I've Been Cupped!

4.29.2009

In my last blog about living in the Wu, I mentioned that my masseuse asked me if I wanted to get "cupped" to help my cold and cough. I would guess that most people don't know what this is exactly; it is an ancient Eastern practice. The only time I know that people in the West were talking about it was when Gwyneth Paltrow exposed a few "cupping marks" at a premiere about 8 years ago.

Sixiao had done it once shortly after she arrived in Beijing-- she sent me pictures of her back afterward and I was mortified. It looked really painful. She assured me it was useful. I remained skeptical.

When my masseuse asked me the other night, I began to say no, but then stopped to consider. My cold & cough was actually extra bothersome since I am now back in the classroom-- running a phonetic class for survival level students isn't exactly easy when everything you say comes out with a nasal tone and pausing to cough between every instruction isn't desirable, either. Curiosity also played a factor in my considering. I was curious about the process, how it would feel, and mostly if it would be at all effective. Even if it didn't work, though, I thought to myself, "Hey it's China. I'll try anything once. Why not?" With that mentality, the last but not least of my deciding factors was: "Duo shao qian?" (How much money?)

"San shi," he said. (30 RMB/$4).

"Hao de. Yao." (Good. I want it).

He left the room and came jingling back in a few minutes later pushing a cart overflowing with round glass jars, like the ones on the right.

He pulled a curtain shut and asked me to remove my shirt and lay face down. "Keyi ma?" (Alright?)

Once I was lying face down, he unsnapped my bra [Yes, this was awkward. I reprimanded myself for not thinking to do this] and rubbed some kind of oil or lotion up and down my back. After I was oiled up, I heard the click of a lighter as he prepared the first cup. I felt it leech on. I tensed up.

"Tong ma?" (Hurt?) he asked.

"Yi dian dian," (A little) I replied. He took the cup, now suctioned onto my skin, and glided it up and down, down and up. He repeated this process with 3 different cups.

During my full body massage just before this, my stuffy nose had been getting extra stuffy as I laid face down, coughing sporadically through the hole of the massage table. After the second "gliding" cup my nose was completely clear & my urge to cough had disappeared. I was amazed, but still skeptical. Could this really work?

Once the gliding portion was finished, I heard him prepare another cup and stuck it firmly on my lower back. Then another. So it went --cup, flame, suck! cup, flame, suck!-- until there were 15 glass cups sticking to my back and shoulders. Some hurt more than others as some had a tighter vacuum and some has less skin to suck onto (like on my shoulder blade). With all cups strategically in place, he lay a blanket over me and my 15 new appendages and left the room.

It is hard to describe the feeling of 15 glass jars pulling on your skin simultaneously. Okay, not hard to describe-- impossible to describe. The best way I can explain it is that it almost feels as though you have 15 glass jars pulling on your skin simultaneously.

After an intense 10 or 15 minutes, my guy came back into the room. He proceeded to remove each cup by pushing down on the skin next to the cups and sliding his finger under the rim until it came off with a pop! I was told to lay there for a few more minutes and was given hot tea to sip on. After my tea was finished, I was told I could get dressed and go home, but to make sure I didn't shower or bathe that night. (No clue why).

My back felt a little tender and I figured I'd be bruised by the next day. When I got home and looked in the mirror, though, I saw this:


Instantaneous bruises!! I couldn't believe it. Way darker than I had envisioned, too.

For the next few days, I couldn't sleep on my back or even sit back in a chair. Did it cure my cold and cough? Nope. I was left with the cold, cough, 15 bruises, and the inability to wear any tanktops in public. My friend asked me if I regretted doing it. I replied that the experience was cool, but it was the bruising that sucked! [Then I realized it was also the sucking that bruised]. While I have no regrets it is definitely something I would do once and only once!