YEAR OF THE TIGER, BUT NOT FOR MEDICATIONS

Oakland - AS A KID growing up in Oakland's Chinatown, I would saunter a few
dozen steps from my parents' restaurant to the herbalist's shop, clutching
a piece of paper with my dad's Chinese script on it.

He had written his own prescription that the herbalist dutifully filled.

I hadn't a clue what the herbalist was pulling together from his neat row
of drawers and from the glass counter case.

On white butcher paper, he placed twigs and roots and powders, neatly
folded the paper, then stuffed a small packet of raisins in the fold.

I ran back to the restaurant and handed the package to my mom. The next
thing I knew, the odd mixture in that package had been transformed into a
thick, dark, acrid brew that smelled awful. Whoever was ailing would drink
the stuff, popping in the raisins to offset the bitter taste.

Whether such nasty home brews contained processed tiger bones is beyond my
memory. If they did, in today's world, we would be breaking U.S. and
international laws.

A well-known conservation organization and a San Francisco college of
traditional Chinese medicine have put a focus on medicines that may have
tiger products in them.

The controversy over black-marketed medicines is only a part of a larger
campaign to save from extinction the world's tigers (and rhinos and other
species threatened because of their alleged value in certain medications).
This is a goal of the World Wildlife Fund, which has been waging the
conservation battle for many years.

But seeing how the Chinese calendar features the tiger this year, World
Wildlife Fund officials launched an educational campaign in ethnic Chinese
communities about the depopulation of tigers, a decline attributed in part
to continuing consumption of medicines that contain powder from tiger
bones.

Joining in the campaign is the American College of Traditional Chinese
Medicine in San Francisco. Lixin Huang, president of the college, wants to
inform Chinese American communities that (1) tigers are an endangered
species, (2) Chinese Americans ought to join the campaign to save them and
(3) consumers of traditional Chinese medicines should avoid products that
contain tiger bones.

Huang and World Wildlife Fund officials don't blame Chinese communities for
the decline of tigers. The main factor is erosion of the tiger's natural
habitat because of growing human populations.

Huang said she doesn't mind that her college, which teaches traditional
Chinese medical practices like acupuncture and herbal therapies, is a
messenger in the save-the-tiger campaign.

She says tiger parts are not necessary to reduce inflammation or treat
arthritic conditions. There are adequate substitutes, she says, such as the
bones of animals that are not endangered.

She and the people from the Wildlife Fund are fighting powerful symbols.

The tiger is thought to have mythological powers. In ancient Asian
societies, the tiger was deified and was said to have powers over
fertility, marriage and pregnancy. In our times, the tiger retains the
symbol of strength, such as the tiger economies of certain Asian nations
(until they ran into financial problems last year).

Tina Dreyfus, a spokeswoman for the Wildlife Fund, said an attitudinal
survey indicates that once ethnic Chinese learn of the possible extinction
of tigers, they will give up medicines with tiger bones in them.

William Wong is an independent journalist and Examiner columnist.

Copyright 1998 San Francisco Examiner