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Abstract
The journey of acupuncture and moxibustion (zhenjiu)1 in the UK as part of Chinese Medicine is entangled with UK politics, the structure of the National Health Service, the concerns of what is science and research, the changing state of higher education and the role of China as friend or foe within geopolitics. It is also entangled with individuals and relationships and situations. In this research note, I will trace the history of acupuncture education in the UK through the second half of the twentieth century to the present-day drawing on my 45 years of experience as an acupuncture student, practitioner and educator. I include a vignette based on my insider knowledge of one course, the first Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) school of acupuncture in the UK, its move into a university and its closure in 2023. While acupuncture includes systems that have developed in countries such as Japan and Korea the focus of this paper will be on Chinese acupuncture due to its major influence on course content in the UK.
Acknowledgement:
Sibyl Coldham for her memories and editing skills.
Disclosure Statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 In China zhenjiu translates as acupuncture and moxibustion. In the West it is the single word acupuncture that is commonly referred to.
2 The expression “Traditional Chinese Medicine” (TCM) was a term used only in the foreign language press. For a discussion on the issues around the standardisation and modernisation of CM in the PRC and the concept of “tradition” see Scheid Citation2002a and Taylor Citation2004.
3 I use the expression ‘bio-medicine to depict what is variously known as allopathic, orthodox, conventional or western medicine and, in the UK, state sponsored medicine.
4 See page 13 for further explanation.
5 Five element acupuncture (often called Worsley style acupuncture) focuses on diagnosis and treatment through the body/mind/spirit concordances of the five elements of CM with the emotions being a major component.
Stems and Branches uses the Chinese calendar and clock to determine a person's constitutional imbalance.
6 The focus of training in TCM in the UK was acupuncture. The first comprehensive course in Chinese herbal medicine (CHM) taught by Kaptchuk started in 1983 and training in CHM did not appear in colleges in the UK for another few years.
7 The CfA was made up of: The British Acupuncture Association and Register (BAAR) formed 1961, the International Register of Oriental Medicine (IROM) in 1972, the Traditional Acupuncture Society (TAS) in 1976, the Register of TCM (RTCM) in 1979 and the Chung San Acupuncture Society.
8 BAAB Citation2020, The Standards for Education and Training for Acupuncture Programmes https://handbookbaab.co.uk.
10 Who follow Napoleonic Law.
11 This is not the same thing as protection of function which determines who can use the technique.
12 Originally acupuncture and herbal medicine were split into different groupings from TCM but in the next phase of consultation this was changed.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Felicity Moir
Felicity Moir trained originally in the UK and has been a practitioner and teacher of Chinese medicine specialising in acupuncture for over 40 years. With colleagues, she founded a private college of Chinese medicine in 1983 that moved into the University of Westminster as a BSc (Hons) TCM: Acupuncture in 1997. She was the course leader for Chinese Medicine there for 20 years and has in depth experience of all aspects of education and training in acupuncture. Her Doctorate in Education looked at how we assess students' clinical practice considering it from the points of view of the accreditors, institutions and assessors. She has worked closely with the British Acupuncture Council and the British Acupuncture Accreditation Board in producing the Standards of Practice for Acupuncture and the Educational Standards. She is an external examiner for courses in the UK and abroad and maintains a private practice in London.