China Seeks Intangible Heritage Status for Acupuncture

China is seeking to list acupuncture, the procedure of inserting and manipulating needles into various points on the body to relieve pain, as a UNESCO world intangible cultural heritage.

Wu Gang, Deputy Director of the State traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) administration, said that the initiative would promote TCM at the grassroots level in China.

"The country, in fact, filed the application last year and is now waiting for the result," the Xinhua news agency quoted Gang, as saying.

Meanwhile, Shen Zhixiang, Secretary-General of the World Federation of Acupuncture-Moxibustion Societies based in Beijing, said that the status would improve the awareness and popularity of acupuncture and TCM.

"The status also would encourage the protection of the time-honored medical science," he added.

The World Health Organization (WHO) and the United States National Institutes of Health (NIH) have stated that acupuncture can be effective in the treatment of neurological conditions and pain.

Source: ANI