Category: News

Some time ago, Slanted Flying received an email from one of our readers. Her Tai Chi instructor saw an article we did titled “Tai Chi Park Was Built As Tribute For A Teacher“, which was about the David Chen Memorial Tai Chi Park in Montgomery County, Maryland. The instructor, Michel Czehatowski, e-mailed the article to his class. The woman exclaimed in the email: “It is BEAUTIFUL!! Several of the students, as well as Michel, are interested in creating something like this in our town – Redding, California.”

I was able to forward the contact information of the people involved in building the David Chen Memorial Tai Chi Park for her to give to Michel Czehatowski. I was happy to hear that they have proceeded with planning a Tai Chi Meditation Garden for practicing Tai Chi and Qigong in Redding, California. The plans for the garden are based on the design of the David Chen Memorial Tai Chi Park.

To complete this wonderful project, their group will need to find funding to build the Tai Chi Meditation Garden. To help achieve this goal, they are looking at the possibility of getting a grant for the extra funding.

The Redding Tai Chi Meditation Garden project video, created with the help of the Shasta County Arts Council, has been submitted to the USA Today Network “A Community Thrives” (ACT) grant competition. The National Voting Period began on April 12, 2017 and will end on May 12, 2017.

You can vote for this great project by viewing their submission at http://act.usatoday.com/submit-an-idea/#/gallery/60443995 on the A Community Thrives (ACT) official website during the Voting Period. There is a maximum of one (1) vote per person, per day. The top 10 voted submissions will be reviewed by a panel of judges. The panel will determine the top three applicants in each category who will be awarded grants of either $50,000 or $100,000 each.

Winning the grant will mean that the group can go forward with the building of the Tai Chi Meditation Garden, however they must get into the top ten most popular videos to win. I feel it is important to support these types of projects that can only have a strong benefit for the larger Tai Chi community as a whole. I would love to see more of these types of dedicated spaces for the practice of Tai Chi!

You can find out more about the Redding Tai Chi Meditation Garden project by visiting this link: http://www.reddingtaichi.com/tai-chi-meditation-garden.

All across the globe people from more than 80 countries will gather to celebrate the practice Tai Chi and qigong. Every year on the last Saturday of April at 10:00 am local time, groups will gather in different cities for the event. This year the World Tai Chi and Qigong day will fall on April 29th.

Please enjoy the World Tai Chi and Qiqong Day press release video!

The worldwide events for World Tai Chi and Qiqong Day will begin in the tiny country ofFiji, at 10:00 am their local time. The yearly event will then move west through such countries as Australia, Japan, China, the Middle East, Europe, Africa, North and South America. The last of the countries to celebrate 22 hours later are the Hawaiian Islands, at 10:00 am their local time.

It all began in 1999, when Bill Douglas organized an event to celebrate the healing benefits of Tai Chi and Qigong. He organized a group of about 200 participants to demonstrate the arts on the lawn of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, in the United States.

The many World Tai Chi and Qigong Day events are generally organized by different local groups and schools of Tai Chi or Qiqong. To join an existing World Tai Chi and Qiqong Day event, you can visit the official World Tai Chi and Qigong Day website

Over 300 Tai Chi Practitioners gathered on a section of the Jinshanling section of the Great Wall of China. Together they demonstrated the Chinese martial art of Tai Chi Chuan. In the last while, there have been more of this type of mass Tai Chi demonstrations throughout different parts of China.

Jinshanling is a section of the Great Wall of China located in the mountainous area in Luanping County, Hebei Province, 125 km northeast of Beijing. This section of the wall is connected with the Simatai section to the east. Some distance to the west lies the Mutianyu section. Jinshanling section of the wall was built from 1570 CE during the Ming Dynasty.

From Wikipedia

Fu Sheng Yuan (1931 – 2017), son of the famous Fu Zhong Wen has passed away. He was born in Yongnian, China, the birthplace of Yang style Tai Chi. He started learning the traditional Yang Family style of Tai Chi Chuan from his father at the age of 9 years old.

Fu is a descendant of the Yang Family. His mother, Zou Kuei Cheng, was the great grand daughter of Yang Chien Hou (son of Yang style founder Yang Lu Chan). Fu taught the Yang style for many years in China. He wanted to pass the family’s art of Tai Chi to the world, but was unable to leave China in the earlier years due to government restrictions. After the Chinese government started to allow its citizens to immigrate to other countries, Fu Sheng Yuan moved to Australia with his family in 1989.

Fu established a school in Australia, and from there he spread the traditions of the Yang Faily style of Tai Chi Chuan throughout the would with teaching seminars hosted in other countries. Fu Sheng Yuan taught thousands of students, and has disciples teaching in China, Australia, India, the United States continue to pass on his teachings to new generations of Tai Chi students.

Fu Qing Quan (James), the son of Fu Sheng Yuan, took over the leadership of the World Yongnian Tai Chi Federation several years ago. He learned Yang style Tai Chi extensively from his grandfather Fu Zhong Wen when he was young as well as his father. Fu Qing Quan continues to teach many of his father’s students as well as his own.

Our deepest condolences go out to the family of Fu Sheng Yuan, as well as his many students throughout the world.

A library in Salt Lake City is giving the homeless an opportunity for exercise, and hope. The library offers free Tai Chi classes to the city’s homeless.

Bernie Hart is the instructor of the morning Tai Chi program at the Salt Lake City Main Library. Hart initiated the program with the library to bring an opportunity of exercise and hope to the homeless in his city. There were only one or two people attending when the free classes started, and since then it has grown to around 40!

You can view the original articles on this story here and here by KSL TV reporter Alex Cabrero,

Many people suffer from back pain. As individuals get older, the likelihood of having to deal with back pain from recent or older injuries becomes greater. The general method of first treating back pain with medication is now being looked at differently. The American College of Physicians, who now have new guidelines for treatment, suggest that the first course of treatment should be things like heat wraps, exercise therapy, methods to reduce stress.

With its gentle movement and shifting of the weight, attention to alignment, and effects on reducing stress, Tai Chi would seem to be the ideal exercise therapy to deal with back pain. It would be important to be extra aware of how one’s movement, and not make any strenuous moves. It is also important to let your Tai Chi instructor know of any injuries or pain, so they may adjust your training to address any problems.

The type of treatment for back pain will of course depend upon the injury to the back. It is best to consult with your doctor to insure that any exercise will not further the injury.

On December 8th, 2016, Chen Tai Chi master Chen Zhenglei gave a speech to staff members of the United Nations on the subject of Tai Chi Chuan. Master Chen and his students also gave a demonstration of the Chen Family style of Tai Chi Chuan.

Chen Zhenglei is one of the 19th Generation masters of the Chen style of Tai Chi Chuan, as well as an 11th generation direct-line inheritor of the family style. Chen began his training in Tai Chi Chuan under the guidance of his uncle Chen Zhaopi when he was eight years old. When Chen Zhenglei was older, he also trained with his other uncle Chen Zhaokui.

Children at a New York School had the chance to learn some moves from a Tai Chi master visiting from China. Xiao Bing, who comes from Foshan City in China met with students from the Cornwall-on-Hudson Elementary School and the New York Military Academy.

The students were shown various aspects of Tai Chi to get a better understanding of the art. They even got to practice trying to push someone while holding an egg. This was an exercise to teach them not to use too much force, or the egg would be broken!

It is encouraging to see young people learn more about Tai Chi, that it is more than just an exercise for old people in the park. Perhaps one of these students will be inspired Chi and go on to be a Tai Chi expert!