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Jin Guanyuan was an instructor of physiology with Zhejiang Medical University (now part of Zhejiang University) before he came to work as a guest professor and a scholar for postdoctoral studies in the Medical College of Wisconsin in February, 1989. Doctor Jin and his wife Xiang Jiajia are now certified acupuncture doctors and run an acupuncture clinic in Milwaukee. In 1993, Jin Guanyuan became one of the first 17 doctors certified to practice Chinese traditional medicine in USA and was engaged as an advisor on Chinese acupuncture by the Wisconsin State Government.

Magic Jin

Jin has practiced acupuncture for more than 40 years. Jin enjoys a great popularity. He specializes in treating chronic diseases. Some patients come from afar to seek his medical services and some patients come to Jin as the last resort. In 1999, Dorothy came to Jin. In her 70s, the woman had suffered a severe headache and double vision in one eye after she had a fall. For more than a year, nothing relieved her of the pain. After few months of Jins acupuncture therapy, her double vision and headache disappeared. Dorothy was overjoyed. Before the Thanksgiving, she was at last able to visit a hair saloon, which she had refrained from visiting for more than a year because of the headache. Barbara was unable to move her right hand for two years after a stroke. After a three-month acupuncture therapy, she was able to raise her arm up at her will.

Among his patients are many athletes. A baseball player failed to recover from a back strain at a training camp. He sought medical help at a hospital, but his conditions didnt improve. He came to Jin. Jin treated him and after one treatment course, the player recovered miraculously.

Promotion of Acupuncture

Over the past 20 years, Jin Guanyuan has done more than running his clinic. He treats acupuncture as a tool to promote Chinese culture and Sino-American friendship.

America was just starting to issue certificates to qualified acupuncture doctors when Jin arrived in 1989. He took active part in the hearings on acupuncture at Wisconsin state legislature. With his help, Wisconsin was the first of the nine states in Midwest that passed a law on acupuncture. From 1994 to 2005, Jin acted as an advisor to the state government on the issues of acupuncture and traditional Chinese medicine.

In 1998, Jin founded the International Institute of Holistic Medicine. Today, the institute is a founding member of the World Federation of Chinese Medicine Society. Through the institution, Jin and his colleagues promote acupuncture and oriental medicine and offer free lectures in hospitals, colleges and centers for old people.

In early October 2004, Jin Guanyuan wrote to the Wisconsin Governor, emphasizing the importance of health and promoting acupuncture and oriental medicine. Now October 24 every year is an AOM day in Wisconsin. Delaware, Hawaii, New Jersey, New Mexico and Oklahoma have followed suit.

Jins Chinese Roots and Ties with China

In the 1940s, Jins father Jin Songshou was a professor with Zhejiang Medical University, regarded as a pioneer in the field of chemical education in China. Jin was academically brilliant as a child and he dreamed of becoming a chemist. He had mastered Russian, English and Japanese when he graduated from senior high school in 1966. With the help of his sister and brother-in-law, he studied acupuncture and became a rural barefoot acupuncture doctor in the spring of 1969. In 1971 he came back to the city and started working as an acupuncture doctor in Huzhou First Hospital. He devoted himself to further studies. In 1976, he was giving lectures on acupuncture. In 1977, he went to college, becoming one of the college students after college education resumed. In 1978, a book on acupuncture, coauthored by him and his brother-in-law, was published. He qualified for a graduate course in 1979 when he was still a sophomore. He became a teacher at the philology research and teaching studio upon his graduation.

So far Jin Guanyuan has published more than 100 papers and 20 professional books. In 2005 he became an honorary professor at Guangzhou TCM College. In 2007, his Contemporary Medical Acupuncture was published jointly by Higher Education Press and Springer, the worlds most comprehensive collection of scientific, technological and medical journals, books and reference works. The book is viewed by some experts as a landmark in the history of acupuncture.

While living and working in America, Jin Guanyuan cares for China. He has helped found a few organizations to promote scientific ties between Chinese scientists and American scientists. He is a director of Zhejiang Association for International Exchanges and honorary chairperson of Huzhou Overseas Chinese Scholars Association.

For the past 20 years, Jin has given lectures in Beijing, Guangzhou, Hangzhou, Huzhou and Yiwu. In 1998, he and his wife attended a forum at the invitation of the Office of Overseas Chinese Affairs under the State Council. In October 2004, he went back to Yiwu where his ancestors used to live. Zhu Yudan, a doctor at the Yiwu TCM Hospital, became his first disciple on the mainland.

Jin Guanyuan comments, “TCM has always passed from one generation to another through this kind of relations in ancient China; while in modern times TCM specialists receive education in colleges. The two ways have their own strengths and weaknesses. It is a pragmatic way to receive TCM training in college and get hands-on experience first and then study under the instruction of masters.”

At the end of 2008, he gave a lecture on the medical trend in the 21st century in Huzhou and distributed some of his books as gifts to medical institutions in Huzhou. □