06.11.07
Ba Guan, Chinese Fire Cupping (拔罐)
On my second to last night in the barbershop, I was giving a massage to one of our regular customers who is a good friend of Mr. Zheng. She asked me to pull down her shirt a bit in back, and have a look. There was a long red scar going down her back. “It’s from gua sha. Have you ever had one?” she said.
Gua sha (刮痧) is a Chinese medical treatment in which a smooth edge is rubbed up and down the back after applying a lubricant. The result is a red bruise which makes the recipient look like a torture victim. Last week I had seen Xiao Wang perform an amateur gua sha on Adamum in the store, and insisted I would never get one no matter how good it felt.
“No, I’ve never tried gua sha. How was it?” I replied to the woman.
“It’s great. You really should try it sometime. What about ba guan?” she asked.
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| Xiao Wang gives an in-store gua sha to Adamum |
Ba guan (拔罐) also known as “fire cupping,” is another Chinese medical treatment in which a vacuum is created by fire in glass cups which are placed on the patients back. The resulting suction is believed to cleanse toxins, and also provide treatment to diseases such as pneumonia and the common cold. If you have ever seen people in China with large circular purple bruises on their back, this is what it is from.
“I haven’t tried that either.”
“Wanna try?” she asked. By this time Mr. Zheng was listening in on our conversation. “How about I take both of you out to the sauna after work and you can try it out,” she continued.
Now up until this point, I had been steering away from any activity or benefits which might separate me from the other employees, but I must admit I was also quite interested to try out ba guan for myself.
“Sure, why not. Let’s do it,” I told her. By this time, several of my coworkers had been listening in, and began questioning if me if I really thought I could go through with it. Chinese medicine has a reputation for pain and bad tastes, and foreigners (probably rightly so) are often perceived as not being able to take it. Putting on an arrogant air of machoness, I told them I could take the pain and would come back the next day with the scars to prove it.
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| The plate of glass cups which will momentarily be heated and placed on my back. |
The woman drove Mr. Zheng and I to a sauna near the barber shop. Like any Chinese sauna, the men and women have to separate and you go into a locker room where you are followed by a little Chinese guy wearing a tuxedo top who stands next to you as you strip down naked. After you take a shower he hands you the sauna clothes, a loose-fitting pajama-like garment which comes in a top and a bottom.
After we took a shower and put on our sauna clothes, Mr. Zheng and I were led into a massage room. Mr. Zheng had opted out of the ba guan, and instead ordered a massage. A few minutes later, a young girl came in and began massaging Mr. Zheng’s back. I must add that the thought of having a massage is ten times more appealing after you have spent the day massaging other people. But I had chosen my destiny, and it was too late to back out now. Just then, my server walked in the door. But instead of a cute little massage girl, it was a young guy with a full plate of glass cups and metal tongs. Let’s call him Frank out of convenience.
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| Frank gets everything prepared…Do they use these kinds of tools in Western medicine? |
“Just tell me if it’s uncomfortable,” he said which is Chinese for “This is going to hurt like hell.”
Mr. Zheng confirmed with me once more that I really wanted to go through with the process, and fearing the embarrassment of having come this far only to return to the barber shop the following day without a back looking like a detainee at a torture camp, I decided to proceed.
The massage bed had a hole for the head, so I lay face down, with my head in the hole, and could not see anything which was going on. First Frank applied an ointment or lubricant to my back. After this, I began to feel the suction of one of the cups on my back. The suction is created by a flame which is ignited inside the cups before they are applied, so when the cup was applied to my back it was still hot, but not hot enough to be uncomfortable. I could feel the flesh being sucked up in the cup, when all of a sudden…”pop.” He pulled it up. The process was then repeated over and over again. A hot cup was placed on different spots on my back, and then removed a few seconds later, providing a rhythm of “pop’s” up and down my backside. After about five minutes of this, I began to feel a hot scraping on my back. It felt as if somebody was running a smooth stone down my back and scraping off the skin, although not quite that painful. At this point, I did have to chicken out and ask Frank to stop. I still have no idea what he was actually doing, as the whole time my face was stuck face down in the head hole in the bed. As Frank moved on to the final stage, I could hear the hot flame igniting the cups as one by one he placed each of the hot cups in different points along my back. After ten minutes, my entire back was covered in hot cups, all simultaneously sucking upwards on my back skin. It was a little awkward, slightly painful, but one of the more relaxing sensations I have ever experienced. Generally speaking, I do not take pain too well, and I am not a masochist, but the pain on my back actually felt good. I lay face down on the bed, with my back being sucked up by the hot cups for ten minutes before Frank came back to remove them pop by pop.
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My back is completely covered in glass cups.
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“Don’t take a shower for the next 12 hours, and if it itches, it is best not to scratch it,” he told me as he removed the cups. After we were finished, Mr. Zheng and I went back to the locker room, where the first thing I did was look at my back in the mirror. I had done the ba guan, my body felt great, and I had the large circular red scars on my back to prove it to my coworkers. From what I had heard they would be turning purple within the next day or two.
The cost of the service was 40 RMB, though I have heard it is cheaper if done at a more rustic venue. Although my understanding of ba guan and Chinese medicine as a whole is quite limited, I would recommend ba guan to anybody who is interested in trying something new. (And if anybody out there is more familiar with Chinese medicine, and can elaborate on ba guan’s effects that would be great). Although the effects were nothing extraordinary, my back felt great afterwards, and it was not nearly as painful as it looks from the pictures.
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| After the cups are removed, I am left with these lovely bruises. This shot could really freak out a mother if not placed into context, eh? |
toomanytribbles
said,
June 11, 2007 at 5:43 pm
they used to do this in greece, also — in greek it’s called ventouzes.
this page has more info: http://www.massagecupping-nw.com/pages/
and this in greek: http://www.tiny.cc/1EnKt which is probably useless to you but, hey, it’s free.
anyway, cupping might feel good, but i have yet to see evidence that it’s effective medicine.
and while i’m here, i really enjoy your blog.
ym
said,
June 11, 2007 at 5:49 pm
It really looks horrible from the last picture!
maxiewawa
said,
June 11, 2007 at 5:50 pm
I had valve suction cups recently. Instead of using heat, there is a valve at the top of the cup, and a pump removes air, resulting in a vacuum that sucks up the flesh.
It felt slightly weird, I got the bruises, but didn’t feel any different afterward. No pain, but no difference in back feeling at all actually.
Zhongtang
said,
June 11, 2007 at 8:28 pm
How many days do the purple spots remain on your back ?
I guess people living in Qingdao don’t do Ba Guan before going to the beach.
长舟丫
said,
June 12, 2007 at 12:21 am
Aaah, ba guan is so great! This post makes me want to go back to my Chinese medicine doctor woman again before I leave the country. As a person with an unnecessarily wimpy and tense back, I can vouch for ba guan’s usefulness – it definitely brings relief and comfort to muscles, though whether it cures colds I don’t know
And pretty interesting to see how much of your flesh those things actually suck up. I really don’t remember feeling any pain at all, though my doctor didn’t do that rapid-fire popping thing – eek! It was just stick them all on, leave ba guan-ee to lie there clinking softly for twenty minutes, then gently break the vacuum in each of the 17 jars.
I’m so glad we still get to read about your barbershop project. Hurray!
Dave Walker
said,
June 12, 2007 at 1:01 am
Just in case in the future, you can use Ultrasurf to ultra surf around the great firewall if ever this fantastic blog should be blocked. Keep up the good work.
Handan
said,
June 12, 2007 at 1:06 pm
Tense back and neck, aching here and there when you stretch, more likely has the root cause in slight spinal dislocations, which brings the supporting muscles out of their original position and keeps them tensed up day and night. I used to have really tense back and neck from sitting at the computer like 10 hours a day or more. Was fortunate enough to have run into a good spinal doctor who brings spines back to good shape with traditional message techniques.
My doctor works in a commuty message parlor which brands itself as a TCM clinic. It’s actually something in between. They offer message, both the general type and treatment for back problems, foot message, ba guan, gua sha and acupuncture.
Since my doc magically(in my eyes of low expectation on a shady message parlor) rid me of all my back problems in a course of four days, I’ve been treating him meals in gratitude and compensation for the low treatment fee (50 kuai for an hour) and consulting him on TCM.
He himself turns to ba guan when he gets a cold or a headache from sleeping under a fan over night in his shabby dorm, and it relieves the symptoms fairly effectively. Gua sha is not his recommendation, though.
chriswaugh_bj
said,
June 12, 2007 at 1:59 pm
A former student of mine used to show up to class with maxiewawa’s valve-sucker version of ba guan. He’d stick it on his girlfriend’s neck and start sucking the air out, then, more often than not, she’d turn around and slap him on whichever surface was most convenient.
And I’ve seen my mother in law do the homemade version to cure headaches: baijiu glass, match, stick it to her forehead. The result was a nasty bruise with a bit of charcoal from the match smeared over it.
That last photo is awesome. Get a friend to email it to your mother with a story about how you got arrested for impersonating a barber- she’ll be in Fuzhou so fast she’d put Concorde to shame. Second thoughts, better just send her the photo with a proper explanation.
Ben
said,
June 12, 2007 at 3:51 pm
@Zhongtang
I’m not really sure how long they are supposed to last, but I got it done on the 4th, and I just checked and the spots are still there, albeit faintly, so I’d say about a week, or a little more.
Imagethief
said,
June 12, 2007 at 11:43 pm
Imagethief gets old
Three years old, that is. Don’t worry, I’m not throwing in the towel. I just note that today, June 12th,
Jen
said,
June 13, 2007 at 2:28 am
I used to have ba guan done on my lower back after acupuncture when I lived in London (there was a little TCM place right in between Ealing Broadway tube and Ealing Studios, where I was in school); on the recommendation of both the Chinese girls in my class. I quite enjoyed the experience. Along with the acupuncture (which included my ankle; it has screws and was just hurting a lot) it really helped my back.
Was the ointment kind of a brown color? They used Wong To Yick’s Wood Lock oil on me before and after. It’s a topical analgesic made of camphor, menthol, methyl salicylate and turpentine oil. Good stuff. I’m almost out of it, actually, and need to get online and order some more.
jc@Shanghai
said,
June 13, 2007 at 11:43 am
After I had one of the ba guan session a couple of years ago, the man doing this on me told me that I must have been having more pain in my right back/shoulder than the left side – which was exactly the case as I was having a mouse in my right hand at least 5 hours a day! He explained that he could see this as the “scars” on the right shoulder are much more brown/dark then other places. Well it didn’t cure it off but I did feel much better for the next few weeks.
Wonder what kind of science is behind that …
The Humanaught
said,
June 13, 2007 at 8:42 pm
Hey Ben, you’re a brave guy. I bought some family members home-cupping kits (not half as dirty as that sounds) for souvenirs when I went back last summer – we got a big kick out of putting one or two on our arms – this is something else entirely.
Like acupuncture and eating elk hoof, this is just something I’m avoiding for as long as I can (though I know it – like the elk hoof – is inevitable).
Gordon
said,
June 14, 2007 at 12:16 pm
I had Gua Sha once – that was the first and last time.
My wife accompanied me to the massage parlor down the road from us in Chengdu. I was on one table with two lovely girls giving me an hour-long body massage for 15Kuai while my wife laid on another table across from me receiving a her massage from a well-built Chinese male. After my time was up, the girls asked me if I would like to have a gua sha. Not knowing what that was, but thinking that it sounded like something sexy and liking the idea of having two girls do this for me, I asked my wife who gave a sheepish smile of approval. Things went downhill from there.
The girls disappeared and Mr. Muscle man came over to my table where he pulled out a bamboo-looking comb and proceeded to give me my gua sha (scrape the bone). That was the longest damn 15 minutes of my life and I carried the marks with me for at least two weeks. My wife still laughs to this very day whenever she thinks about it.
myst
said,
June 20, 2007 at 2:37 am
your cupping looked relatively strong. it doesn’t have to be that strong- depends on the person’s constitution and condition etc, and of course the approach of the practitioner. often the marks (just bruises- hopefully not scars!) are gone within a couple of days, a week is on the long side.
many cultures developed versions of cupping. it breaks small capillaries, stimulating local circulation. good for relaxing muscles. helps move stagnant qi and blood, so to speak. supposed to also work for colds etc. but you don’t necessarily have to use such strong stimulation, so many cups etc. it’s a useful therapy but there are different ways to approach it. same with gua sha- not necessarily a scary experience, minus Mr. Muscle man.
Pete
said,
June 21, 2007 at 6:56 am
You know that cupping was also a remedy for eastern european jews, called “bahnkes” in yiddish. My dad used to get it growing up in the Brooklyn tenements whenever they got a cold. The resultant hickey would be interpreted as “the poisons” coming up out of the skin.
Now the preferred ethnic remedy is looking up a physician in the directory of medical specialties and cross-referencing with USNews’ best hospitals list
. Funny how things change.
I love your blog to pieces.
Sally Ross
said,
June 29, 2007 at 3:12 am
You’re right this makes a mother worry – your mother! Did you ever think that maybe the reason it feels better afterwards is that it hurts like hell in the process? If not, then you may also want to check out the Miracle Spring Water that they try to sell on BET at 2AM.
My Opinions Are Important » Blog Archive » Setting fire to your back is fun
said,
June 29, 2007 at 8:12 am
[...] Fire cupping is the name given to a bizarre Chinese medical treatment by which glass cups are attached to one’s back and fire is added. The fire creates a vacuum in the cups, causing suction. [...]
tayfun
said,
July 20, 2007 at 7:49 pm
that’s done in Turkey as well.
I had it done a few times, especially when i was a child.
Marta
said,
September 29, 2008 at 4:48 pm
You know, in Poland we also do this ‘fire-cupping’ thing, it’s called ‘bańki’ or ‘banki’, similar to the yiddish term, and is performed as a cure for severe colds. I did get it as a little child, what a horrible experience it was!
Scott Humm
said,
April 8, 2009 at 4:42 pm
Just reading through your blog now, and thought I’d comment on my guasha experience in Beijing.
The lady doing it not only charged me 200 kuai for the treatment (cupping, the scraping and a box of burning something or other placed on my stomach), but also managed to burst the skin on my stomach by using too strong a suction. This got infected, and I had to get it dressed every day at the local hospital. I also couldn’t take a shower for 2 months, and I now have a inch-long scar on my stomach. Needless to say, I will never again go for cupping!
Dave
said,
October 7, 2010 at 7:47 am
cry baby
Ben
said,
April 5, 2011 at 3:13 am
I had 刮痧 done by my Vietnamese girlfriend in 2005. I was literally going to die of Flu when she did it for me. I had no idea what was going on, but this really did save me, or so I believed at the time.
Yesterday I had 拔罐 treatment in Zhuhai and I loved it. I will continue to use these methods in the future for sure!