A New Life of Healing
Eric Wang first set eyes on New Zealand when he and his wife Jennifer came here for their honeymoon in 1999. It was love at first sight and a vision in the making. Life was intensive for Eric back home in Taiwan, as he worked toward his Masters degree in Mandarin and Chinese Literature, while teaching Mandarin at a senior high school. But the dream of a new home endured, fed by visions of the pure, green South Pacific land portrayed on advertisements on television. Now, just over a decade after their honeymoon, Eric, Jennifer and their family are Kiwis and the dream has led to a whole new life.
Eric: “I was encouraged by friends in Gisborne to emigrate, but I thought very carefully about it. It was very important for me to think about my future. I had been teaching Mandarin in Taiwan for eight years, but felt that it was the right time to make a complete change – a new home, a new career. But I struggled to know what that would be.”
As a young student, Eric had trained in martial arts, but an injury had stopped that in its tracks. While receiving treatment with traditional Chinese healing methods, including acupuncture, he became deeply interested in learning the ancient healing arts.
“While I was teaching and studying for my Masters degree, every Sunday I took a bus to another city to spend all day learning acupuncture under a tutor. It was a lot of study, but it was a path I felt strongly drawn to. I took the course just to be able to help people – then I had not thought about it as a career. I went to China to take advanced courses and gained a level A International Certificate of Acupuncture.”
Eric arrived in New Zealand, highly qualified as a teacher of Mandarin, but determined to follow the pathway of healing. He continued to study, gaining this country’s highest qualification in acupuncture as well as a Diploma in Chinese Herbal Medicine. Before commencing his studies, he worked for six months as a manual labourer on an orchid farm.
“It was very good experience for me, because in Taiwan I was a tutor and here I was a worker. In my life, I need to experience different lifestyles, to work alongside others and to understand what it is like. It also helped when I began to practise here as an acupuncturist and herbalist, to know what my patients have experienced, because many of them work in greenhouses or do agricultural work.”
Eric had also learnt yoga in Taiwan and he spent four years teaching yoga at Rosehill College and Manurewa High School, until government funding was withdrawn for the classes. He now holds informal yoga and tai chi classes “to share with friends.” It’s all part of an holistic lifestyle, one that Eric finds great joy in extending to others.
“Healing is holistic and that is what I like most about what I do. When a person comes to be healed, all aspects of their life need to be looked at, to find what is causing their problem. I need to know about their diet, what exercise they do, and take their pulse and check their tongue ‘picture’ to understand their body conditions. If their pulse is weak and their energies very low, we need to choose a suitable exercise for them – yoga or tai chi. Going to the gym does not suit everyone. If exercise leaves a patient feeling exhausted, it’s not right for them. If it invigorates them, then it’s good.”
Eric, who is an acupuncture provider for ACC, had a patient come to him with depression. He asked her three key questions after taking her pulse: ‘Is your energy affected by changes in the weather? Do you have any problems in your relationship or family? Do you like ice cream or cold drinks?’ Eric explains: “The body holds an ‘energy fire’ inside, to energise your life. Treatment through acupuncture is one part of healing, using warm herbs is another. It’s called moxa treatment. First I asked my patient to quit ice cream and cold drinks. Then to drink warming ginger tea, to soak her feet in hot water and to get some sun onto her face. Her depression was caused by having too much ice cream and cold drink, which did not suit her ‘cold’ type of body. Her diet had never been looked at before and was at the root of the problem.”
After two treatments, the patient’s depression had lifted. By the third treatment, she wanted to quit her medication. Eric told her ‘no’, because her body was already addicted to the medication, so she needed to see her doctor about a controlled reduction of medication. By the fourth treatment she felt “very good.”
Simple remedies? Simple but amazingly effective remedies Chinese healers have used for thousands of years.
“Another patient came to me suffering from vertigo. The doctor had said it was caused by a virus. When I checked the patient’s pulse was thin and the energies were blocked, like stagnation in the system. I explained to her: The heart is a pump for the circulation and needs to be able to get blood to the head. The energy circulation is like the flow of river, if the water volume lessens, it flows slowly, easily stagnates and retains so much rubbish inside. The energy cannot flow well in that state. So, we use acupuncture to reconnect the flow of energy, stimulate the skin so the toxins can come out and use massage to relax the muscles. The body knows how to heal itself, so we kick start its energies to flush the body naturally. After it is cleared, people can then begin to work in harmony with their body’s needs, to cooperate with nature and stay healthy.”
Acupuncture is now accepted as one of ACC’s providers in New Zealand, as so many doctors saw its benefits for their patients. The use of herbs and massage as part of treatment is still not recognised, but in time, this holistic approach to patient care may also be acknowledged.
New Zealand has given Eric and his family a precious gift, a gift Eric is only too happy to reciprocate, by using his expertise to help people with health problems. “I feel the affinity with people here and there is a special relationship with such kind of place. New Zealand is so beautiful, the air so clear and the sky so blue. When you have lived in a place that is very busy, like Taiwan, you would like to look for a peaceful place. It is a very good feeling to be here. Some people migrate but can’t stay because they are not matched to this kind of natural l