Chapter 508: Controversy
Translator: Sparrow Translations Editor: Sparrow Translations
Zhao Ming Qing only wanted to change the Chinese Medical Academy’s foundational teaching books. The current ones used across Chinese medical academies across the nation were written in 1974 by several Chinese medical masters. During that era, Chinese medicine was challenged and deemed as pseudoscience. People felt that it should be abolished and replaced entirely with Western medicine.
However, certain things happened later on that proved Chinese medicine to be legitimate. From that point, it recovered from being abolished halfway. Hence, Chinese started to be established across the nation. But the embarrassing thing was that there were no decent foundational Chinese medicine teaching books. For beginners, learning from those ancient books was simply too hard. It was almost impossible.
In the end, the Education Department had invited several Chinese medical masters to work together and write books to fill in the lack of teaching materials.
This set of teaching materials was called the first generation of teaching materials and had been used until now.
It wasn’t that no one was willing to write new teaching materials now but Chinese medicine was different from Western medicine. There were many diverse views regarding Chinese medicine and the average Chinese medical master did not possess the ability to provide well-rounded explanations. Hence, the teaching materials had not been changed after all these years.
Now that Zhao Ming Qing, as Shanghai’s First Chinese Medical Academy’s Director, suddenly wanted to replace the foundational teaching materials, it was only natural for it to draw so much attention.
On the Internet.
“Is he trying to cause trouble? He wants to replace the old teaching materials which have been used for decades? He must be looking for death.”
“Don’t say that. This Zhao Ming Qing is really amazing. He managed to find a cure for anorexia. Moreover, he made a pretty huge impact during that voluntary medical work incident a while back.”
“These are two different things. The old teaching materials were written by a number of old Chinese doctors. Now, the descendants of those old Chinese doctors are already protesting.”
“What’s the point of protesting? I’ve seen the news. Those descendants have already become businessmen. None of them study Chinese medicine. What does that mean? It means that even they aren’t willing to study it and they’re only using this name for their own benefit.”
“But who exactly is capable enough to dare to write the new teaching materials?”
“Haha, there’s big news coming up. Standby for the turn of events.”
There was a lot of pressure on Zhao Ming Qing at the moment.
The people form the Education Department hadn’t come yet but the Chinese Medical Academy was already having a conference with all the higher-ups.
The Academy Deputy Director said with a suspicious look, “Director, this matter must be taken slowly. You can’t be too rash. This incident has already caused large-scale public discussion on the Internet. If it isn’t carried out well, it will be a huge problem.”
This ‘huge problem’ referred to the Chinese Medical Academy becoming a joke. And Director Zhao might lose his appointment.
“Yeah, this isn’t abiding by the regulations. All teaching materials are decided by the Education Department. If we change the teaching materials by ourselves, we would be challenging the Education Department.”
“The academy students are protesting loudly as well. We must first appease the students.”
They didn’t know what else to say. In the past, they had a different impression of Director Zhao. He had always done things subtly. He would come to the academy, walk around, do some Chinese medical research and he barely even asked about matters regarding education.
But now, that Director Zhao was gone. The new Director Zhao was someone who loved to meddle with things.
This change was rather drastic.
Zhao Ming Qing said with a wave of his hand, “Any kind of reform is sure to be faced with controversy. However, I, Zhao Ming Qing, have been in the profession of Chinese medical education for several decades and I’ve always wished for Chinese medicine to further develop. There is no need to discuss this matter any further. My heart is resolute. If any problems arise, I will bear responsibility myself. It will not affect anyone else.”
“Director, that’s not what we mean. You want to promote the new teaching materials but at least tell us who is writing them so we will have an idea.”
Zhao Ming Qing didn’t say much, “When the teaching materials have been written, you will all know.”
He didn’t want to speak on this matter because his teacher was still writing the teaching materials. Before seeing the teaching materials for himself, he would not say it. If any problems occurred on his teacher’s side or if the teaching materials did not fit the standards, then his teacher would be criticized. Hence, he kept quiet about this matter so that that wouldn’t happen and only he would bear the responsibility.
In the Academy.
Qiu Jie and Zhang Tong Tong were chatting with some fellow students who had conflicting opinions. They couldn’t help with the matter much but they could help to eradicate their fellow students’ conflicting opinions.
They knew that the students didn’t really oppose the change. But in front of something new and indefinite, it was natural to have such a mindset.
The descendants of the old Chinese medical masters who wrote the teaching materials were now involved in the business of treatment equipment. They had connections within the respective large medical academies.
When they met new people, they would be introduced as the descendants of the people who had written the Chinese medicine foundational teaching materials.
This, somehow, raised their statuses.
Now that someone wanted to replace the teaching materials, how could they just let that happen?
“Regarding the matter suggested by Shanghai’s First Chinese Medical Academy’s Director Zhao Ming Qing, I am furious. My grandfather put in his sweat and blood together with several other people to write these Chinese medicine foundational teaching materials and now, he wants to replace them. My heart aches, very much. In these several decades, these teaching materials have raised numerous Chinese medical masters and numerous experts. Now he wants to replace them with new teaching materials that we don’t even know where they came from. I want to ask Director Zhao Ming Qing, have you ever asked for the opinions of others?”
Now that the descendants had spoken, the Chinese medical students who had been observing all along started to take a stand as well.
“I agree!”
“These old teaching materials are the blood and sweat of Chinese medical masters. How many people are there now who are capable enough to write new teaching materials?”
“Teaching materials are essential to nurturing Chinese doctors. If you just bring out new teaching materials out of nowhere, it will cause a drastic impact.”
“Zhao Ming Qing has lost it.”
The netizens saw all this noise and they watched as they chewed on their melon seeds. They didn’t understand this. But the scolding battle on the Internet was very intense, so they came to watch the show.
However, there were Chinese doctors that were students of Zhao Ming Qing or had good relationships with him. They, of course, could not stand and watch Zhao Ming Qing get flamed. They had to lend him some support.
“Don’t be distressed. Aren’t you just afraid of losing your benefits? Your grandpa was a Chinese medical master but what are you now? You’ve completely made use of your grandfather’s reputation to become a dealer that sells medical equipment.”
“Yeah! You sell equipment that is worth $200,000 for $600,000. How greedy are you?”
“Reforms are necessary. Even Chinese medicine foundational teaching materials have to be changed with the times. The teaching materials written in the past have certain shortcomings that must be improved on in order to provide beginner Chinese medical students with reasonable study plans.”
“I support Director Zhao.”
“Only with good teaching materials can outstanding future generations of Chinese doctors be nurtured. We can’t be restricted for certain people’s benefit.”
“I agree.”
Now, the people from the Educational Department had come to lobby against Zhao Ming Qing.
It wasn’t that they didn’t agree with the reform but at the very least, the new teaching materials should be shown to them. If they were really better than the old ones, they would definitely support it.
However, now that the teaching materials hadn’t appeared and the situation had already blown up, it was a little awkward.
If the matter wasn’t handled properly, it would have a negative impact on the entire Chinese medical education industry.