Reclaiming a stolen inheritance

Acupuncture and Chinese herbalism for the people.

My purpose

I am a catalyst for liberatory transformation and a channel of ancestral wisdom.
I am poet, dancer, writer, medicine bearer. Future diviner and many-lived soul.

As a warrior, artist, scholar, and healer, I distill ancestral wisdom and exorcise inter-generational trauma. I fight with my intellect and words to surface, analyze and transform structures of death. I alchemize pain and invoke freedom dreams through poetry, dance and visual art. I mediate across knowledge and language barriers to make life-saving information accessible. As a fifth-generation Taiwanese healer, I am training to reclaim our ancestral folkways.

Great-uncle 魏清德 Wei Qing-de, Taiwan’s poet laureate

Great Grandpa 林呈祿 Lin Cheng-Lu, editor of Taiwan Youth

Left to right: Agong (grandpa) Dr. Lee Ting-Chien, great-grandpa Dr. Lee Chaohsun, ama (grandma) Suchin Lin Lee, auntie Mary Tsung-Hui Lee

My agong Dr. Lee Ting-Chien, pediatrician

Left to right: My ama (grandma) Suchin Lin Lee, father Dr. William Tsung-Liang Lee, auntie Mary Tsung-Hui Lee, agong Dr. Lee Ting-Chien

Learning about herbs in Taiwan with Auntie Simon, who earned her PhD in the history of Chinese medicine in Guangzhou, China.

Meeting Dr. Tsung-Jung Ho MD, PhD, MPH at Tzu Chi University in Hualien, Taiwan

Human holds sheep in front of Atlantic ocean and ancient stones

我是李道玲。I am Lee Dao-Ling.

I came through my mother's womb on my due date, a new moon meteor shower exactly nine months after World Water Day. Born in the year of the golden horse, I came with a calling to face unhealed intergenerational traumas and my lineage's complicity with racialized capitalism. I am a rainbow spirit who loves regardless of gender assignment and is not quite a woman. My pronouns are she or they. I embody femme in homage to Chinese warrior women like 花木蘭 Hua Mulan and 林默娘 Lin Moniang. I am an apetebi Ifá ati iyalorisa Osun ati Obatala in Ile Orunmila Afedefeyo, initiated in Ode Remo, Nigeria in the Adesanya Awoyade lineage.

 

Positionality

I am an Ivy League-educated, able-bodied US citizen descended from European and East Asian settler colonists. I was born on Kumeyaay land, raised middle class, and educated on Occaneechi-Saponi, Tuscarora, Tongva, Wampanoag, Narragansett and other Native people's homelands. Before my family settled unceded indigenous territories, we were blacksmiths, physicians and medicine people. The tribal lands of my most recent ancestors are An Cabhán, An Longfort and 福建省. Our names were 李, 林, Mac Gabhann, Mac Diarmada, and Llwyd.

My teachers are a sacred blessing.

The skills and knowledge I cradle in my palms are a gift and responsibility handed to me by those who’ve gone before me.

I am honored to have had the great privilege of learning from wisdom keepers such as Iya Agba “Cici” Nancy de Souza, Oluwo Falokun Fasegun Ogunkeye, Iya Fayomi Osundoyin Egbeyemi, Awo Fanira Ogunleke Awoyade, Chief Olota Egungun ati Olota Biiri Agba of Eposo land Prince Dr. Oluwo Falolu Adesanya Awoyade, Mestre Amén Santo, Babalorixá Èsùtobi Rychelmy, Dr. Ana Laidley, Kahlil Cummings, Rachel Hernandez, Iya Osunfunke Obatolu, Iya Osuntayo Obatolu, the elders and members of Chùa Bà Thiên Hậu, Professor Anani Dzidzienyo (ibaye), Dr. Keisha-Khan Y. Perry, the Brown University Department of Africana Studies, the faculty of Yo San University and the College of Tao, Olivia Rosewood, and many others.

Any mistakes are my own and do not reflect upon those who have taught me.

Chinese Medicine & Daoism

I have been studying at Yo San University since 2019, reclaiming the ancestral wisdom of my Taiwanese forebears.

I am a student of the Integral Way Tradition as taught by Hua-Ching Ni, Dr. Mao Shing Ni, and the College of Tao. I am certified in Self-Healing Qigong through the College of Tao, I am a Taoist Mentor, and a Level 2 Taoist Meditation instructor at the International Taoist Meditation Institute. I have taught and held space in these modalities since 2020. In 2022, I began learning deeper methods of esoteric Daoism through the Advanced Traditional Practice program.

I have spent almost six years formally training in Daoism and Chinese medicine, two years focused on Daoist meditation, and much more informal time over the past decade. This includes over 600 hours of study of Ni lineage Daoist Meditation and over 1,845 hours of didactic class hours in Chinese Medicine, Acupuncture, Chinese herbal medicine, Qi Cultivation & Taoist Studies, Pre-clinical Biological Sciences, Clinical Biomedicine, Professional Development & System-Based medicine, and Clinical Education. I have completed over 150 hours of clinical observation. I am certified in CPR/First Aid and will be practicing acupuncture, moxibustion, cupping, and herbalism under supervision in Culver City in January 2025.

Under the supervision and training of the Dean of the InfiniChi® Energy Healing Institute, I have fulfilled all four required courses of the complete InfiniChi® system. This includes over 135 documented hours of training in this 5,000 year-old modality over four years.

As a member of Thien Hau Temple, I have assisted my elders since 2012. In addition, I have had the honor of learning from a Long Men Quan Zhen lineage through Parting Clouds Daoist Education.

elemental healing

According to Taoist philosophy, every body--not to mention everything in the cosmos--possesses quantities of the five elements: Fire, Earth, Metal, Water, and Wood. Each element has an emotional component (water, for example, is associated with fear), a meridian in the body that can be worked on through somatic exercises like massage, and a moral imperative. Camellia Lee, an energy worker with a family lineage of healing going back generations to Taiwan, explains elements of Taoist philosophy, traditional Chinese medicine, and other related studies through the lens of the Five Elements in an easy-to-understand and enjoyable way. This is a Five-Element plan--with plenty of exercises for introspection, healing, and enlightenment--that anyone can commit to in order to restore order to their bodies, minds, and spirits.

I channel the Five Elements through my Five Spirits to fulfill my purpose.

The Wood element is my 木 Soul-led activism.

The Fire element is my 火 Heartfelt love.

The Earth element is my 土 Intellectual rigor.

The Metal element is my 金 Embodied artistry.

The Water element is my 水 Ancestrally-powered determination.

“Love is an action, never simply a feeling.” - bell hooks

Racial capitalism is anti-Blackness in action.

Radical love is the Black feminist answer to this project of death and extraction.

White supremacist settler colonialism harms everyone and everything, threatening all Life on Earth.

With everything I am and all that I have, I follow the leadership of Black, African, and Indigenous peoples as a project of radical love.

In the footsteps of my healer ancestors, I work to hold space for collective healing from the margins to the center.

Joyous graduate stands with wide open arms in front of Brown University's Van Wickle gates, wearing bright colors and multiple stoles.

My academic training

Bachelor of Arts in Africana Studies
3.9/4.0 GPA
• Anna Julia Cooper Award for Outstanding Academic Work 2018
• Guest lecturer on Afro-diasporic religious history in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, March 2018
• Prêmio Arte de Palavra for original writing in Portuguese 2017
• Archbishop Iakovos Memorial Endowed Scholarship Recipient
• Karen T. Romer Undergraduate Teaching and Research Award recipient 2016 and 2017
• Coordinator for student-designed Brown University class approved for spring 2017
• Awarded $2000 from John and Clarice Scarritt Fund for independent research in Salvador, Brazil 2017
• Certificate of accomplishment from US Senator Jack Reed for “outstanding volunteer efforts” 2016
• Citation in Recognition of Outstanding Volunteerism Award from Lieutenant Governor of Rhode Island 2016
• Citizen Citation for Outstanding Volunteerism from Mayor of the City of Providence 2016

 
 

MOVEMENT ARTS

I have been studying and performing Afro-diasporic dance since 2010. My first love was Mande dance of the Bamana people from present-day Mali, but I have also spent years practicing Yorùbá and Afro-Brazilian dance in Los Angeles, CA. I have studied Guinean, Afro-Cuban, Afro-Puerto Rican and Afro-Haitian dance in New York, NY; Durham, NC; Cambridge, MA; and Los Angeles, CA. My teachers have included Omowale and Francis Awe, Tania Melendez, Seydou Coulibaly, Michelle Bach-Coulibaly, Rachel Hernandez, Linda Yudin, Luiz Badaró, Samantha Blake Goodman, Vera Passos, Gisella Ferreira, Vida Vierra, Amen Santo, Ana Laidley. I have taught and choreographed for Beneficent Congregational Church, Barrington Congregational Church, Providence Public Schools, Theater of Hearts/Youth First, Civic Wellbeing Partners, Global Dance Arts, the Providence Parks and Recreation Department, Brown University Recreation, and the Brown University Department of Theatre Arts and Performance Studies. I have performed with the New Works/World Traditions Dance Company, The Axé Collective, Swing Brazil Tribe, The Nigerian Talking Drum Ensemble, and Ballet Folclórico Do Brasil. Whether I'm working with pre-schoolers or college students, I provide sensitive instruction that contextualizes Afro-diasporic dance as a powerful healing modality and a serious art form. As a non-Black person who benefits from anti-Blackness, I return at least 20% of any resources I receive for teaching Afro-diasporic dance to Black communities.

My father taught me Yang Style Tai Chi growing up, and I have continued to seek out the modalities of our ancestors. At Yo San University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, I have completed Self-Healing Qigong, Harmony Tai Chi, Qigong for Weight Management, Chen-style Sword Form, Eight Treasures Qigong levels 1 and 2a, Crane Style Qigong, and Qigong Meditations for Cancer Treatment and Prevention. I am a certified Self-Healing Qi Gong instructor through the College of Tao and completed teacher training in Qigong Meditations for Cancer Treatment and Prevention. I currently study Yang style taijiquan with my father, Dr. William Tsung-Liang Lee, who has practiced the Chen Man-Ching form for over 30 years. I have taken classes with Amira Kusala, Ed Sullivan, Dr. Bita Yadidi, Dr. John Barber, and Curtis Callison. In 2015, I began studying Wun Hop Kuen Do, Filipino stick fighting, and street fighting from Sifu Earl White. I have studied capoeira from Renato Mendonça and Mestre Amen Santo since the early 2010’s.

As a trained Council facilitator, I hold space in circle for transformative listening from the heart. I have taught qigong at Forest Grove UCC, Pacific University, Brasil Brasil Cultural Center, Pieter Performance Space, freeskewl, Sovern, and the Asian Mental Health Project. I offered a somatic wayfinding workshop as part of virtual care lab and NAVEL’s micro-residency with The Bentway and From Later. I offered “Embodying Freedom: Abolishing the Prisons in Our Cells” at the Arts for a New Future: Justice Arts Coalition’s 2021 National Convening and “Ancestral Energy Healing: Axé + Qi” via Civic Wellbeing Partners. I am a Level 2 instructor through the College of Tao's International Taoist Meditation Institute under Dr. Mao-Shing Ni and Olivia Rosewood. I have been a guest teacher with Alchemystic Studio, with the QTPoC Mental Health Project’s Rest for Resistance monthly meditation and their annual Rest Fest.

Apply for private lessons here.

 

Current research

 

李道玲 Camelia Dao-Ling [they/she] is passionately engaged in an artistic practice of ancestral healing as community care. In diasporas shaped by US militarism in Asia, Portuguese settler colonialism, and narratives of yellow peril, they are exploring the shapes and textures of displacement and (be)longing. 李道玲 Camellia studies qigong, Daoism, and Chinese medicine across language barriers and in defiance of cultural appropriation, while working for educational equity and housing justice with various organizations.

They ask, how do we acknowledge contemporary geo-politics in our spiritual practices? In our embodiments? How do we hold, honor, and move through grief from anti-Asian violence while remaining rigorously honest about how East Asians in particular benefit from and uphold anti-Blackness and white supremacy? How can we resist the cop in the head (as Augusto Boal might say) that urges us to deny the reality of mass trauma and push our bodies to produce at the expense of our lifeforce qi energy? What practices allow traumatized bodies to re-align with circadian and seasonal cycles themselves disturbed by racial capitalism?

李道玲 Camellia mediates between generations - elder teachers shaped by the Chinese Civil War and peers born into digital economies. During the pandemic, they offered sliding scale healing and movement classes with ASL translation for queer/trans folks and communities of the Global Majority.

Podcast Appearances

Transform your lineage, today.