Nguyễn Tài Thu (6 April 1931 – 14 February 2021) was a

Vietnamese Vietnamese may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Vietnam, a country in Southeast Asia * Vietnamese people, or Kinh people, a Southeast Asian ethnic group native to Vietnam ** Overseas Vietnamese, Vietnamese people living outside Vietna ...

physician A physician, medical practitioner (British English), medical doctor, or simply doctor is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through the Medical education, study, Med ...

, well-known for his specialty in

traditional Chinese medicine Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is an alternative medicine, alternative medical practice drawn from traditional medicine in China. A large share of its claims are pseudoscientific, with the majority of treatments having no robust evidence ...

(TCM), notably acupuncture treatment. He was awarded various titles. He also had relations with 38 different countries in the world about science technology and was a professor and honorary doctor of 16 overseas universities. Because of his achievements in research and application, he was then called ''The King of Acupuncture'', etc.

Biography

Professor Thu was born on 6 April 1931 in a rural village of Kim Hoàng, Vân Canh commune,

Hoài Đức District Hoai is a given name (Vietnamese have their surname first, followed by their given name). Notable people with this given name include: * Phạm Thị Hoài (born 1960), Vietnamese writer, editor and translator * Trần Văn Hoài (1929–2010 ...

Hanoi Hanoi ( ; ; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Vietnam, second-most populous city of Vietnam. The name "Hanoi" translates to "inside the river" (Hanoi is bordered by the Red River (Asia), Red and Black River (Asia), Black Riv ...

to a Confucian family. In the 1940s, when

was attacked by many bullets and bombs, after witnessing many injured and dead people because of war, he dreamed of becoming a doctor in order to treat them. In 1952, he followed his dream to become a acupuncturist, he then first tried learning to insert acupuncture needles in himself and finally inserting them in people. In 1953, after studying the first year in Resistance Medical University (now called Hanoi Medical University), he was sent to

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

to study

for 6 years. He graduated as TCM doctor in 1958, and came back to Vietnam to serve several local military hospitals. In the end of 1950s, he invented a new acupuncture technique which later was called ''tân châm'', literally means ''renew acupuncture''. By the year of 1967, he conducted deeply his

field research Field research, field studies, or fieldwork is the collection of raw data outside a laboratory, library, or workplace setting. The approaches and methods used in field research vary across disciplines. For example, biologists who conduct fi ...

inside a clinic of Hanoi TCM Association. He began researching by trying to insert needles of different lengths to cure. The first Vietnam Acupuncture Association was established by his proposal in year 1968. After that, Professor Thu and colleagues developed their association from zero to nearly ten thousand members and trained hundreds of acupuncturists with postgraduate qualifications. To now, hospitals in Vietnam all have acupuncture subjects. The Vietnam Acupuncture Institute was also founded by him in 1982 and has become a familiar place for international acupuncture scientists. He was fluent in

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Mandarin Mandarin or The Mandarin may refer to: Language * Mandarin Chinese, branch of Chinese originally spoken in northern parts of the country ** Standard Chinese or Modern Standard Mandarin, the official language of China ** Taiwanese Mandarin, Stand ...

, and English and taught many students, experts in

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and

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. He also founded several medical and technology transferring centers in

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, etc.

Achievements

His biggest achievement is many books focusing on each type of acupuncture, which are the useful handbooks for doctors and acupuncturists. Specially, the numb acupuncture and drug addiction treatment acupuncture (which was also applied by Ministry of Health, resulting in 5% to 10% of drug re-addicted people) were introduced to 50 countries. He also applied successfully long-needle technique of acupuncture with the needle length of over 60 centimeters to insert into acupuncture points that are deep in the body to cure disease. In the late 1950s, he invented ''tân châm'' (renew acupuncture), which is a acupuncture technique using longer and bigger needles than traditional acupuncture technique. The traditional one uses 1 to 5 centimeters length needles while the renew one uses 30 to 50 centimeters length needles that are needed for deep acupuncture points to create huge impact and shorten treatment time. His electroacupuncture technique to relieve pain on surgery was performed in over 100,000 surgeries including 60 different types of surgery with the cure rate of 98.3%. At the ICMART Xi World Medical Acupuncture Congress which took place on 4 October 2004 in

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, the drug addiction treatment acupuncture technique was the first one of 280 research papers that was welcomed warmly. The Chinese delegate also recognized the success of the work. The work was then accepted by Ministry of Health of Vietnam and he directly applied the procedures in training courses in 21 provinces and was continuing to be deployed on a large scale. Professor Thu was rewarded with many titles by Party and state such as People's Physician (1995), 1st class Labor Order (1999), Hero of Labor (2000), etc. On 8 March 2006, Professor Thu was awarded an honorary doctorate by

Autonomous University of Zacatecas The Universidad Autónoma de Zacatecas (UAZ) (Autonomous University of Zacatecas) is a Mexican public research university based in the city of Zacatecas, Zacatecas, but with several campuses across the state. It is considered both the most pres ...

(UAZ), to recognize the professor's contributions to the development of local acupuncture therapeutic services in

Zacatecas Zacatecas, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Zacatecas, is one of the Political divisions of Mexico, 31 states of Mexico. It is divided into Municipalities of Zacatecas, 58 municipalities and its capital city is Zacatecas City, Zacatec ...

state,

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nguyen, Tai Thu 1931 births 2021 deaths 20th-century Vietnamese physicians 21st-century Vietnamese physicians Vietnamese academics Traditional Chinese medicine Acupuncturists Academics from Hanoi Vietnamese expatriates in China