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Where EAST meets the Northwest

BEST FOOT FORWARD. Patrons receive Chinese foot massages at the Oriental Natural Treatment spa in Alhambra, California. According to Chinese legend, the nerves in the feet are connected to every part of the body and, as a result, massages can cure headaches and kidney ailments, prevent ulcers, and even allow people live longer. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

From The Asian Reporter, V19, #12 (March 24, 2009), page 8.

By John Rogers
Associated Press Writer

SAN GABRIEL, Calif. — Ching Lau is already the sole man of Southern California, but he won’t be satisfied until every American has beaten a path to the door of a foot-massage parlor.

For Lau isn’t just a businessman, he’s a man on a mission. His quest: To spread the ancient Chinese art of having one’s feet dunked in steaming hot tubs of water, then pinched, poked, and prodded, all in the name of good health.

"I think foot massage can be for, how many American people are there? Three hundred million? I want to do it for all of them," Lau says with a grin as he sits on a footrest inside his Oriental Natural Treatment spa, one of two dozen he runs.

He’s made a significant dent already; before he arrived in San Gabriel, a city with a population of 27,000 people, there was one foot-massage parlor. Now there are 27, city officials say. More than 100 others operate in several nearby suburban cities, making the sprawling suburban area just east of Los Angeles the foot-massage capital of the country.

The area has a large Asian population, but Asians aren’t the only ones hotfooting it here for a massage.

"When we first started we had just a little bit, but now we have a lot of American customers," says Lau.

Later that night, Michelle Monroe comes hurriedly through the door of the Natural Herbal Treatment Spa and, in an anxious voice, announces: "We’ve got eight people in our party."

Outside, restaurants and stores are closing up for the night, disgorging hordes of people with tired feet. Soon, all the little storefront businesses with the distinctive neon signs shaped like feet will be filling up.

But Monroe and friends have beaten the rush, and a few minutes later they are plunking their feet into wooden tubs of herb-laden water that is just hot enough to be mildly uncomfortable.

As it cools, though, the sounds of blissful ohhhing and ahhhing can be heard as men and women dressed in martial-arts-looking outfits begin poking and prodding feet, pushing and pulling on toes.

"I wish I could get one of these every night," a now-laid-back Monroe whispers softly as she relaxes in a soft, oversized leather chair. In the background is the steady "slap-slap-slap" of hands on feet.

Meanwhile, just down the street, Yi Hang is standing near the door of her BCT Foot and Body Massage business, inviting passers-by to kick back.

"It’s very healthy," she says of the practice that experts on Asian medicine say dates to at least the 12th century. "So many people spend so many hours on the computer these days that they have a lot of neck and shoulder pain and headaches, and the massage really helps."

According to Chinese legend, the nerves in the feet are connected to every part of the body and, as a result, massages can cure headaches and kidney ailments, prevent ulcers, even let you live longer.

Western medical experts discount that, although several do acknowledge a good massage can leave a person feeling like they are walking on air.

"What happens is when the muscles are tight, when you press gently and gingerly, you release the pressure and you feel much better," says Dr. Shri Mishra, a neurologist and expert in Asian medicine.

"But no," Mishra adds, "there is no evidence it can cure disease."

Still, Lau maintains, isn’t feeling good half the battle?

That’s why the former international trader says he got into the foot-massage business. He wanted to make money doing something that was good for people.

Not that he didn’t hit a number of stumbling blocks along the way.

Soon after arriving on the scene, the exuberant, sharply dressed entrepreneur with fashionably spiky hair stepped on the toes of his business rivals when he cut the price of a massage to $15 an hour — about a quarter of the going rate in Chinatowns all over the country. He needed that low price, he says, to attract curious non-Asians.

After the ensuing price war he launched caused business to explode, local officials began to fear the proliferating massage parlors were really fronts for prostitution. The nearby city of Arcadia responded by banning any new ones, and state authorities began looking for labor and health-code violations.

While some parlors were shut down, Lau persuaded authorities that the two dozen he operates are properly maintained.

He and other parlor owners have gotten around labor restrictions on minimum wages, overtime, and other issues by using so-called independent contractors rather than hiring masseurs as employees. Lau says the workers, many of them recent Chinese immigrants, receive a flat rate of $10 per massage plus tips.

Lau also formed the American Association of Reflexology and Foot Massage last year and got dozens of his competitors to join him. Then he began lobbying state officials to regulate the massage business.

The result was a recently passed law calling for the creation of a regulatory body by September to ensure California’s massage parlors are properly run and their masseuses and masseurs properly trained. Lau hopes it will serve as a model for other states as he prepares to expand across the country. He recently opened parlors in Atlanta, Indianapolis, and Las Vegas.

"I used to be in the trading business," says Lau, who arrived in America nine years ago.

Then, after a moment’s thought, he adds with a laugh: "Actually, I’m still in the trading business. Only now I’m trading Chinese culture to the American people."