Figure combing for beauty
By Enid Chen
Photos by Zheng Xiaodong

体态是永不过时,最好的"装饰品",要有好形体须有好身体,好心态,美没有年龄界限,美不论高矮胖瘦.美在健康,美在自信,美在体态,美在心灵.马妮形体梳理独树一帜的形体观念让许多爱美的女性找到了塑造和保持优美体态的诀窍.现在,就让我们与马妮形体梳理·厦门特许加盟训练中心的孟海棠教练一起寻找美丽.

For every lady who wishes to keep a good body shape, it's not an easy task. But Susan Meng, the coach of Mani Body Combing, can show you how it's done. She is the miracle teacher who can bring you beauty and confidence as a true lady.

When having a conversation with Susan, her gentleness and elegance always reminds you that you wish you looked as elegant and healthy as her. Each of her gestures leaves an impression on you that she has been properly trained.

"Figure is the best decoration for a woman, as beautiful dress and jewelry cannot bring the same effects. Being a figure shaping coach, I not only help my students become more properly shaped but I can keep a good shape and stay healthy also. It's what I had dreamed of and now the dream has come true." Said Susan.

However, to realize the dream, Susan has been making unremitting efforts. She even sold her house in order to start one of the franchise training centers of Mani Body Combing.

Born and raised in Jiangsu Province, Susan has loved dancing since childhood. After graduation from university, she came to work in Xiamen and fell in love with this city. Susan used to be a white-collar office lady as many others have. Her two years of hard work in Dell Xiamen had left her with serious pains in her cervical vertebra(颈椎).

After quitting her job with Dell, Susan went through a figure shaping training program taught by the nation-wide famous teacher Mani, in Beijing. Her efforts paid off. Just after two months of training, the pains in her cervical vertebra were gone forever. Her figure became shapelier and she looked much womanlier. After half-a-year's training, she mastered Mani's body shaping theories and its essence. Then she came back to Xiamen again and started her figure-training program, hoping to let more women in this city benefit from it.

Although her program, located on the seventh floor of the Fuxing Building, has been open for only about three months, it has proved to be popular among the ladies. Unlike the other fitness programs, students of Susan's program are not required to remember a set of complicated movements, jump till exhaustion or use any apparatus (器械) like a lot of gyms do. Instead, they only need to stand in a static state accompanied by melodious music. Susan tells them to find and align their cervical vertebra, thoracic vertebra(胸椎), lumber vertebra(腰椎) and tail vertebra(尾椎) and to feel that their heads are as light and high as the sky and necks as noble and elegant as that of a crane(鹤).

Moreover, there is a most irresistible and tempting promise for those despairing women who have seen no improvement at all in their increasingly bloating figure after almost starving themselves to death and having tried all the pills and other medicines within their reach. "I don't allow my students to go on a diet or take medicines in order to lose weight. They should come to my class after meals. Otherwise, I will refund their money and they will have to withdraw from my class." Susan said, "Health comes before weight. There is no panacea(灵丹妙药) for losing weight and that's not what the Mani's body combing system is supposed to be. The body-shaping program is to let you rebuild and keep up a properly shaped figure. "

"Quite a number of my students' waistlines are reduced by two to four inches after attending the program for two months. But they don't starve themselves. Those who can reduce their waistline measurement by four inches or more will receive a special reward of one-year of free training in my class. And quite a few get this reward."

For Susan, there is another essential part to fitness training, the "psychological combing". "I tell my students to reminisce over the most beautiful times and proudest moments in their life and smile like a 14-year-old girl. This can revive their imagination, make them feel more relaxed and rebuild and enhance their confidence in themselves."

"Give me your time and for sure I will let you feel the change of beauty and elegance." Susan concluded with a charming smiling face.


Susan Meng (L) and Mani
(Those who are interested in figure combing can go and experience one of Susan's classes for free.)

My Xiamen
By Cathy



John Roy from Canada arrived in Xiamen last year. He is the Director of Teaching Affairs at Xiamen WECL English College. He likes reading and playing pool.

1.How long have you been in Xiamen?
I have been in Xiamen for almost two years.

2.What do you like best about life here?
The city is not so big, so I can go anywhere within one hour.

3.What's your job here? How do you like your job?
I am teaching English at WECL English College. I really enjoy teaching Chinese students.

4.How do you spend your spare time in Xiamen?
I like to walk around the city and enjoy the beautiful scenery.

5.If there was one thing that you could change about Xiamen, what would that be?
The food here is delicious but a little expensive.

6.What's your favorite restaurant?
The Muslim noodle restaurant at the school gate of WECL.

7.What do you like best about Xiamen?
The city is clean and beautiful, and the traffic is not too bad.

8.Compared with other big cities in China, what do you think are the differences between Xiamen and them?
Xiamen is a more developed and well-organized city.

9.What's the last great book you read?
I cannot remember clearly the name of that book, but it described what happened in China in the early 1950's and 1960's.

10.What's your favorite quotation or piece of advice?
Listen first, and talk second.