#483
October 20, 2026

Authenticity is Difficult to Achieve
Evan Pinto

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Chinese medicine sits at an interesting crossroads, part clinical craft, part philosophical inheritance. Its practice of listening before concluding speaks meaningfully to how we meet the people who come through our doors.

In this conversation with Evan Pinto, we explore the relationship between emptying the mind and seeing a patient clearly. We look at how a few quiet breaths before entering the treatment room door can change what we perceive on the other side.

We also discuss the difference between fixing a patient and holding space for them, and what it means to wait until someone is ready. We also appreciate the humor and playfulness of Zhuangzi as a counterweight to our profession’s tendency towards seriousness.

Listen in for a conversation on integration, trust, depth, and what it means to stay curious about what we don’t yet understand in the practice of this medicine.

In this episode, we discuss:

  •       Light, time, and qi — Reflects on how photons relate to time, and how qi moves freely outside the body, but take time to travel through the channels and tissues?
  •       Reading the story before the chart – Why Michael sets aside the intake sheet, and how Evan gives patients room to be honest about things too taboo for the coffee shop.
  •       The patient who wasn’t ready – A tall, strong man with bad knees, a resistance to talking about diet, and the eight months it took for him to find the cookbooks on his own.
  •       Pathology as identity – Why some people hold tightly to their diagnoses, and how a symptom can be an attempt at correction that keeps the family or the self together.
  •       Integration beyond vocabulary – Why borrowing Western terms isn’t the same as understanding what an SSRI is doing, and how a bilingual practitioner keeps both systems in view.
  •       A profession seeking validation – How a decade of pursuing acceptance from a purely mechanical medical world may have cost Chinese medicine some of its identity.
  •       The stillness of Lao Tzu, the silliness of Zhuangzi – Two Taoist temperaments, and how a doctor can shift between them.
  •       A very public waiting room – A Shanghai hospital where everyone shares the same ailment, and the unexpected lightness of a less private healing space.
  •       “Chinese medicine is not for foreigners” – Encounters with skeptical elders in Shanghai and a fellow diner in Taiwan who found the whole idea impossible.
  •       Magic is just unfamiliar logic – Why acupuncture seems miraculous to those who haven’t studied its sources, and why neither of us loves being called a magician.
  •       Fasting the mind – A three-breath reset before entering the treatment room: let go of yourself, let go of the last patient, arrive in the present.
  •       Writing to find out what you don’t know – Evan’s turn to books after the Shanghai lockdown emptied his practice, and writing as continuing education and spiral learning.

A sick system produces sick patients. Healing at every scale, from one person to an entire nation, follows the same principle. Act with the natural grain rather than against it, and when you align with the flow of life, the system begins to heal itself.

Dr. Evan Pinto

I am a Doctor of Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine, originally from New York City, where I completed my clinical training at Pacific College of Health and Science. I advanced my studies with the WFAS in Beijing, and in 2012, I moved to Shanghai where I live and work to this day. After an internship at Shu Guang Famous Doctor Hospital in Shanghai, I started teaching at Shanghai University of TCM and later served as a Professor at the SMIC Institute of Traditional Chinese Medicine in Manila.

I have authored several books that bridge TCM with biomedicine and Daoist philosophy. My meditation book, Get In The Way, combines guided meditations with treatment for common conditions. I’ve also published a trilogy on integrated medicine. All Three Ways covers difficult and resistant patients in book 1 – The Useless Way, practitioner cultivation in book 2 – Think of the Way, and global wellness policy in the final book – The Way Through. I have also co-authored The Complete TCM Cookbook Series, which is based on Five Elements nutritional theories. In Shanghai and Beijing, I often give talks and classes on TCM, and teach anatomy for yoga teacher trainings.

Links and Resources

Follow Dr. Evan Pinto (@tcmdrevanpinto) on WeChat, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and RedBook.

Read more on TCM, Daoism, and biomedicine to Learn more.

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