Taipei honors herbal-medicine specialists

In a bid to promote the use of Chinese herbal medicine, the Taipei City Government yesterday held an awards ceremony to recognize outstanding people and businesses in the field.

The ceremony, jointly sponsored by the Bureau of Health and the Taipei Chinese Herbal Apothecary Association, honored 198 businesses as well as 30 veterans, or senior masters, who have been in the field for more than 35 years, as well as two family businesses that are more than a century old.

According to Bureau of Health Director Chiu Shu-shih (邱淑媞), yesterday was the first time the Taipei City Government had held such a ceremony.

"With this ceremony, we hope to create a win-win situation for businesses specializing in Chinese herbal medicine and consumers," Chiu said.

"We hope the businesses will be encouraged to enhance their service and quality, which in turn will guarantee consumers' rights by providing them with a safe and satisfactory product," Chiu said.

Chiu said that the businesses were judged by a set of criteria including cleanliness and whether or not they used legal ingredients in their medication, a standard that took into account the use of wild animal parts.

"Animal parts, minerals and herbs used to be the three main ingredients in Chinese herbal medicine," said Lin Ching-yi (林進益), director of the apothecary association. "However, since the government outlawed the use of animal parts, we no longer use them as ingredients in Chinese herbal medicine."

Through the awards ceremony, Chiu said that the bureau also hopes to ensure the continued existence of the field, "for the profession itself is declining."

Awarded for their century-old operations, Chuang Tien-ching (莊添慶) and Hsieh Cheng-hsiang (謝振祥) stood out among the award winners.

Chuang, whose father founded the business in 1877, said he began his apprenticeship by his father's side when he was six years old.

"My interest in and enthusiasm for this field just grows stronger," the 82-year-old told the Taipei Times. Though elderly and ready to hand the establishment down to the next generation, Chuang still manages the shop.

Hsieh, 73, the third generation to operate the family business that was founded in 1875 by his grandfather, has also been involved with Chinese herbal medicine since he was a kid.

When asked his thoughts on receiving the "Century Establishment Award" from Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), Hsieh was humble.

"Helping others is all that counts," he said.