On and off I have written about the health benefits of Taiji [1] and Qigong. Recently an article “A Comprehensive Review of Health Benefits of Qigong and Tai Chi” was published in the American Journal of Health Promotion. [2] The authors are Roger Jahnke – OMD, LInda Larkey – Ph.D., Carol Rogers – Ph.D., J. Etnier, Ph.D., and F. Lin – MS. They have reviewed a vast amount of clinical trials whose results were published in peer-reviewed English-language journals between 1993 and December 2007, and found that there is substantial evidence indicating that there is a variety of health benefits associated with Qigong or Tai Chi. We provide a short summary of the findings of their review article.
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A Comprehensive Review of Health Benefits of Qigong and Tai Chi
December 2010
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“He’d Grown Up Just Like Me”
December 2010
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“My child arrived just the other day. He came to the world in the usual way. But there were planes to catch, and bills to pay. He learned to walk while I was away.” [1]
- Thus began the relationship between the baby boy and his father. But you expect that this is just a coincidence of events that kept the father from missing key events in his young son’s life.
{And he was talking ‘fore I knew it, and as he grew, he’d say, “I’m gonna be like you, dad. You know I’m gonna be like you.”}
- The young boy admired his father, and started saying that he wanted to grow up just like his father.
“When you coming home, dad?” The father replied as he was leaving “I don’t know when. But we’ll get together then. You know we’ll have a good time then.”
- This is beginning to sound like a routine.
Some Basic But Important Fine Points in Performing Taiji Forms
October 2010
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What is the best approach in teaching the important fine points of Taiji? Should the instructor not focus on these fine points, as new students already have their hands full in learning the rudimentary movements of the forms? Or should the instructor remind the students of these fine points because these fine points are important from either the health perspective or the martial arts perspective, and it is more difficult to undo a bad habit and replace it with a new one? Thus there are two general approaches to teaching Taiji. The major difference in the two approaches is the amount of emphasis on several basic but important fine points when performing the forms. This article discusses some of these fine points and the approach that I favor.
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Diao Yu Tai Student Movement: Recollection 40 Years Later
Recently the territorial dispute over the Diao Yu Islands (or Diao Yu Tai in Chinese and Senkaku Islands in Japanese) have made front page news in newspapers. This dispute dates back to many years, and almost exactly 40 years ago this dispute led to a very widespread global Chinese student movement, known as the Diao Yu Tai or DYT Student Movement. From the very beginning of that DYT Student Movement, it was recognized that this is not just a minor territorial dispute between two countries, but it has much larger significance involving (1) the revival of Japanese militarism, (2) American imperialism and collusion with Japan to weaken China, as represented by the newly established People’s Republic of China, and (3) the weak and incompetent Republic of China government more interested in appeasing to the military interests of Japan and the U.S., instead of standing up for China’s national sovereignty. This article briefly summarizes the DYT Student Movement that began 40 years ago and discusses the true significance of the dispute over the Diao Yu Islands.
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