When I was six years old, I developed red rashes across the front and back of my body.
Over time, the rashes spread further, eventually covering much of my body and becoming intensely itchy.
My mother brought me to the home of an elderly woman.
After examining me, she said I had what she called “snake” symptoms.
She took a wick, lit it with a match, and held the small flame in her hand.
Moving slowly around me, she studied the rashes carefully.
Then, without warning, she pressed the burning wick against my skin.
She declared that she had struck the “head of the snake” and killed it.
Before we left, she gave my mother a jar of salted brown cabbage, instructing that it should be my only food, together with rice, for the next few days.
Surprisingly, the treatment seemed to work, and I recovered without ever seeing a Western doctor.
In the Chinese community, shingles is sometimes referred to as a “snake” infection.
There is a long-standing belief that if the “snake” forms a complete ring around the body—its head meeting its tail—it could be fatal, as if the body were being constricted and suffocated.
Because of this, traditional folklore treatments often focus on “burning the head of the snake” to stop its spread.
