The way Chinese people seek medical treatment is quite fascinating. On the one hand, they place their faith in major hospitals; on the other, they’re remarkably drawn to wandering quacks and folk healers.

Their trust in big hospitals has nothing to do with understanding the grueling decade of medical training, nor with any genuine appreciation of clinical excellence. Rather, it stems from a simple belief: these institutions are public, they’re state-run, and they wouldn’t lie to you.

Their faith in folk healers is even more straightforward. When proper doctors tell you a condition is difficult to cure,江湖 practitioners promise to “cure it at the root.”

Chinese people are obsessed with this notion of “curing at the root” — to the point of fixation, as if a doctor who can’t guarantee a permanent cure simply isn’t skilled enough.

Try curing the common cold at the root, why don’t you?

Even worse, many assume that hospital deans must be the most skilled and department directors the most capable, while dismissing junior physicians with contempt. What they fail to realize is that in larger hospitals, promotions for deans and directors have increasingly little to do with actual clinical ability.

But there’s an even bigger problem: deception.

Many patients, after being treated a few times by a senior professor, will gush about how effective the treatment was — but it’s mere flattery. They may feel reassured in their hearts while their bodies tell a different story.

Worse still, many patients conceal their medical history, hide the true extent of their condition, and lie about their medications, thinking themselves clever — utterly unaware of how critical this information is.

All this deception ultimately backfires. The unlucky one is always yourself.

Then again, when all is said and done — it’s probably history’s fault.

国人看病很有意思，一方面相信大医院，一方面又很相信江湖游医。

相信大医院的原因不是因为他们了解医学生的十年寒窗苦读，也不是因为大医院的医术有多么高超。

而是因为，这是公立的，是国家的，不会骗人。

相信江湖游医就更简单了，因为正经医生说不好治的病，在江湖游医这都能去根。

中国人特别喜欢去根，到了痴迷的程度，好像医生不能给你去根就是水平不行。

你把感冒去个根试试？

更有甚者，就是认为院长的水平最高，主任的能力最强，对小跟班不屑一顾。

殊不知，越是大医院，院长和主任的晋升跟临床水平越是没有关系。

国人还有一个更大的毛病，就是欺骗。

很多人被主任教授治了几次，来了就说效果不错，其实是奉承，可能心里觉得不错，身体感觉一般。

很多人去找医生看病，隐瞒病史，隐瞒病情，隐瞒服药情况，觉得自己多聪明，殊不知这些情况有多重要。

骗来骗去，倒霉的都是自己。

说来说去，这都是历史的错。