Clinical qualitative research on acupuncture has turned into one of the overseas attentive points in medical research, and up to now nearly one hundred papers have been published, covering various pivotal aspects of clinical acupuncture itself, such as therapeutic effect evaluation, experience and expectation of patients as well as understanding and experience of acupuncturists on the treatment. Currently, the qualitative research on the holistic therapeutic mode and efficacy evaluation of acupuncture has become the focus of research in foreign countries. Compared with the condition abroad, there is almost no relavent paper published in China. In this paper, the development status, focal field and main direction of overseas qualitative research on acupuncture are introduced, the characteristics of the research proposed in China is analyzed, and its future application in China is looked forward to.