Article by Liu Qian Hua

While in Canada visiting relatives, I made an attempt to grasp the beauty and essence of Canada.  On a daily basis, I made leisure time to read newspapers and magazines, trying to further understand Canadian society and related current issues through different forms of media.

One day, in a free publication, I suddenly saw the name “Wan Cheng Liu” and the keywords “acupuncture doctorate”, “professor”, “Founder of the Amur Institute of Traditional Chinese medicine and Acupuncture”.  My eyes lit up.

Wan Cheng Liu?    When I worked as an editor for the Heilongjiang Daily in Heilongjiang, China, I had interviewed a well known practitioner of Chinese medicine—the miracle acupuncturist Wan Cheng Liu.  Could it be the same person?  As far as I knew, in 1992 Prof. Liu relocated to Hungary as guest professor, at the request of the Hungarian-Chinese Alliance Society and the Acupuncture Academic Society of Hungary.  He later became the vice-president of the Hungarian Society of Acupuncture and Moxibustion.  Even in China, I had seen an article in Xin Hua’s Research News reporting on his medical success in Hungary.  But how is it that he is in Canada now?  Just to be sure, I immediately obtained the phone number and dialed it.  The person on the other end of the line was indeed the same Wan Cheng Liu.

It was pure delight for two people to cross paths again, so far from the motherland.  We made plans to meet.

My very first contact with Wan Cheng Liu was 15 years ago, and was purely a chance meeting.  In 1988 I was the director of the editorial department of China’s Heilongjiang Daily.  One of the colleagues in our department was suffering back pains and had been treated by a number of medical professionals without resolution.  Every episode of back pain would bring anguish.  Later he heard about a young medical director at the Traditional Chinese Medicine research facility of Heilongjiang province.  Wan Cheng Liu was the director of clinical acupuncture research at the facility.  This was a well-known acupuncturist who was also known by the nickname “Single Needle Liu”.  With a hopeful attitude, my colleague sought Liu for treatment.  Quite amazing was that after only a few acupuncture sessions, this Dr. Liu was able to completely irradiate my colleague’s back problem.  My colleague was full of endless praise as he said to me, “This Dr. Liu not only has superb acupuncture skills, but he is also well versed in great medical theories.  He obtained his doctorate doing research under the famous academic of Traditional Chinese Medicine and Acupuncture of the Nanjing medical university, Professor Qiu Mao Liang!”

Being curious about the acupuncture techniques of Wan Cheng Liu, and wanting to see them for myself, the opportunity came when it so happened at the time that an elder family member of a friend of mine was suffering from paralysis that was the residual effects of a stroke.  My friend and I discussed the situation and arranged for Wan Cheng Liu to make a house call.

The day Wan Cheng Liu made his house call, my friend’s residence was packed full of people inside and outside; inquisitive neighbors, friends, relatives and a few others.  Wan Cheng Liu was seen first doing the medical examination, and then lightly manipulating a small needle, and almost imperceptibly the needle was inserted into the skin of the patient.  Afterwards he didn’t simply leave the needle like most doctors would do.  What he did do was to continuously manipulate the needle, to induce micro-vibrations and twirling movements, sometimes needling several acupuncture points simultaneously.  A moment later something miraculous happened.

Up to this point the elderly patient had only been able teeter about with great difficulty, using physical supports and unable to raise his arms above shoulder level.  After the acupuncture treatment, the elderly man followed instructions and began to walk without assistance and raise his arms well above his head.

“Oh, it’s miraculous!  A miracle it is!” exclaimed the surrounding spectators.

Wan Cheng Liu’s acupuncture skill and technique had reached an ingenious level that was uncanny.

It was after that when I began a full scale interview with him.  I discovered that for a number of years he had been using acupuncture and had successfully treated many people from outside of China and many of the ailments had been of the difficult to treat nature.  A friend from Japan had been suffering back and leg pains and had achieved no relief after long term treatment.  With the acupuncture treatment, he was cured in a month.  Jenny from Denmark was working as a co-researcher at the Public Health Department of Heilongjiang, China.  She suffered from sciatica and one needle insertion by Wan Cheng Liu stopped the pain.  She had come to him in distress and left delighted.  An even stranger case was that of a businessman who came with a trade delegation on a visit to Heilongjiang Province from Turkey.  He was afflicted by a strange ailment in which half his face would sweat and the other half would not (known as “yin-yang” face in Traditional Chinese Medicine).  The man had sought treatment in several countries and had not obtained a cure.  After checking into the Tian-E Hotel in Harbin, China, he requested the services of the highly reputable Wan Cheng Liu.  After a few needle insertions, the side of the face that wouldn’t sweat before was sweating now.  The Turkish businessman was shocked by the highly effective medical skill of the Chinese doctor.  Mr. Mohammed, the vice-president of the International Acupuncture Association and president of Chinese Acupuncture Medical Institute of Egypt invited Wan Cheng Liu on a speaking tour to Egypt.  Hong Kong, Korea, Germany, Indonesia, Hungary followed suit and invited him to treat their patients.  Ye Shi Fu, the chief editor of Singapore’s Sing Tao Daily had high praise for Wan Cheng Liu after obtaining relief from back pain and neurastheria with acupuncture treatment:  “The acupuncture technique of Dr. Liu from China is not just a skill, but is also an art.”

In his medical practice, Wan Cheng Liu is kind and compassionate towards his patients and displays utmost professionalism; he is both skillful and ethical.  In the area of traditional Chinese medicine, acupuncture theory and clinical research, he has obtained scientific achievements of great benefit to society.  Drawing from his experience in traditional Chinese medicine, acupuncture theory and clinical practice, he has developed many original new theories and acupuncture techniques.  First within China and then outside of China, publications and magazines would publish over 20 of his academic essays.  He authored The Handbook of Filiform Needle Practical Techniques, co-authored a major work on the topic of TCM and acupuncture in China called Compendium of Acupuncture and Moxibustion.   He was the first to develop and popularize an original system of theory and practice, including the painless needle insertion technique that is performed by flicking the needle.  His research of using acupuncture to treat dysfunctional uterine bleeding is considered leading edge, within and outside China.  Countless stubborn cases of dysfunctional uterine bleeding have been resolved by his acupuncture treatments.  Furthermore, when his scientific article Sixty Cases of Functional Uterine Bleeding and Their Treatment with Acupuncture was presented at the First World Conference on Acupuncture-Moxibustion in Beijing, it stirred great excitement and the conference produced Chinese, English, Japanese, and French versions of the article and distributed them within and outside China.

My article Vibrating Silver Needles appeared December 2, 1988 in the Heilongjiang Daily.  Soon after, Wan Cheng Liu published his article Treatment of Dysfunctional Uterine Bleeding With Acupuncture, which was presented in Japan at the third International Acupuncture Symposium.  Wan Cheng Liu was the head of a chapter association at the symposium.  His career was moving forward by leaps and bounds.  In the following order, he held positions of vice-chairman of the committee for the Harbin Institute of Traditional Chinese Medicine and Acupuncture, Chairman of the Harbin Chinese Medicine Research Institute for Difficult Diseases, member of the Chinese Acupuncture Association, and in 1991 he founded and headed of the The Amur School of Chinese Medicine and Acupuncture, and the Amur Institute of Traditional Chinese Medicine and Acupuncture.  He developed the painless needle insertion technique—a technique that has become widespread in acupuncture circles.  Wan Cheng Liu’s achievements have been reported inside and outside China in numerous newspapers and magazines, with reports on the miracle-like results in the treatment of fibroids and the like.  He was interviewed on Hungarian television and his biography has been recorded in Famous People in the Field of Chinese Medicine, Collected Biographies of Famous Doctors of Chinese Medicine and Cambridge’s The International Who’s Who of Intellectuals.

More than a decade passed, since Wan Cheng Liu went to Hungary in 1992 to accept a position as guest professor.  We lost contact and I only read about him occasionally in newspapers and magazines.  I never thought that we would meet again in Canada, and this meeting would be a very happy moment.

The Wan Cheng Liu that appeared before me was no longer as casual and elegant as in his youth.  He now had streaks of grey in his hair and was a slightly more stout, but he was still full of vigor and vitality, retaining the same appearance and personality.  He was straight forward, liberal, with a sense of humor and a twinkle in his eyes.  He was more reserved than before.  He told me that in Hungary he was respected in society, but the setting was not conducive to the development of Traditional Chinese Medicine, and so he responded to a friend’s invitation to Canada.  He considered Canada habitable and favorable to the development of Traditional Chinese Medicine.  Canada is multicultural, with a higher Chinese population, and this was a place where he could demonstrate his acupuncture talent.  I asked him about the current state of his endeavors.  He said that when he came to Canada, he established a home in a city in the north where he lived for five years.  Then just last year he established himself in Toronto.  Those in the profession of Traditional Chinese Medicine were numerous, some good, some bad, and it is hard for people to know who to go to.  The profession of Traditional Chinese Medicine was still not part of mainstream Canadian society, but with genuine talent one can accomplish a great deal in promoting the profession.   Right now he has a clinic in a bustling Toronto.  On some evenings he goes to his student’s clinic in Scarborough to treat patients.  He invented a painless needle insertion technique, a unique style that is now associated with his institute--the Amur Institute of Chinese Medicine and Acupuncture, an institute that is growing in Toronto with more and more newly trained people.  He has always focused his efforts on using genuine talent to treat patients.  He is not good at self-promotion, and so only a limited number of patients truly understand him.  Because of recommendations from friends that recognize his acupuncture talent, and patient testimonials, there is no shortage of repeat and enthusiast clients.  He invited me to visit the clinic during my free time.

I described to Wan Cheng Liu the current development in the field of medicine, and in the various professions in China.  I told him that if he was still in China today, he would probably be a highly paid, well known professor or head in a prestigious academic or medical institution.  If he was in private practice, it would be a booming practice and he would be swarmed by patients.  Being a humble person, he dismissed the scenario.

I got together with a few friends for a dinner party.  During the dinner, glasses were constantly being raised, and happy chatter was all around.  Wan Cheng Liu was certainly very knowledgeable,  he could talk just about anything; ancient times and the present, events inside/outside China, home and society, present day Canada, acupuncture, and healthy living.  Sometimes he told very entertaining stories triggering fits of laughter from others.

One evening, a couple of weeks later, I happened to have time on my hands and I dropped by Wan Cheng Liu’s clinic.  There were still a number of patients waiting for treatment.  Some were there on the recommendation of other patients.  I chatted with them and they told me many touching stories of Wan Cheng Liu’s gallantry and magic touch when it comes to performing acupuncture, and how he successfully treated many of their health problems.

After 47 year old Ms Li immigrated to Canada from Guangdong province of China, she soon discovered in 1998 that she had a uterine fibroid.  Because she was busy with her career, she did not take the time to deal with this issue.  This year in March she went for a hospital examination, and ultrasound results revealed that the size of the uterus was 9.8 X 6.4 X 5.2 cm, and there was a small cyst in the right ovary.  One option presented to her was surgery, but she refused because she had lost confidence in Western medicine.  She decided to try traditional Chinese medicine.  She searched the Chinese newspapers and saw countless ads for acupuncture and she was at a loss.  With a stroke of luck, she got a recommendation from someone, and found Wan Cheng Liu.  She received two courses of treatment from him lasting just over a month, and on May 3 she did another ultrasound at a hospital, and discovered that the uterine fibroid had completely disappeared.  Ms. Li was extremely grateful and happy.  In her words, “It’s all due to Dr. Liu.  Dr. Liu not only has good medical skills, he is also responsible to the patient.  With my uterine fibroid, the average practitioner may take a very long time to treat.  When Dr. Liu treated me, he insisted that I have an ultrasound done after the treatments to verify the effectiveness of the treatments.  Now not only the fibroid is gone, but the ovarian cyst is also gone”.

Rose had goiter and had been on medication for 15 years with little success.  She was usually lethargic and had the various symptoms that accompany goiter, along with an irregular period.  She had heard about traditional Chinese medicine and acupuncture, and had also gone to such a clinic for a few treatments, but without effect.  Later she read in a newspaper about the services of Dr. Wan Cheng Liu and a long list of ailments that was easily treated by him.  The ailments included dysfunctional uterine bleeding, uterine fibroids, ovarian cysts, goiter, mastitis, mast adenoma, headaches, leg pain, rheumatoid arthritis, and others.  She went to Wan Cheng Liu for treatment and after two weeks of acupuncture, her enlarged thyroid shrank and the appearance became normal.  The symptoms associated with the goiter disappeared, and her period became regular.  She was quite happy and she said, “I didn’t believe in acupuncture before, but now I recommend acupuncture to people.  Dr. Liu has a lot of experience.  The first time he analyzed my pulse he accurately described all my symptoms and that astonished me.”

Patients like Mr. Liu and Ms. Zhao told me stories about the phenomenal results that came with their treatments by Wan Cheng Liu.  The patient Mr. Liu works in the computer industry.  After living an imbalanced life style for quite some time, he developed health problems like arrhythmia, insomnia (or fitful sleep at best), lethargy, heart palpitations, attention deficit, and general weakness.  He underwent tests in hospital, but X-rays and electrocardiograms failed to pin-point the source of the problems.  He tried Chinese herbal medicine, and acupuncture with other practitioners, but to no avail.  Then he joined a friend in attending an academic lecture given by Wan Cheng Liu.  After the lecture Mr. Liu asked Wan Cheng Liu to give him a sample treatment on the spot.  The wonderful thing was that with the acupuncture needle insertion, he felt an immediate calmness, and the heart palpitation eased.  Upon returning home that night, he had good solid sleep.  From this time on, he made Wan Cheng Liu his acupuncturist.  Mr. Liu said, “Now I’m just about back to normal, Dr. Liu’s medical skill is so far the best I have seen.  In order to solidify the results, I hope to get a few more acupuncture treatments from Dr. Liu.”  Ms. Zhao obtained relief from swelling in the lower legs and numbness in the upper arms with 10 acupuncture needles.  According to her, “Dr. Liu has immense knowledge and in depth understanding of the theory in his field.  He can also speak English, Hungarian, and Korean.  He is upright, honest, and has a sense of justice.  I truly believe in him.”

The patients talked about their own experiences at the clinic, about Wan Cheng Liu becoming their friend, and about the experience of others.

Mr. Wan is a computer engineering consultant who immigrated to Canada from Hong Kong.  Mr. Wan’s wife is a software engineer, and they have two beautiful daughters.  One evening near the beginning of this year, after getting of work, Mrs. Wan came home and turned on the computer and continued to work.   Without warning, she fainted.  At hospital, she was diagnosed with having had a severe stroke.  She was paralyzed from the waist down, unable to speak, and suffering memory loss.  The hospital warned that she was on the verge of rupturing a blood vessel in her brain within the next 10 days.  She could die.  Mr. Wan, formerly a Judo athlete in Hong Kong, who was familiar with the concept of Chinese medicine and acupuncture.  He was determined to do his best and hope for the best.  Through friends he found Wan Cheng Liu.  Wan Cheng Liu was allowed to treat Mrs. Wan in hospital on after negotiations with the hospital and the signing a document absolving the hospital of any responsibility for the outcome.  Wan Cheng Liu performed a pulse diagnosis, and determined that not only could acupuncture bring Mrs. Wan out of her life-threatening situation, she also had a good chance of recovery.  Blood vessel rupture of the brain could be prevented in her case.  He requested that the patient have confidence and persevere with the treatment.  With regards to the cost of treatment, Mr. Wan indicated that he was willing to sell the house if that is what it takes to finance his wife’s treatment.  Wan Cheng Liu told him that he would treat his wife and that selling the house was unnecessary.  After three months of treatment, Mrs. Wan was able to leave hospital.  After the first treatment, Mrs. Wan recovered about 70% of her speech ability.  The first three weeks of treatment saw rapid progress.  Hospital personnel did daily examinations, the chief doctors caring for her were quite astonished and claimed it a miracle from God.  Currently Mr. Wan’s family is back to normal and happy again.

Another patient told this author that her friend’s wife, a Hong Kong immigrant, was suffering from diabetes, and was reliant on hormones to control her health problem.  Because of the side-effects of the drugs, she experienced complete numbness in the right leg.  She received acupuncture from a number of reputable practitioners, but the acupuncture did not bring feeling back to the leg.  Wan Cheng Liu was recommended for the job and five sessions was all it took to cure it.

Mr. Huang had studied acupuncture under Wan Cheng Liu and with deep sentiments he said, “In the past I studied acupuncture along with others, but the techniques were not the same.  My wife was suffering from arthritis, and I used the acupuncture that I previously learned.  It had a small effect, but it didn’t resolve the problem, and many sessions were required during the month.  My wife wasn’t happy about it and after a while she wouldn’t let me perform acupuncture on her anymore.  Using Dr. Liu’s technique, only one session was required and repeat sessions were not required for the rest of the month.  My wife was really happy with that.”

This author has discovered that a lot of Wan Cheng Liu’s patients have become his friends.  This clinic that is full of laughter has led me to truly believe that with his superior medical skill, and ethics, Wan Cheng Liu will realize his ambition and will greatly contribute to the profession of Traditional Chinese Medicine and Acupuncture in Canada.