gained profound respect for the doctor and deeply regretted what had happened to the physician.

Lina also touched on a few general aspects of TCM. She said that chrysanthemum can be used to treat problems of the head and eyes that are caused by pathogenic Wind. Also, Yin deficiency in the Liver can be treated by strengthening the Yin in the Kidneys. When there is a lack of Qi in the Lungs and the Spleen seems well-functioning, you should look at problems in the Spleen anyway because lack of Qi in the Lungs is usually caused by problems in the Spleen.

Lina then delved into blind people’s way of living in Kunming. The CDPF helps disabled persons, including the blind, search for employment, schools, tax exemption, and many other services. For people like Lina, the CDPF basically tries to connect them to several types of educational institutions and famous massage clinics. Massage clinics have to register with the CDPF to let disabled persons know about them. The CDPF is mainly a source of information; for example it does not provide training, but it can recommend places where one can receive training. However it also provides aids for disabled persons such as hearing aids.

At the Kunming School for the Blind and Deaf, the average age to enter is eight years old. Lina also entered this school when she was a child where she received all sorts of education and training to get by in the city, including how to navigate through it. All throughout the city, especially around the area where I live, are yellow tracks made of rubber. These tracks are built into the middle of sidewalks and help blind people to walk straight and navigate the curves of the sidewalks. Most blind people wear thin shoes on the track so that they can feel the special grooves of the tracks. The tracks usually have long oval grooves, however when there is a turn, the ovals become bumpy circles. They do not usually use seeing-eye dogs in China and instead mostly use the yellow tracks to navigate the city. Since these tracks are made of rubber, I have often slipped on them during rainy days.

One of my classmates asked Lina if the CDPF or any other disabled persons’ organizations sponsor any recreation for blind people. In the United States, there are organizations specifically for blind people that schedule recreational events where blind people can get together and make friends. However Lina said that there are not really activities for communication or recreation organized for blind people in China. Blind people in China do not have a lot of leisure time because they mostly stay at work, especially for Lina who works at a massage clinic.

After Lina’s lecture, we all had lunch and then at 1pm met at the hotel to go to a foot massage clinic to experience traditional Chinese massage. The masseuses were not blind, however it was still interesting to watch and of course very relaxing to experience. I was in a room with Stacy, Liz, and Shika. There was a TV in the room that was playing replays of the World Cup matches. A woman also came in to bring us tea and watermelon. Before the massage, the masseuses brought tubs of scalding hot water for us to soak our feet in. It was extremely difficult for us to keep our feet in the water for long. The water was colored red and had some herb extracts in it, although we did not know what the herbs were. After a while, we realized that to deal with the scalding water, we had to slowly move our feet in and once they were in, we could not move them. If we moved our feet, it would instantly feel hotter.

We soaked our feet for 15 minutes before the masseuses came back in to rinse our legs with the water and then remove the tubs. They began the massage at our feet and worked their way up our bodies, pretty much giving us a full body massage. Almost all of us were ticklish when the masseuses were massaging our thighs. Not only were my thighs ticklish, but my back was ticklish too. The masseuses seemed to enjoy the fact that we were ticklish and laughed when we squirmed and jerked. The masseuses massaged us literally from head to toe and I practically melted when my neck was massaged. That always seems to be my most sensitive spot for massage. For others it was their lower back or feet.

After the massage I regained that Zen feeling I had back when we were at the hot springs and received massages. Shika and Liz were engaged in a discussion about which World Cup teams had the most handsome players. I was quickly falling asleep while Stacy ordered snacks. Some of the others in our group came to visit our room and chat as well.

Going to the foot massage clinic was not only relaxing, but it really put into perspective how much training these masseuses had to go through in order to specialize in traditional Chinese massage. I could not imagine how much more difficult it must be for the blind or if it was simply equally difficult but in different ways for blind versus seeing masseuses.

6/23/10

This day was also a day dedicated to massage, except rather than receiving massages, we gave massages to each other. Dr. Yang returned to teach us more massage techniques, especially those dealing with infectious diseases. He gave us a lecture on infectious diseases that can be treated with massage and acupuncture, such as colds. He then taught us which acupuncture points can be stimulated to treat colds with massage, then encouraged us to try the techniques out. The results of this can be seen in my photos.

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Photos

Hi Noor
Massage room

Hey Shika
Digging that golden massage wear, eh Shika?

The Taiyang Acupoint
It's located in the temples.

Massage Train
Sinead is massaging Sammy's fengchi acupoints. They're located at the base of the skull in the back of the neck, right near the hairline.

Like This?
So I just scratch her head, right? (That really is one of the things that the doctor did, except there was more rubbing than scratching)

Comments

[No Knee Mcgee]

Neck
I have to learn some of those neck massaging techniques