This week, I went to a talk by Sidney Rittenburg - a man who spent 16 years in solitary confinement in China - and I winced momentarily in an attempt to balance my ying and yang with a 4,700 year old Chinese medical practice. 
The author of ‘The man who stayed behind,’ Sidney Rittenburg has watched China since the 1940’s. The spry 85 year old from Charleston, North Carolina told us how he came to China in 1946 to train journalists after the war, befriended Zhou Enlai, debated with Mao, and was then interned at the demand of Stalin from 1949 to 1955 as an alleged spy. The logic his interrogators used was that he had left a comfortable southern family to live and work in Communist China amongst the peasants, so therefore he must have an ulterior motive for such bizarre behaviour. Rittenburg was released and apparently worked to scrutinise co-workers dossiers. He was responsible for sending counter revolutionaries to labor camps, only to be interned himself in solitary for a second stretch from 1968-1977. “What is different about China then and now,” Rittenburg said, “is that corruption and vice are both still here, but persecution is not.” 
The attendant audience of some 300 people, most of us at primary schools in the west while Sidney was in solitary in China, could not get enough of the man who once was an apologist for Mao and Communism, and who now appears to retain his faith in the essential goodness of the Chinese people. “When I first came to China, I felt that I had come home,” claimed Rittenburg, at which a number of westerners nodded in agrement. “Hu Jintao and the leadership have clearly identified the three challenges facing China: Development but not at the cost of social welfare, growth but not at the expense of the environment and development but not with the abandonment of spiritual values.” News this week that China has reached US$1 trillion of cash reserves and launched a communications satellite demonstrate that development has certainly been attained, but I haven’t read much of social welfare programmes in a country where GDP per capita is US$1553.87 (source: EconStats). My lungs meanwhile remind me that the environment is paying the price of development too. Rittenberg attributes the gap between policy and practice to corruption at the local government level, and the challenge facing the party in Beijing is to create a guiding vision for the country containing 23 provinces and 5 autonomous regions in the way that Mao was able to balance the various interests under the banner of Communism. My own internal balance has been poor since I injured my leg in Hong Kong, and so I turned to acupuncture, a medical tradition that dates back 4,700 years to the Huang Di Nei Jing, apparently the oldest medical book in history. There are 14 meridians in the body through which Qi, energy, flows and I wanted to free up the muscles in my thigh and sought out Xiao Qing, a doctor at the Chinese Medicine University. Room 308 lies at the top of an unlit stairwell, the walls of which are plastered with defaced official notices, and outside the metal gated door lay a scattering of dead roses, an old box and assorted debris of domestic neglect. I questioned the wisdom of my choice until Xiao Qing opened the gate, her bright eyes and perfect poise a counterpoint to the dark chaos outside. In the small yellow walled waiting room a lady sat watching television, her brows thick with needles like a pin cushion, and I wondered if some anti inflammatory drugs would have been easier. Xiao Qing, a youthful 33, has been practising acupuncture for 11 years, other patients in the small 2 bed clinic enjoying the benefits of weight loss and stress relief. I managed to avoid stepping on the 14 year old tortoise in the bathroom, before having 3 needles placed just above the knee. There was no pain, nor blood, and I didn’t faint – all of which were pleasing. Waiting by my bedside at the window Xiao Qing sat perfectly upright, smiling brilliantly, and I attempted conversation in Chinese. She lives upstairs and works 6 days a week, waiting patiently for the days that she can visit with her 3 year old son who seems to live with the father, a man who apparently found the attraction of young pretty girls too much once Xiao Qing became a mother. Recalling her son her sparkling eyes glistened with moisture, and unsure if this was the sunlight smarting or hint of emotion, I changed the subject as tactfully as I could with my limited vocabulary. During the week I have returned to room 308 three times and feel a definite improvement in my leg, believing that this is the improved flow of Qi, and gaining insight into the inherent dignity of the Chinese that Sidney said he fell in love with back in 1946. At this stage some 5 weeks away from the Singapore marathon I am unsure if my left thigh will make it, which leaves me very disappointed. Discussions continue with the Group that is interested in further involvement with EASTWEST, and I will have to determine if this will further improve the flow of Qi for the business. China has a great way of testing one’s endurance, but this week I found that the answers to spiritual and physical limits have been explored before, and they they are readily available in a small yellow room with a bed by the window.
The author of ‘The man who stayed behind,’ Sidney Rittenburg has watched China since the 1940’s. The spry 85 year old from Charleston, North Carolina told us how he came to China in 1946 to train journalists after the war, befriended Zhou Enlai, debated with Mao, and was then interned at the demand of Stalin from 1949 to 1955 as an alleged spy. The logic his interrogators used was that he had left a comfortable southern family to live and work in Communist China amongst the peasants, so therefore he must have an ulterior motive for such bizarre behaviour. Rittenburg was released and apparently worked to scrutinise co-workers dossiers. He was responsible for sending counter revolutionaries to labor camps, only to be interned himself in solitary for a second stretch from 1968-1977. “What is different about China then and now,” Rittenburg said, “is that corruption and vice are both still here, but persecution is not.” 
The attendant audience of some 300 people, most of us at primary schools in the west while Sidney was in solitary in China, could not get enough of the man who once was an apologist for Mao and Communism, and who now appears to retain his faith in the essential goodness of the Chinese people. “When I first came to China, I felt that I had come home,” claimed Rittenburg, at which a number of westerners nodded in agrement. “Hu Jintao and the leadership have clearly identified the three challenges facing China: Development but not at the cost of social welfare, growth but not at the expense of the environment and development but not with the abandonment of spiritual values.” News this week that China has reached US$1 trillion of cash reserves and launched a communications satellite demonstrate that development has certainly been attained, but I haven’t read much of social welfare programmes in a country where GDP per capita is US$1553.87 (source: EconStats). My lungs meanwhile remind me that the environment is paying the price of development too. Rittenberg attributes the gap between policy and practice to corruption at the local government level, and the challenge facing the party in Beijing is to create a guiding vision for the country containing 23 provinces and 5 autonomous regions in the way that Mao was able to balance the various interests under the banner of Communism. My own internal balance has been poor since I injured my leg in Hong Kong, and so I turned to acupuncture, a medical tradition that dates back 4,700 years to the Huang Di Nei Jing, apparently the oldest medical book in history. There are 14 meridians in the body through which Qi, energy, flows and I wanted to free up the muscles in my thigh and sought out Xiao Qing, a doctor at the Chinese Medicine University. Room 308 lies at the top of an unlit stairwell, the walls of which are plastered with defaced official notices, and outside the metal gated door lay a scattering of dead roses, an old box and assorted debris of domestic neglect. I questioned the wisdom of my choice until Xiao Qing opened the gate, her bright eyes and perfect poise a counterpoint to the dark chaos outside. In the small yellow walled waiting room a lady sat watching television, her brows thick with needles like a pin cushion, and I wondered if some anti inflammatory drugs would have been easier. Xiao Qing, a youthful 33, has been practising acupuncture for 11 years, other patients in the small 2 bed clinic enjoying the benefits of weight loss and stress relief. I managed to avoid stepping on the 14 year old tortoise in the bathroom, before having 3 needles placed just above the knee. There was no pain, nor blood, and I didn’t faint – all of which were pleasing. Waiting by my bedside at the window Xiao Qing sat perfectly upright, smiling brilliantly, and I attempted conversation in Chinese. She lives upstairs and works 6 days a week, waiting patiently for the days that she can visit with her 3 year old son who seems to live with the father, a man who apparently found the attraction of young pretty girls too much once Xiao Qing became a mother. Recalling her son her sparkling eyes glistened with moisture, and unsure if this was the sunlight smarting or hint of emotion, I changed the subject as tactfully as I could with my limited vocabulary. During the week I have returned to room 308 three times and feel a definite improvement in my leg, believing that this is the improved flow of Qi, and gaining insight into the inherent dignity of the Chinese that Sidney said he fell in love with back in 1946. At this stage some 5 weeks away from the Singapore marathon I am unsure if my left thigh will make it, which leaves me very disappointed. Discussions continue with the Group that is interested in further involvement with EASTWEST, and I will have to determine if this will further improve the flow of Qi for the business. China has a great way of testing one’s endurance, but this week I found that the answers to spiritual and physical limits have been explored before, and they they are readily available in a small yellow room with a bed by the window.