Reflexology finds a foothold

After considerable local and international media coverage 20 years ago, Eugster gained fame and a flock of foot-massage followers. Shuttling from workshops to hospitals and speaking engagements, the fruit of Eugster's work can be seen in nearly every city in Taiwan, with around 1,000 foot massage parlors on the island, according to Cheng. And it's become more popular, losing its focus on therapy and becoming more of a superficial consumer fad.

It's also become a huge money-making enterprise lacking in regulation. Some parlors have developed into multi-function health centers. In addition to offering foot massage, one parlor called Tsai Chun Kuan (再春館), also sells Chinese herbal medicine, herbal-medicated cuisine, chinese tea pots, and even offers kung fu and tai chi. Another smaller parlor called Lien-ho (聯合), sells lottery tickets to clients on the side.

Tsai Chun Kuan has also contracted with several travel agencies to bus tourists directly to the parlor. Tourists pay NT$700 for a half-hour foot massage, NT$200 of which goes to the travel agents. For Japanese, it's still a reasonable price compared with what they would pay in Japan.

Currently in Taiwan, the price for a foot massage is between NT$500 and NT$700 for 30 minutes. There is no regulation of price or quality, which can vary widely.

Lu Wan-ping (呂萬賓), one of the 20 massage therapists at Tsai Chun Kuan, said that on a good day there can be 100 customers, half of whom are Japanese. "We are all trained well at the ROC Foot Reflexology Association (足部反射區健康法協會)," he said. Lu said it is easy to begin a career as a massage therapist because the expense of opening a parlor can be kept quite low. The recent high unemployment rate has motivated more people to learn the trade.

Since 1984, the Cabinet-level Department of Health (衛生署) has categorized foot massage as a form of folk therapy and not as medical practice, keeping it free of any legal regulation or official certification. Most of the massage therapists learn their skills as private apprentices.

The ROC Foot Reflexology Association, founded by Cheng and Eugster, is the only group in Taiwan that certifies massage therapists in their chosen trade. But there remains a void of institutionalization on the correct practice and technique of foot reflexology, according to Cheng.

"If they want to use my name, they have to employ my standard of skill and quality of practice," Eugster said. "I'll have to train them myself."