As China modernizes, some of the traditional Chinese medical skills are waning:
“While traditional Chinese medicine lives on, some of the skills are being lost as older practitioners retire, and automation and Western medicine encroach. Liang Yiwen reports.
MAKING herbal pastes, medicinal wine and pills were once compulsory skills for workers in traditional Chinese drugstores. But the craft of hand-making pills has almost vanished today.
“It is really hard to find experienced and skillful pharmaceutical workers able to make traditional pills. Most of them are retired and they only occasionally perform the craft at some festivals,” said Chen Zhenghui, secretary general of Shanghai Traditional Chinese Medicine Trade Association.
Thanks to people’s awareness of tonics, hand-made herbal paste and medicinal wine are still very popular. However, traditional handmade pills are fading as the whole TCM industry suffers under the pressure of Western medicine.”
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