China: Community Health and Traditional Chinese Medicine

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From barefoot doctors to traditional remedies, the Chinese public health system has drawn increasing attention in the West. In the SIT Community Health and Traditional Chinese Medicine program, students examine Traditional Chinese Medicine and public health issues by working with professionals in the field in both urban and rural settings. Students learn and practice an array of traditional techniques alongside professionally experienced medical doctors, usually trained in both Western and traditional Chinese medicine.  

Students observe traditional practitioners of herbal medicine, acupuncture, and massage therapy, and, in some cases, receive practical training. Additionally, students receive acupressure charts, sterile acupuncture needles, and models to practice on, as well as tuina massage practice bags, moxibustion sticks, and cups for cupping. The program’s books, among the best available on Chinese Traditional Medicine, are bilingual and cover theory, diagnosis, tuina massage, acupuncture, and moxibustion.    

Based in the city of Kunming in Yunnan Province, China, and run in conjunction with the Yunnan Provincial Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, the SIT program provides an introduction to the ancient philosophy, theory, history, and practices in Traditional Chinese Medicine, one of the world’s oldest, best-known, and most-developed medicinal systems, placing it in the social context of public health in China.  

An excursion to northwestern Yunnan introduces students to indigenous healing systems, including Bai traditional medicine, Naxi Dongba shamanism, and Tibetan medicine, usually with an introduction by a reincarnate Tibetan lama. The excursion reveals Yunnan Province’s extraordinary beauty and ethnic diversity.

Students of all levels—including beginners—can learn or advance their Mandarin through the program's intensive language component. Language instruction is offered in five distinct levels and yields two academic credits.