Guests: Evy Liu I chun (Evy), Yi-Ting Li (Jennifer), Ju Hsuan Yeh (Ruby), Lin Tien Chun (Jimmy)
Meridian Lines
Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM)
is found throughout Taiwan and a great deal of the Far East. When a
cold, flu, or painful injury strikes, the local instinct is to look for
the TCM
specialist. After their treatment you see people walking around with
visible red marks on the neck, chest, and back. Often these treatments
involve multiple sessions and the taking of medicinesseveral times a day. In this show we hear local - and young - peoples reasons, experiences and results of going to their TCM clinics.
This topic is part of a three part series. The next episode centers on the business of TCM with a special emphasis on the service interface. The Chinese Consumer Connection researchers cover the details of how TCM continues to succeed.
Traditional is the first word in TCM,
but don't let that fool you into thinking it is in any way fading away.
These four young consumers talk about their experiences with TCM in a way that show the underlying assumptions that TCM
not only works, but is better for certain ailments. Rather than lecture
about it, in this show we go right to consumers. Most are satisfied,
one is scared of doctors, no matter Chinese or Western in treatment
orientation. Consistent across these four consumers is a feeling of
ease at using TCM, and even elements of TCM like acupuncture,
which not all Chinese feel comfortable with. With Western medicine
clinics on nearly every corner, these four consumers were not short on
choices, but actually show a preference for TCM. Western marketers could learn a lot from this case, since it shows how local behaviors are based on fundamental
values that are derived from the local culture. Western medicine is not
all modernity and progress while local is backward. Both are seen as
modern, both have advanced, both present a choice, much like Western
retailing in general. But any assumption about the Western model as
beingautomatically assumed to be better is simply wrong.
