About once a week, my friends and I try to find time to take advantage of one of China’s many perks – cheap massages. After spending countless hours each week hunched over my desk studying characters, I am never one to pass up the opportunity for a 7 dollar, one-hour long massage. That’s right, 7 US dollars. At first, my friends and I tried a few different establishments around the city, (some with blind masseuses and some not, some with acceptable conditions by US standards and some definitely without). Before long, we found a blind massage parlor here in Wudaokou and have been returning about once a week ever since.
按摩 (Anmo = means massage in Chinese) is a main component of Traditional Chinese Medicine, along with acupuncture and herbal medicine. Blind massages have been popular here in China for several decades, as the Chinese believe blind masseuses are better in touch with their non-visual senses and thus able to deliver a more effective treatment.
But if you’re ever in China and have the chance to get a blind massage, don’t be fooled. This type of Chinese massage is not used for relaxation purposes; rather, it’s treated as a type of a physiotherapy exercise. The pressure is about twice as strong as a “deep tissue massage” in the US. Every time I get on the table, I am slightly scared for all the pushing, pulling, stretching, and pain that will follow. Nevertheless, I know that it will relieve all of my aches and pains within just a few short minutes.
Zhang Daifu (zhang, 张 = his family name, and daifu, 大夫 = doctor), a friendly 24-year-old hailing from China’s most Northern province, Heilongjiang, has been treating me almost every time we visit. He knows all about my leg injuries, (I had tendinitis for several years in college), and without a doubt has helped cure me of my knee and hip pain. I can now easily run and jump without having to stop and ice my joints afterwards. He really does not hold back – while Simin is known for laughing through the massage, and Nick somehow maintains a quiet, relaxed demeanor, I am the one being flung around, limbs flying through the air in directions I didn’t even know possible, while my table inches up and down, side to side, sometimes nearly toppling over. When Zhang Daifu is not using all of his strength to dig furiously into my muscles, he always strikes up a friendly conversation. He’s definitely the chatty one of the bunch. First, we exchanged stories about our families and hometowns. Next, he explained the blind massage industry here in China to me, and asked me about massages in the US. Last Wednesday, Simin, Liz, and I taught him what Skype is. Whether we’re discussing Chinese New Year festivities in his hometown or comparing Michael Jackson to Chinese pop sensation 王力宏, Zhang Daifu always seems to brighten my day. He has become an important part of my life here in Beijing. If we go a week without a massage, he without fail asks me where we have been the next time we visit.
Living abroad, my life is full of adventure, new experiences, and “going with the flow”. What I appreciate most about my visits to this blind massage parlor is that I am, in some sense of the word, treated as a “regular" there. I can expect the same people and atmosphere every time I go. It's comforting and reassuring. The people who work there are also so kind and encouraging of my Chinese, constantly reminding me of how 棒 (bang = slang for “great”) my speaking skills are. And learning Mandarin, I am in need of a slight ego boost once in awhile…
This week the Light Fellowship asked us to reevaluate our goals. As second term begins and I look to the future, I have realized the importance of speaking and listening over writing and reading in my life. 口语 (kouyu = “the spoken language”, or slang) has always been more fun to learn and will be much easier to implement in my life, (take the above story for example). That being said, the more I learn about this language, the more I am fascinated by characters – their radicals, historical progression, and multiple meanings add a rich layer to the Chinese language and help bring everything together. Sometimes, I feel Chinese characters and definitions make much more sense than their English equivalents. So this semester, my main goal is to continue exploring the most effective balance between reading, writing, speaking, and listening in order to steepen my learning curve.
Zhang Daifu helping me relieve a headache
The main office
Simin finishing up a massage
Nick getting treated
