Subhi, a 40-year-old advertising professional who commutes daily to and from work, is one of the patients receiving care from Ousama Habiballah, the first and only Palestinian in the West Bank city of Ramallah to have had formal training in traditional Chinese medicine.
For almost two months, Dr. Habiballah has been providing Subhi with weekly 40-minute sessions of acupuncture, cupping and therapeutic massage at his one-room practice within an alternative medicine clinic inside an office tower in downtown Ramallah.
The combination treatment helps stimulate blood circulation and the flow of "qi," or vital energy, and restore balance in the body, thereby reducing pain and fatigue, Habiballah said, applying heated cupping and acupuncture on Subhi.
"I feel more relaxed and feel the tension greatly reduced. The muscles are more relaxed; the shoulders are more relaxed; the neck is more flexible," Subhi said after the procedures. "There's a big difference."
Habiballah, in his early 30s, graduated from the University of Traditional Chinese Medicine in Beijing in 2011. He takes an average of six patients a day at his practice, which has been in business for almost three years.
Sometimes he travels to East Jerusalem to work at a clinic dedicated to traditional medicine.
Habiballah said his dream is to open a comprehensive center in the West Bank for Chinese philosophy and medicine.
"I think that this center can promote the Chinese methods of therapy to heal problems," Habiballah said. "It can be a center for healthy people as well, offering courses in martial arts, de-stressing techniques and even herbal remedies."
CHINESE LANGUAGE: BRIDGE OF COMMUNICATION
For 87-year-old Peruvian sinologist Guillermo Danino, the Chinese Belt and Road Initiative means stronger cultural and humanitarian ties between China and Latin America.
Professor Danino, who has made it his lifelong mission to introduce Chinese culture to the Latin American people, has created courses in four of the most prominent universities in Peru, stoking his students' passion for China studies.
Danino's love affair with Chinese culture started more than thirty years ago. As a professor of literature and linguistics at Peru's National University of San Marcos, Danino was invited at that time by the Chinese government to teach Spanish grammar and other subjects to the teachers at Nanjing University in Jiangsu Province.
Yet for Danino, who has even acted in Chinese films, the hobby that changed his life involved translating ancient Chinese poetry, which also became his most celebrated feat in introducing Chinese culture to the Spanish-speaking world.
He first became interested in Chinese poetry when he was given the book, "100 poems from the Tang Dynasty," a selection of famous pieces created during the golden age of ancient Chinese poetry.
The translation, published in 1996, became the first collection of Tang-Dynasty poetry directly translated from Chinese into Spanish in Latin America.
Unsatisfied, Danino made forays into Chinese history, ancient essays and folk stories, and wrote about his daily experiences in China.
Altogether, the Peruvian professor published more than 20 Spanish-language books on China, including nine translations of classical Chinese poetry.
Aimed at helping Spanish-speaking audiences understand the Asian giant, Danino's "most important work so far" as he called it is the "Encyclopedia of Chinese Culture" which was published in 2013 and contains more than 600 entries about China's history, culture, religion and important figures.
In an article published in local Chinese media in Peru, Danino called on Chinese people to study traditional culture and introduce its core values to the Western world.
"As a native Peruvian, I would like to tell you, hundreds and thousands of Chinese descendants and overseas Chinese, be proud of your culture and your motherland! Please don't stop learning, promoting and spreading Chinese culture. In this way, you will make a greater contribution to Peru and the world."
