Taipei 101

While on my way home one day, I decided to take a stroll through a market near my apartment. At first I just browsed the fresh produce, snacks, and housewares.Then I was offered some freshly brewed oolong tea by a vendor. I sat and drank with another customer, bought some tea, and headed home. But before I could get all the way out of the market, my exhaustion got to me.

I finally decided to get a 15 minute $3 massage from a group of masseuses/beauty care people who work in the park when the weather is nice. My masseuse was a pleasant and talkative 50 year-old Buddhist woman who was so busy talking to me that I got 10 free minutes of massage. Unfortunately, she had succeeded in distracting me so much so that I didn’t object to her suggestion of some technique I had not heard of. She began scratching my back with a small tool, and at first it felt pretty good. Not long after, it began to be quite abrasive, and soon, it was outright painful. I looked over to the man next to me getting the same treatment and his neck and shoulders were a bright blistering red. My heart skipped a beat when I realized my skin must look the same.
This is how I learned about Chinese “Guasha”- by accident.

Evidently the treatment is used to cure a number of ailments, from fever, to digestive problems, arthritis, fatigue, and in my case, muscle pain. They focus the scraping on the spots with the worst knots (right behind my shoulder blades). According to my masseuse, when you have muscle pain your ‘qi’ is often stopped up. In other words (I think…) your circulation is not flowing as it should be in that part of your body. “Guasha,” translated literally ’scrape-rash’, is supposed to bring the stagnant blood/qi to the surface of your skin (in a terrifying red streaky or speckled rash), thereby allowing the blood flow to return to the area. In the process, you should feel calmer, cooler, more relaxed, and of course, less muscle pain. I don’t really know if this treatment was particularly effective at relieving muscle pain, but it certainly was useful for startling other Westerners, or for striking up a conversation with a Taiwanese. Many Taiwanese receive the treatment on a regular weekly or monthly basis. At first I thought that my whole body felt cooler and my back was refreshingly tingly and only a little bit sensitive….then I realized that there had been Vick’s Vapor Rub involved. Most importanly, my skin has since returned to it’s normal appearance. But after a terribly exhausting week of studying, I might just be willing to give it a shot again… my back is killing me.