Chinese have long believed that practicing Taiji is good for one’s health. In the last 20 years or so, many western medical research studies have shown that there are many health benefits to Taiji, including: Lower blood pressure, increase immunity to shingles, provide relief to osteoarthritis, improve control of Type 2 diabetes, lower stress and reduce joint and back pain, reduce probability of getting Alzheimer’s disease. provide relief to depression, improve Parkinson disease, and generally improve health. [1] Although these conclusions are preliminary and need many more and larger studies to confirm, collectively they do provide impressive evidence that practicing Taiji does have health benefits. This article provides a high-level explanation why Taiji is good for health.
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Why Taiji Is Beneficial to Health?
Significance of the 75th Anniversary of the Nanking Massacre
This year marks the 75th anniversary of the Nanking Massacre, one of the most horrific atrocities that men had unleashed on other human beings. During the six-week period beginning on December 13, 1937, about 300,000 Chinese (mostly civilians) were killed, over 20,000 Chinese females (women, girls, and even very young girls) were raped, and one third of the city of Nanking was burned to the ground. Many Chinese were beheaded or bayoneted in competitions among Japanese soldiers to see who could kill the most. Many were lined up and shot en mass, or were buried alive in mass graves. The Yangtze River was a river of death with dead bodies floating all over, and Nanking ran out of coffins. For an account by an eyewitness and survivor of the Nanking Massacre, click here. Even though this happened 75 years ago, its significance is as important as ever.
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One Person’s Experience: Overcoming Lymphoma with Qigong, Taiji, and Alternative Medical Treatment
Helen Liang was a young woman in her early 20’s living in Vancouver, Canada. Earlier she had graduated from the University of British Columbia with a degree in Economics, and was working in a bank in Vancouver and was up for promotion. She was also a top-notch wushu (Chinese martial arts) expert, and the daughter of the famous wushu teacher Shou-Yu Liang, who was the coach of the Canadian National Wushu Team, which usually in international competitions came in only behind China. So Helen was looking forward to a bright future. Then suddenly she got sick, really sick. It turned out that she had lymphoma cancer. After undergoing a series of very painful chemotherapy and other treatments, the cancer quickly came back. Her oncologist told her and her family that it was terminal and she had only a few more weeks to live. The only thing they could do was to try a bone marrow transplant, but the success rate of that is less than five percent, even with the right marrow.
After suffering living several consecutive weeks in the hospital, instead of choosing the bone marrow transplant with less than five percent success rate that will require her to remain in the hospital, Helen decided to go home to spend her remaining time on earth with her loved ones. With the support of her parents and her family doctor who is a Western medicine doctor but had also learned Qigong with Helen’s father, Helen went home, and they decided to search for an alternative medical treatment. This article describes Helen’s experience of beating lymphoma with Qigong, Taiji [1], and alternative medical treatment, and is based on the article “Helen Liang’s Triumph over Tragedy, Battling Lymphoma with Qigong, Tai Chi and Chinese Medicine” in the website: http://www.shouyuliang.com/helen-liang-opening-and-closing-the-gates-of-heaven.shtml, written by Martha Burr which was the cover story of the July/August 2003 issue of “Kungfu/Qigong Magazine.“
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On the Issue of Human Rights in China
The question of human rights has always been, and especially in recent months, an issue in discussion about China and the U.S. On the surface, the issue may appear to be pretty straight forward, in the sense that China, in comparison with the U.S., significantly lags behind on the issue of human rights, and it is perfectly reasonable for the U.S. to lecture and pressure China to improve in the area of human rights as part of establishing a more friendly and collaborative effort between the U.S. and China. However, if one analyzes the situation more carefully, this issue is far from being so simple and straight forward. As a matter of fact, it actually leads to the conclusion that the U.S. is purposely and unfairly using this human rights stick to masquerade and justify its constant China bashing and divert the attention of the American people and the world from the U.S.’s own shortcomings, both domestically and internationally.
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