The old way: some aspects of learning acupuncture

How to teach acupuncture online ? I intend to be as systematic as possible, but at the same time pragmatic and down to earth. I was taught the old way, using the system of master and disciple which still existed in Taiwan forty years ago. In those days the government had already created laws for the learning and practice of acupuncture, with specific regulations and official diplomas. But it was difficult to erase with one sweep of the hand (or of the law) to change the actual situation which had inherited the habits of many centuries. So it slowly set up the frame for Chinese Medicine official courses in general (which included acupuncture of course). What about the few hundreds of “illegal” practitioners? They would claim teaching by this or that master, or being a practitioner from father to son during many generations, produce elegant diplomas, have many patients. But where was the proof of all that? Most of them had fled from mainland China in the beginning of the 50ies and had no papers with them. The Taiwanese who had been practicing had followed the old system. For the government to start trying to sort out each individual situation was an impossible task and would have been a very unpopular move. So they just wait till the “old” disappear and replace them with products of the new official system. My master Wu Weiping was no exception. He came from the town of Wujin in the province of Zhejiang. He claimed family acupuncture education, but who could vouch for it? He had many patients. He had a lot of “guanxi”, the concept of “relations” or “contacts” in the West, but with a much stronger connotation. While I was studying in his practice, I saw many ministers, politicians, successful businessmen, film and theater actors and comedians. He was the president of the Chinese Acupuncture Association (in Taiwan of course), had even created an international association. He organized congresses, was invited all through the island by the local associations to give lectures (sometimes he took me along to give him face). How could anybody in the government dare to question his credentials? He copied a book written by somebody on the mainland and published it under his name. Who was going to challenge him?To be fair one must say that the old system, in every domain, was still prevailing in Taiwan. People didn’t always like the new ways, which they found unsettling. They liked Chinese acupuncture as it was, did not question it nor see any reason for modifying anything. Ah! Yes, a few modern thinkers in the government or in the universities…