Another slant on the term Tuina: I was taught that Tuina (Chinese) was known as Amma in Japan before it went underground and reemerged with the new name of Shiatsu. I have had it done and have used Tuina (one movement) on my clients. There is a book out called The Complete Book of Tuina....it is something I would love to continue with considering I am a Shiatsu practitioner. ib1gypsy, you are correct to say that people in China don't think they are getting their money's worth if they don't hurt during the session, same is true in Japan and Thailand, but we also need to realize that Chinese, Japanese, or Thai massage isn't at all like the massage we have here in the West. Most of us couldn't take more than 45 minutes of traditional Japanese Shiatsu which is mostly walking on the Bladder meridian with those bars overhead. This is not Ashiatsu, btw. Here in the US, Shiatsu and massage are used interchangeably when talking about Shiatsu. Fact is, Shiatsu is NOT massage even though we see terms like Shiatsu massage all the time. My organization, the AOBTA, is working to make that distinction known and more acceptable. Incidentally, even though the "Father" of Shiatsu is considered to be Namikoshi, the true "Father" of Shiatsu is a man by the name of Temai Tempaku. Namikoshi got the credit because he coined the term Shiatsu.
Life is good,
Jingluo