CHINESE WOMEN IN HAWAI`I:
MASTER CHANG

Dr. Lily Siou Ph.D., Taoist Master Chang I Hsiang known to her students as Shih Fu Chang was trained from the age of six at the Lung Hu Shan Monasteries in China. She was sent to the monasteries during the troubled times of the early 1950s in China. Lily's parents felt she would be safer there. She did not see her mother again for 20 years.

"With the monks in China, we ate dry lily flower, dry fungus that grows in the trees, dry black mushrooms, Chinese broccoli, and other roots. The root vegetables that grow in the mountain have a lot of natural minerals and fiber."

She was a serious student of ancient art of Chi Kung and mastered the Six Arts of the Chou Dynasty. She also studied Traditional Chinese Medicine at Soochow Hospital College, where she became a Doctor of Chinese Medicine. She was trained to be a living bridge between East and West to help preserve, teach, and practice her ancient art and philosophy. Her goals were to teach Taoist healing arts through acupuncture, Chinese herbs, and Chi Kung.

"You know you'd be surprised at women in China. They think that the woman actually runs, is the most powerful position. Women keep their own name in China -- their last names -- through out their whole life. They control the finance of the house and they are respected. I mean, socially, men are the one, the power, but actually, domestically, it's the opposite."

She settled in Hawai`i and in 1970 established the non-profit Tai Hsuan Foundation, a monastery, clinic and accredited College of Acupuncture and Herbal Medicine.

"Monks in the mountain, they have no stress of the society to meet appointments. You know, here everybody's giving you a bad time and everybody's angry. You have to learn how to deal with people and over there it's really peaceful. Peaceful. Only use so little bit energy, only burning so little bit. In America it's a 1000 watts strong burning, you know. High stress."

Shih Fu Chang and her students have worked to create greater public awareness of acupuncture, promoted the formation of the State Board of Acupuncture, and lobbied for the first acupuncture licensing bill passed in 1974. She served as the Commissioner of the first Hawai`i state Board of Acupuncture from 1974 to 1978. The 12th State Legislature of the state of Hawai`i honored her with the designation of Living Treasure for her lifetime dedication to teaching and healing.

"I encourage women to become Chi Kung healers, doctors in China. So many women are doctors. Actually there are more women than men --women surgeons, women doctors, women practitioners, all over. It's strange, in America, liberated women, but they'll never have that kind of power. They always marry and get their husbands' name. That's the wrong way. And then they never really had any practical power. So I think it's different."