The Nanfang / Blog

Setting Yourself On Fire? It’s a Form of Traditional Chinese Medicine

Posted: 06/11/2014 11:39 am

fire therapy chinese medicine acupuncture

It might be called therapy, but it sure doesn’t look relaxing.

The photo above, of a man’s crotch on fire, is one of several that have surfaced online depicting “fire therapy”, a kind of Chinese medicine. But even though the treatment originates here, even Chinese netizens are aghast at the photos that have been posted online.

Wenzhou Sina News was the first to publish images of a person with two feet sticking out from a pile of towels that were set on fire. Even after it was explained as a form of therapy, many netizens continued to voice their shock and bemusement on Weibo:

Cnqdmght_逆向思维
Is this regulation service?

蜜又园
And I was thinking, ‘Why is he setting his penis on fire?’ [laughingface.emo]

鬼敬主厨
Scared

智膳帮多元休闲餐厅:
Sir, how well would you like your meat cooked?

客观人士也
Oh my goodness! Seeing this picture fill my computer screen just made me feel ill! It looks like that man is enjoying himself, the crotch of his pants have caught fire. Who isn’t scared when looking at this?

“Fire therapy” is an old Chinese medicine technique that uses the same principles as baguan (fire cupping technique) and acupuncture..

As reported by Guangming Network, the key to this practice is the “fire rope”, which is made out of some 20 different types of Chinese herbal grasses. The procedure begins by placing the fire rope on the patient’s body, which is covered by a translucent wrap to guard against the heat. Placed on top of the wrap are two wet towels. Alcohol is then poured on top and set alight. The procedure must be performed three times.

Fire therapy professionals stress there are important safety procedures to follow: first, the fire must occur at the correct acupuncture point to be effective; secondly, there must be a wet towel held by an attendant right next to the open fire; third, contact must be maintained with the client at all times; and finally, the fire must be extinguished immediately if the patient believes it’s too hot.

One “fire therapy” victim patient described the treatment this way:

It’s a warm and comfortable feeling. I feel a warmth soaking into my body.

For such an established Chinese procedure, fire therapy doesn’t seem to be familiar to the younger Weibo generation. One expressed her surprise when she saw it:

越悦-
Shocking scene from a beauty parlor: A person burned alive—apparently, this is a technique in Chinese medicine. Has anyone seen this before?

While foreigners have taken to acupuncture and other traditional Chinese procedures, it may take a while before fire therapy really catches on outside of China.

Photos: Yangcheng Evening Report, Wenzhou Sina News, Weibo

Haohao

More than 30 Vietnamese workers, seeking higher wages, caught illegally in Shenzhen

Posted: 03/11/2013 7:00 am

Thirty-three Vietnamese nationals who had entered the country illegally and intended to work illegally in Fujian Province were arrested in Shenzhen March 6, CCTV News reports. The youngest of the illegal immigrants was just 17.

Courtesy of Baidu images

The Guangdong Province Public Security Bureau received a tip off last month that a criminal organization intended to transport the illegal immigrants from Pingxiang and Dongxing in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, according to YESKL.

After an investigation, the operation saw three buses with Guangxi license plates seized at the toll booth on the Longgang stretch of the Jihe Expressway at 1:45 a.m. on March 6.

The illegals consisted of 23 men and 10 women and most were from the same town in Vietnam.

This 2010 article in China Daily talks of a surge in illegal immigration from Vietnam because the pay is better in China. In one case last year, 42 Vietnamese illegal immigrants were nabbed.

Forbes offers this analysis of the situation of illegal immigration into China from Southeast Asia.

Haohao

Police in Fuzhou arrest a 62 year old for prostitution, along with her 85 year old John

Posted: 05/24/2012 3:02 pm

Earlier this month, police received a tip-off that sex was being solicited along Taijiangyang Zhong Road in Fuzhou, Fujian, and that most of the prostitutes were in their 50s and 60s.  Police followed some women who were suspected of being prostitutes, and discovered that they were even soliciting sex during the day on a stretch of the road.

When police raided the building which the women were emerging from, they found that three rooms on the second and third floors were being used for prostitution. In one room on the second floor, two men and two women were found together naked on a small bed. A large stash of condoms was also found. At the same time, the 85 year-old, identified as Lin, was found with a 62 year-old prostitute, the oldest woman the city has ever arrested for prostitution.

After being arrested, Lin told police he would accept punishment, but tearfully begged them not to tell his family because he “could not face them.”  Aside from Lin, two other prostitutes and two other Johns were also arrested.

A policeman told the Fuzhou Evening Post that society needed to stop marginalizing old people and be more sensitive to their needs.

Once stigmatized as a sign of lack of filial piety, an increasing number of Chinese are putting their elderly parents in retirement homes as the country develops and people’s working lives get busier.

Haohao
AROUND THE WEB
Keep in Touch

What's happening this week in Shenzhen, Dongguan and Guangzhou? Sign up to be notified when we launch the This Week @ Nanfang newsletter.

sign up for our newsletter

Nanfang TV