A taste of traditional Chinese medicine in Athens

The Shanghai Museum of Traditional Chinese Medicine and the Municipality of Maroussi launched a joint exhibition of traditional Chinese medicine and health culture in northern Athens on Friday.

The exhibition, supported by the Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, offers visitors at the Hellenic Ceramics Center (207 Kifissias Avenue) insight into the world of Chinese medicine. With a history dating back millennia, Chinese medicine is very different to its Western counterpart in that it focuses on the body’s vital energy (chi) too.

To familiarize the Greek public with the forms and history of traditional Chinese medicine, the exhibition – that runs until Tuesday – has four main themes: Chinese medicine and the theory of acupuncture, exercise, food, and environmental health.

Maroussi Mayor Giorgos Patoulis said the exhibition “opens new roads for educational, cultural and tourism exchange between Greece and China” and praised the fact that “China is reaching out to the birthplace of Western Medicine to promote its own Medicine of well-being, by importing the knowledge of the Medicine of Hippocrates into Traditional Chinese Medicine.”

He went on to announce that the officials who have arrived from Shanghai will travel to the Greek island of Kos to take the Oath of Hippocrates on the island where the ancient Greek credited with introducing scientific medicine was born.

The university’s Vice President Chen Hongzhuan said at the opening of the exhibition that “Chinese medicine has become one more artifact for the global cultural context,” and reminded that “Greece was the birthplace of Western Medicine” before adding that “our common vision will take us further.”

He also announced that a Tai Chi conference will take place in Shanghai in October, with the participation of schools his university has been cooperating with in Greece.

Events in parallel with the exhibition include lectures, interactive activities and seminars which are open to the public.

On Sunday a seminar titled “Tai Chi & Baduanjin & The Five Animals in the Chinese Martial Arts” will take place at 10.30 a.m., organized by the Qigong Research Institute of Shanghai as well as the EastWest MEcenter, which along with APSON Company have acted as organizational support agencies and coordinated the hosting of the exhibition.

Since last summer the Shanghai University of Traditional Medicine and the University of West Attica have jointly created a Tai Chi Health Center, offering a Tai Chi course for aspiring practitioners in Greece.

Attendants at Friday’s opening were also treated to a marvelous Kung Fu and Tai Chi performance.