Hong Kong Stories - Centennial Stories (English Version) Series 51：Healing Bones with Heart

It has been more than a century since bone-setting clinics rooted in Hong Kong. In the days when Western medicine was not yet popular, people could only go to martial arts schools to ask the “masters” for help whenever they suffered any bone injuries. “Bone-setting”, which was popular among commoners, is in fact a practice of Chinese medicine in martial arts. Master AU Chiu-wing came to Hong Kong with his parents in 1948 when he was 7. He then became a student of the South Eagle Paw master HO Fuk-loi in Tai Po, and at the same time he also learnt herbal and medical knowledge. In the past century, Chinese medicine practitioners have been using the old iron grinder to make herbal extracts to produce ointments and medicines, and treat their patients.

In the 1980s, institutions in Hong Kong began to offer courses in physiotherapy. Eric LAW, one of the first batch of graduates of physiotherapy, retired and left the frontline of the Hospital Authority a few years ago. LAW is also a martial arts master. He has even modified a set of Tai Chi routine, which has become a basic training exercise in physiotherapy for patients in hospital. To combine Chinese and Western medicine is for the well-being of patients after all.

LEUNG Tin-chu follows his father’s footsteps and opens a bone-setting clinic in Sham Shui Po, but he embarks on a path of innovation. As he wants to change peoples’ impression that “a Chinese medicine clinic is equivalent to a martial arts school”, LEUNG does not adopt the traditional serious layout in his clinic, but fills the clinic with his collections – bone accessories, toys and ornaments, and even toy capsule vending machines and claw machines, as well as the humorous slogans he designed – with a wish that patients can receive their treatment in a relaxing environment. In addition, LEUNG himself has been pursuing new knowledge. Despite being a Chinese medicine practitioner inheriting ancestral knowledge, he still furthers his studies and becomes a doctor in Chinese medicine. From the certificate of degree to diplomas and other certificates, LEUNG displayed more than 200 certificates in his clinic. Although he is a “new style” Chinese medicine practitioner, his tireless and rigorous attitude has already won the trust from the elderly in the neighbourhood.

Bone-setting has become less related to martial arts, but it has become more relevant to sports science. Leanne WU is a physiotherapist, but she is more well-known as a key opinion leader (KOL) in personal training. Apart from healing bone and muscle injuries, working-out also improves one’s body shape and functional capacity. Leanne believes that physiotherapy should evolve from rehabilitation to prehabilitation, that is, to improve one’s body condition continuously for the prevention of sickness, rather than to treat one’s pains and strain injuries only after they appear.

In the past century, there have been many changes in our society, economy and culture. And people’s pursuit to a quality life has also changed greatly.