Utrecht Meridian Lines
Dr Wang showing the translation between Dutch and Chinese names for some of the common medicinal plants growing in inner city Utrecht (Here we looked up the Ash and Angelica — Es en Engelwort)
Dr Guo-Dong Wang studying his translation reference and manual for Chinese medicinal plants
During the first days of the Grand Domestic Revolution residency, I met with the Chinese herbalist, Dr Guo-dong Wang, who has his medical practice downstairs in the Sino-Holland Chinese Medical Centre on the ground floor (below Grand Domestic Revolution apartment). Dr Wang set up his Acupuncture and Chinese medicine practice three years ago. Over jasmine tea I asked him about how some of the medicinal plants that I had found in abundance during my first days wondering through Utrecht (such as Lime flower, Angelica, Common ash and the Lime tree parasite Artist’s conk fungus) are also used in his Chinese medical practice. Dr Wang having clocked up quite some experience in Shanghai pharmacies making recipes of herb concoctions told me about the arduous specifications and rules of preparing and drying the herbs for medicinal use. The secret lies in the preparation methods and the dosage.
Since he opened his practice in Utrecht, the most common complaints and disorders he treats people for are Chronic fatigue, Rheumatism, Back and shoulder problems, Allergies (in that order) also suggest that people are more likely to go for Chinese medical treatment for diseases that can not be proved through diagnostic laboratory tests. Rheumatism is perhaps not that surprising given the swampish humidity of the Dutch climate. The majority of his patients are middle-aged to elderly.
Although Dr Wang does not seem completely convinced that the plants sourced from Utrecht could be prepared in the same way needed for the strict processes of Chinese medicine, we both agreed that making a kind of urban Materia Medica could be a means to map some of the most recurring medicinal plant species and their medicinal usage in western European cities, especially since the plant communities throughout European urbanized zones are very similar. This made me think of each city as a system of interconnected flows and meridian lines. Like organs in a body, not one plant, animal or human can be be seen interdependently from the body of the city and it’s many umwelts and registers of ecologies.