Chinese herbal medicine culture approached the life of the French

Source: People's Daily Overseas Edition

Zhang Shan (first from left) introduces Chinese herbal medicine at the Mid-Autumn Festival Temple in Paris in 2022. Photo courtesy of interviewee

"Ten thousand scrolls of strange books with one word, a few baskets of exotic grass and thousands of families". Medicinal fragrance, through ancient and modern, herbal culture is deeply rooted in the fertile soil of Chinese thousand-year-old culture.

Nowadays, Chinese herbal medicine is not only a "secret recipe" for Chinese people to nourish the body and mind, but also more and more popular with overseas patients.

The aroma of medicine overflows and the child inherits the mother's business

In the 13th arrondissement of Paris, there is the Chinese medicine hall "Baicao Yuan" with 5 floors of office buildings and more than 3,000 square meters of warehouses. Every year, more than 1,500 kinds of Chinese herbal medicines are sent to European countries from here, and more than 3,000 TCM practitioners online and offline relieve the pain of more than 100,000 patients.

The predecessor of Baicao Garden was a small clinic of only 40 square meters founded by Liu Shaohua, a Chinese medicine doctor in France 26 years ago.

When he first arrived, Liu Shaohua knew nothing about French social life and market rules. At the time, she had no employees, no smartphones, and a rented underground warehouse in the suburbs didn't even have electric lights. She also did not understand that the sale of certain drugs did not comply with the French market regulations, resulting in the seizure of some drugs and the payment of many fines.

After going through detours and figuring out the rules, Liu Shaohua gained a firm foothold in Paris with the "magic" of oriental Chinese herbal medicine and his solid medical skills. A local patient was treated with eczema that had been plaguing her for many years and was eradicated, after which the patient's family insisted on following her to condition her body for more than 10 years; The infertile patient came to ask for a child, and after her many treatments, she sent photos of the baby after welcoming a new life; Every festival, she receives flowers, chocolates and tickets to performances from her patients... Gradually, the small clinic expanded its storefront, hired new employees, and became a Chinese medicine center and herbal medicine mall.

The only "employee" in the early days of Baicao Garden was Liu Shaohua's son, Wu Ruosi, who was only 7 years old at the time. Wu Ruosi has been following her mother in and out of the pharmacy for a long time, helping to copy medical records, sort out medicines, and read medical books in her spare time... TCM gradually became a part of his life. Time flies, years go by. When he grew up, he earned a doctorate in pharmacognosy in France and provoked the pillars of the Hundred Herb Garden.

After taking over the pharmacy, Wu Ruosi invited more than 30 professors, doctors and pharmacists to form a laboratory team and lead Baicao Garden into a new stage of scientific, standardized and standardized management. They identify from the pharmacology, clinical and other aspects of Western medicine to ensure that the quality of finished drugs meets the standards of the Chinese Pharmacopoeia and the European Pharmacopoeia. "For foreigners to truly accept TCM, scientific arguments are indispensable." Wu Ruosi said.

Ride the tide and seek transformation

Rodin was an international student majoring in French. In her view, French and TCM are both mediums for communicating Chinese and French culture: "My family highly respects the concept of TCM. When I was a child, I once had a high fever of 40°C, and when a variety of Western medicines were ineffective, my mother used a little sheep's horn powder to help me reduce my fever, which made me feel the magic of Chinese medicine. Coming across Hundred Herb Garden, I decided to work here. ”

This decision also contributed to the love run of Luo Dan and Wu Ruosi. Hundred Herb Garden became Rodin's "second home", and Rodin became an important member of the transformation of Hundred Herb Garden.

In the second half of 2019, Wu Ruosi and Luo Dan promoted Baicaoyuan to establish an e-commerce website. A few months later, the coronavirus outbreak hit in Europe and Paris was locked down. As traditional Chinese medicine showed a good epidemic prevention effect as early as a few weeks ago, Baicao Garden ushered in an explosive growth in orders for related drugs with its mature online sales system.

"We didn't raise drug prices because of inventory pressure, but the whole company worked overtime to catch up with orders, and I don't know how many nights I stayed up. Thanks to the stock of relevant medicinal materials, we can meet the needs of our customers in a short time. Zhang Shan, head of the operation department, recalled. The lockdown paralyzed the French express delivery industry, so we personally delivered medicines and provided TCM assistance to many local hospitals. In the face of the common health crisis of mankind, as medical workers, we have the responsibility to do our part to protect everyone's safety. ”

"Hundred Herb Garden was recommended to me by my TCM practitioner. I placed my order online the same day and received my medication two days later! "On Google Maps, a foreign customer left a message for Hundred Herb Garden. Delivery within 24 hours and medicines within 3 days has become the practice of Baicaoyuan.

Transformation doesn't just mean moving from offline to online. Traditional proprietary medicine has a small audience, how to bring Chinese herbal medicine into the public's life? Thousands of years ago, the "Yellow Emperor's Internal Canon" provided an answer to this question with the idea that "saints do not cure the disease, but cure the disease".

"When I was studying in France, I used herbal tea bags to condition my body. In recent years, some international students and overseas Chinese have expressed to us the need to go to the fire, warm the palace, and grow hair. Zhang Shan introduced. Therefore, the pharmaceutical research team developed products such as foot soak bags and flower tea gift boxes with different effects, and selected high-quality products for promotion after quality control and efficacy testing. "I tried it myself, and the moment I used it, it was like returning to China."

"I heard that we launched daily health care products, and some French TCM practitioners who have been working with us for a long time came to buy them." Rodin said.

Herbal culture Demonstrate self-confidence

When Liu Shaohua was in charge of Baicao Garden, he regarded "treating doctors attentively and making medicine in a low-key manner" as a guideline. But Wu Ruosi and Luo Dan believe: "We have a good time to show cultural self-confidence, and we should promote Chinese herbal culture." ”

France is one of the first countries in Europe to use traditional Chinese medicine, and there are many French students who aspire to learn traditional Chinese medicine, acupuncture, cupping and other techniques. Therefore, Wu Ruosi chose to spread orthodox Chinese medicine through education.

Wu Ruosi joined the French Federation of Chinese Medicine as the chairman of the Scientific Research Education Department, and participated in the review of pharmacy teaching content and editing the scope of examinations for many times. He found that most medical students in France only practiced but did not understand the basic principles of Chinese medicine. As a result, he brought the theoretical knowledge and cultural core of TCM to universities and training schools in Paris, Nimes, Metz and other places, and passed on to nearly 100,000 medical students and practitioners through lectures.

Breaking the professional threshold and allowing the "circle-breaking" spread of Chinese herbal medicine culture is also the direction of exploration for young people. They joined hands with local calligraphy and painting, Hanfu and other community organizations to set off a wave of Chinese style at the French exhibition. This Spring Festival, they brought Chinese herbal medicines into the local food festival and temple fair.

Worried about the cold and food accumulation of visitors, Li Dongfang, head of the operation department, prepared steaming red dates and silver ear soup and cold-warming tea, and visitors of different races and ages came forward to taste it. Discovering that natural herbs are in line with the concept of "natural remedies" of foreigners, they also planned the "Herbal Series" game, inviting visitors to match pictures of flowers and herbs before and after they were used in medicine, which not only eliminated the language and cultural barriers of first acquaintance with Chinese herbal medicine, but also showed the "green" advantages of herbal medicine.

"I didn't expect that many French people guessed that the gifts we prepared were not enough." Li Dongfang said, "Actually, Chinese medicine can also be very interesting. ”

The efforts of young people have made Chinese herbal medicine culture recognized by more foreigners, and now 74-year-old Liu Shaohua has changed his mind and supported the promotion of Chinese herbal medicine.

Standing at the head of the tide, Wu Ruosi and Luo Dan plan the future of Baicao Yuan: "We believe that we have the strength to become an innovative Chinese herbal medicine culture and technology enterprise, and also hope to cooperate with local society, domestic and foreign schools to build Baicao Garden into a Chinese medicine school and cultural exhibition space." (Yang Ning, Chen Siyang)

People's Daily Overseas Edition (Version 06, 03 May 2023)