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Grandmaster Tzu Kuo Shih, OMD, L.Ac.
Born in 1929 in Shanghai, Grand Master Shih represents the fifth generation of Chinese medicine doctors and qigong masters in his family lineage. He began his study of qigong at the age of eleven when he contracted malaria during the World War II Japanese bombing of Shanghai. At that time, his grand-father taught him a special qigong technique that cured his life threatening illness. When he was 19, he developed tuberculosis due to harsh living conditions and deprivation following the war. Doctors did not expect him to live so they sent him home from school to be with his family. For three months, Doctor Shih continuously practiced qigong exercises for his lungs and the microcosmic orbit meditation as he was unable to do anything else. He soon recovered completely. Doctor Shih continued his qigong studies during his youth under the tutelage of famous Taoist and Buddhist masters. He also learned Chinese medicine and acupuncture through apprenticeship with his father’s brother, a well-known TCM doctor. This included a specialized head acupuncture technique transmitted by his family. In 1949, Grand Master Shih furthered his medical studies by becoming Dr. Yzi Wing Bei’s assistant. Dr. Bei was an accomplished doctor of Chinese medicine. During his twenties, Doctor Shih began his life-long association with the Taoist traditions of Wudang mountain, a famous center for Chinese martial arts and qigong. He learned the secret form of Wudang T’ai Chi Ch’uan. In the 1970's, Dr. Shih and Dr. Bei were given permission to publish their book on Wudang T’ai Chi, making it public for the first time. Grand Master Shih is an accomplished Master of several styles of T’ai Chi: Wudang, Wu, Sun and Yang styles. He has written books on Ba Gua and Wudang qigong, Wudang T’ai Chi and other works on Chinese medicine and martial arts. During the 1950s and 1960s, under Mao’s rule, qigong was not taught openly in China and many masters were killed, imprisoned or persecuted. During those years, Grand Master Shih worked as a doctor in municipal hospitals. In the 1970s, the practice of qigong was again allowed to be practiced openly and Doctor Shih was asked to teach it to doctors and patients in Shanghai. He worked with many kinds of patients, including those with cancer. Dr. Shih is widely acknowledged as a leading expert in medical qigong and Qi healing. Besides his accomplishments as a TCM doctor and qigong Grand Master, he is also an excellent calligrapher and a fine painter in several traditional Chinese styles. In 1982, he moved to the United States and became the president, founder and Master of the Chinese Healing Arts Center, based in Danbury, CT, and the Wu Tang Chuan Kung Association. He and his family run several Chinese medicine clinics in Danbury, Salisbury CT, and Kingston, NY. He is the author of the books, “Swimming Dragon” and “The Chinese Art of Healing with Energy: Qigong Therapy”, as well as videos on the swimming dragon form, Chinese herbal medicine and Chinese medical Tuina.
De Ying Huang, OMD, L.Ac. is the daughter of a famous medical doctor's family in China. Her father, Huang Zenjne, taught his daughter about herbs and how to use them, letting her mix the herbs into medicines for his patients. Dr. Huang was educated in the traditional Chinese medical skills passed down through generations in her family. Dr. Huang worked side by side with her father in the clinic. There, she learned to treat arthritis, insomnia, swollen physical parts of the body including all limbs. She learned to help stroke victims and people after accidents. She became especially skilled in working with brain damaged children.
Dr. Huang went on to be educated by famous specialists in Chinese medicine. Some of them are: Dr. Lu Son Yam, a very well known doctor of acupuncture, Dr. Wang Zi Ping, a famous doctor specializing in traumatology and orthopedics, Dr. Ma Yu Liang, a grandmaster of Tai Chi Chuan, Dr. Heng Jian Sheng, professor of hyperthyroidism, Dr. Wu Ying Hua, specialist in cervical spondylopathy,a nd Dr. Zhu Xiao Nan, specialist in Gynecology. All of these have helped to make Dr. Huang very successful in treating her patients.
After the revolution in China, Dr. Huang joined the Shanghai Medical Instrument Company, as an in house physician. The Chinese government also sent her to study medicine, both western and Chinese, at the University of Shanghai, from which she graduated in 1963. In 1970 she was transferred to the Shanghai Clinic of Huang Pu district, as a doctor specializing in therapeutic healing along with consulting and acupuncture. In 1973, Dr. Huang received certification as a pioneer and developer in laser acupunture, and also codeveloped and researched electroacupuncture, which is now a commonly used technique around the world. Dr. Huang served as Director of Research at the Shanghai Medical Instrument Company, dedicated to the development of laser acupuncture.
In 1984-1988, Dr. Huang was Director of Acupuncture Treatment at Shanghai Central Specialist Hospital, of Xu Hui district in China. She was one of four specialized doctors, all of whom had 30 plus years experience. In her work, she dealt with and cured many difficult diseases, such as hemiplegia, rheumatoid arthritis, and various forms of muscular strains, asthma, pulmonary emphysema, heart disease, ulcers, sterility and mental disorders as well as a host of neurologic diseases and internal medicine diseases. She treated well over 2,000 cases. She also worked with smoking cessation, diet therapy, and cosmetology using acupuncture and Chinese medicine.
Dr. Huang is a life long practitioner of Tai Chi and Qi Gong, and has developed the ability to read and diagnose the energy of her patients. She is on the Board of Trustees for the Shanghai Meridians Research Institute, a consultant in Tai Chi and Qi Gong for the Shanghai Qi Gong Healing Association, and a consultant to Tonyi University. She is also a member of the prestigiou Shanghai Qi Gong Research Institute.
In 1988, Dr. Huang arrived in the United States, with her younger daughter Wendy, to join her husband (Grandmaster Shih) and oldest daughter, Melanie. Along with her husband, Grandmaster Shih, she directs the Danbury CHAC and works with a variety of patients with a vast array of health problems. She is Board Certified as an acupuncturist, in the USA, and also licensed by the state of Connecticut and New York, to practice acupuncture. She works with Chinese herbs, botanicals and teas to aid in the immune system functions, as well as various other health issues and aromatherapy. Dr. Huang practices a total mind and body approach to healing, and is well respected by her patients and colleagues, around the world. 
Melanie Shih, OMD, L.Ac., was born into a family with a long lineage of Traditional Chinese Medicine practitioners. Melanie represents the sixth consecutive generation of her family to dedicate their life to health and healing. As the daughter of Qi Gong Grandmaster T.K. Shih O.M.D. and De-Ying Huang, O.M.D., co-founders of the Chinese Healing Arts Center, Melanie has grown up being exposed to Qi healing, T.C.M., Tai-Chi, nutrition and herbs, and the gentle powers they possess when integrated into one’s life. Medical Taoism and the Medical Morale of maintaining a healthy life tought Melanie to care about and be kind to all people. Melanie studied meridian theory at the Shanghai Research Institute, doing her hospital internship at Hebei Gaocheng Medical School. Earning her medical degree at the Nanjing University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, her dissertation on Qi Gong and Traditional Chinese Medicine earned her the award of “Best Papers” from the First International Conference and Exhibition on Ethnic Medicine in Beijing in 1997. Melanie has worked alongside her parents treating patients and helping her father design a curriculum for teaching acupuncture, Qi Gong and other aspects of Taoist Chinese Medicine. Active in many professional organizations, Melanie is a member of the Federation of Eastern American Acupuncture Association, the Connecticut Board of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine, the American Association of Oriental Medicine, and a Diplomat of Acupuncture from the National Certification committee of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine. Currently Dr. Shih has two Chinese Healing Arts Center clinics; in Kingston, N.Y. and Salisbury, Connecticut.
Tai Chi Ch'uan Master, Wendy Shih was born in Shanghai 1967. When she was five years old, it was discovered that the bone marrow in her right arm had failed to develop leaving the bone in that arm as fragile as an egg shell. An initial operation left doctors baffled as to what to do and it seemed that eventually she would have to lose her right arm. Both of her parents are doctors of Traditional Chinese Medicine as well as Masters of Qigong. Her father, Tzu Kuo Shih and her mother De-Ying Huang plus Masters who were friends of the family hoped to heal Wendy with Chinese herbs and special Qigong practices.
Wendy began studying Tai Chi Chuan to help recovery and by the age of twelve, she had progressed so well that she was accepted as a student of the 80 years old Grandmaster of the Wu style, Ma Yui Liang. The great masters of the traditional arts who were friends of Wendy’s parents treated her like a daughter. In addition to attending public school, she received a classical Chinese education. She was tutored in painting and calligraphy by Shanghai’s famous painting Master Sung Sun Wea then in his nineties. Wendy is sixth generation of her family to go into healing. She entered the Shanghai College of Traditional Medicine.
Representing the city of Shanghai and the youngest participant, sixteen year old Wendy Shih participated in the first assembly of Wu Tang Master to be held in over 50 years. She accompanied her teacher the 90 year old Master Pan Ch’un. At the meeting, she met and was accepted as a student of the legendary 94 year old Grandmaster Lu Zi Jian and Master Xiu Weng Zong. She has competed, and demonstrated before Old Wu Tang Masters, on National Television, and gave demonstrations of her arts in Woodstock and New York City. In 1986, she won first Prize in the National Wu Style Competition and in 1987, was awarded the title of Master and graduated from medical school as an acupuncturist and herbalist, and received her license as certified laser acupuncturist.. In 1988 she joined her father and sister in America, she learned to drive a car, began to teach Tai Chi Chuan and very happy and comfortable with her life in America.