The Present State of Chinese Medicine in Australia
Around 1989, dozens of professionals with higher TCM credentials emigrated to Australia, bringing fresh vitality to the Australian Chinese-medicine field and lifting, in academic terms, the overall standard of the profession. Many people of vision began to seek a breakthrough for TCM development.
After the 1980s, with the steadily deepening influence of TCM, Chinese herbs gradually gained acceptance among Westerners. Especially amid alarm at the side effects of Western medicine, more and more Westerners turned to natural therapies. Chinese medicine, with its complete theoretical system and distinctive efficacy, stands first among the various natural therapies. Astonishing facts — uterine fibroids vanishing after herbal treatment; the skin rashes of diabetic patients disappearing and blood sugar falling; acupuncture aiding childbirth — have powerfully raised TCM's reputation.
At present, four government-run universities in Australia offer formal higher-education programs in Chinese medicine. Students are especially interested in the classical TCM theory.
Australia now has roughly 1,500 pure-TCM practitioners and trains about 5,000 graduates annually (editor's note: in our country, only 8,000!). Statistics for 1992–1993 showed that this country of fewer than 20 million was spending A$620 million per year on non-Western medical and health services. By 2001 the figure is expected to break A$1 billion, possibly A$1.5 billion.
Excerpted from China Traditional Chinese Medicine News, March 7, 2001