A HISTORY OF ATS

Several years after arriving in China, Andrew Nugent-Head found himself translating for his teachers as more and more foreigners began to venture into the mainland to learn the traditional arts as he had. Reporters began to turn to him as a way into the forgotten traditional world, and Andrew was soon featured on NBC, ABC, ZDF, Canal and other news agencies. In 1991, he was hired as on the ground help for Bill Moyers' PBS series Healing & the Mind. 

With this level of exposure as a bridge between China's traditional practitioners and the West, Andrew founded the Association for Traditional Studies, and with Professor Wang Jin-Huai, began scouring the countryside for traditional doctors remaining out of government sight. In 1994, the two traveled to the United States on what would become the first of many China Culture Lecture Series tours. While there, a group of committed friends came together to help Andrew establish ATS in the USA and eventually become the a 501c3 not for profit it is now.

None of ATS' work would have been possible without the many people who recognized the importance of these last practitioners and Andrew's unwavering belief that the answers to many of our problems today were to be found in the arts and knowledge of the past where self cultivation and the idea of living in harmony with nature instead of conquering it were the guiding principles of life.