DIFFERENTIATING SHA FROM BLOOD STASIS

As a traditional therapeutic practice, gua sha (刮痧) has been controversial because of its differences from the theoretical understandings of modern Western medicine. We present an analysis of the historical evolution of the concept, treatments and theoretical origins of gua sha based on previous studies and examines the practice of gua sha from the perspective of scientific multiculturalism. It stresses that the body concept and the medical theory represented by this therapy are also parts of science in a diversified and broader sense. The resolution of disputes about gua sha requires a change in people's conservative mindset to adopt a position of scientific multiculturalism.