Self-taught China pupil impresses peers with TCM pulse diagnosis, garners praise online
Classmates queue up for youngster with facial expression of ‘an experienced doctor’; tells one boy ‘your problem is spicy food’
A secondary school pupil in China who provides volunteer traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) consultations for his classmates has gone viral online and won admiration from internet users.
Zhao Tianyu, a grade three pupil at Kailu No 1 Middle School in Tongliao in the northern Inner Mongolia autonomous region.
He attracted attention thanks to a video clip released on December 29 by his teacher, surnamed Liu, which amassed 120,000 likes on a leading social media platform alone, the China Youth Daily reported.
In the video, Zhao, like a professional TCM doctor, placed his hand on the wrist of a pupil to check his pulse in a move called ba mai in Chinese. This is a critical step in making a TCM diagnosis.
The footage showed many pupils queuing up for his service.
“Your problem is caused by your habit of eating cold and spicy food. They are irritating to your body,” he was heard telling a boy.
“Most of these ‘pupil patients’ are from other classes. They heard there is a ‘little TCM doctor’ in our class. They are curious and want to see if he can provide reasonable consultations,” Liu was quoted as saying.
