By Amanda Lee Anderson

On Tuesday, September 25, Magdalen Hsu-Li gave a lecture entitled “Evolution: A Woman of Color’s Journey Into Health.” It waa presented as a part of the Women’s Empowerment Lecture Series, sponsored by the Student Life Office, the Women’s Center,the Women’s Empowerment Committee, and the Student Activities Board. In the lecture, she gave a personal health history, adn described how every individual could achieve health through use of the Five Element System of Medicine. She is currently a renowned singer, songwriter, and artist, and is one of the first Chinese-American musicians to emerge in the U.S. as an acoustic/pop/alternative star. She has shared the stage with the B-52s, Grace Jones, and Cece Peniston. Her painting career began in 1988 as she began attending the distinguished Rhode Island School of Design, and was awarded the Chicago Institute of the Arts Oxbow Fellowship, the Talbot Rantoul Scholarship, and the Florence Leif award for excellence in painting. In 1992 she moved to Seattle to begin studying classical piano and voice, as well as jazz, at Cornish College of the Arts. Recently, her album Evolution was nominated for a Gay and Lesbian American Music Award.

In her lecture, she described Martinsville, Virginia, where she grew up. Hers was the only Asian family in the city, and that made her subject to ridicule by her classmates. “My classmates would make fun of me for my slanty eyes, or ask me to display my non-existent kung-fu skills,” said Hsu-Li.

In addition, at age twelve, she developed Tourette’s Syndrome, a disease that affects the neurological system, causing repetitions of certain sounds and movements. This caused further alienation from her peers, as well as from her family. She depicted such embarassments as having her nose taped closed when the family had company, simply to encourage her to stop her incessant sniffling. The doctors’ prescribed treatment was Haldol, a depressant drug.

“It felt as if someone was pumping me full of air, and as if the only way to release that air was to do these motions and repeat these sounds,” Hsu-Li said. “The environment where I lived was one of no quality, no friends, no emotional support.” Day after day, she was subjected to emotional and physical abuse not only at school, but at home as well.

At age 16, she was determined to stop the Tourette’s. She threw away her drugs and concentrated on controlling her symptoms with a system of “mind over matter, spirit over body.” It was a system that took total deliberation during every minute of every day. Success prevailedÑafter six months, she was no longer experiencing the facial tics, sounds and movements that had been brought on by her neurological impairment.

However, underlying issues still occurred. Her mental and emotional state did not get any better; her self-esteem was virtually non-existent. This led to anorexia nervosa. Amidst all of this, however she began to discover certain things about herself and her personality.

“I realized that I was not the typical Southern debutante. I was an artist. That was my calling,” said Hsu-Li of her decision to leave the South and study the arts.

After she had begun studying at Cornish College, she became aware that she still had quite a bit of shyness and difficulty with relationships, as well as anger about racial and social inequality. “This realization began when I lost my voice,” she said. “I quit smoking, but the laryngitis still prevailed. I visted doctors, who prescribed months of silence and steroidal drugs, but after eight months of silence, my voice still had not returned. Western medicine had failed me.”

It was upon the suuggestion of a friend that she tried Five-Element acupuncture. There was nothing to lose by it, she reasoned. Within five treatments, her voice had returned, and she had discovered a new brand of medicine.

The Five-Element theory of medicine is based on the fact that all humans are aspects of nature. The body is correlated with a kingdom, with all organs performing a functionÑfor instance, the heart represents the king, the stomach the mother, and the kidneys the magician. The treatment itself is about redirecting the life energy, or qi, in everyone. If one organ becomes weak, all the other organs must pick up its function until it becomes well again. This causes dysfunction and disease, in the sense of the body not being “at ease.” The acupuncture therapy and other treatments associated with Five-Element theory are geared towards making the weaker elements strong, so that all the other organs to do their own jobs with strength. It is not about covering up the symptomsÑit treats the root of the problems, whether they are mental, emotional, or physical. Magdalen Hsu-Li had discovered a type of treatment that enhanced her life in many ways.

“Before I discovered Five-Element medicine, I thought I was pretty healthy. I didn’t have cancer or anything,” she said with a slight laugh. “However, after it became a part of my life, I saw that a community developed around me, and all the negative people I knew dropped away. My diet changedÑI was no longer able to live on ramen noodles.”

Truly, Magdalen Hsu-Li embodies the sense of whole health, and it is evident in all aspects of her lectures and her music. As stated by one Advocate magazine music reviewer, “With a Jackie chan karate chop to the stereotype of the submissive Asian woman, Magdalen Hsu-Li answers back in the name of all outsiders not as an agitprop political shouter but in the seductive voice of a tenderhearted artist who transmutes anger, beauty, and hope into a fully realized album.