Traditional Chinese medicine is gaining popularity in Indonesia.
Hai Gung, a herbalist at Fu Jeng Tang, a traditional Chinese medicine clinic in Sunter, begins every consultation by giving the patient a visual once-over.
“Go ahead, place your hands on the towel. Palms up,” he says, nodding at a white folded towel on his desk.
He leans across for a closer look.
“Stick your tongue out,” he instructs.
His eyes narrow and his gaze moves quickly across my forehead before moving down the bridge of my nose, then he cocks his head while checking my cheekbones. His white lab coat, starch-stiff, bends slightly at the collar. Finally, he scratches the side of his cheek and swallows, his Adam’s apple bobbing slowly. He rests his index finger across his lips and silence fills the room.
There are four people present at this herbal consultation.
Apart from myself — the patient — and Hai, there is his translator (Hai speaks Mandarin, she translates into Indonesian) and Derice Sumantri, co-owner of the clinic, who translates once again to English. “Let me see your fingernails,” he says, she says, she says, and I oblige.
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