November 28, 2011

Arthritis and Exercise

Exercise is the way to deal with arthritis, experts say. "Three years ago, federal health officials recommended that people with arthritis exercise moderately every day for about 20 minutes. But that's not what's happening. A recent study at Northwestern University looked at activity among 1,000 adults, between 49 and 84 years old, who had osteoarthritis of the knee. Ninety percent of the people were not exercising, according to lead scientist Dorothy Dunlop....Even more alarming, 40 percent of men and nearly 60 percent of women were total couch potatoes, Dunlop says." Read the entire article at NPR.
Tai chi, of course, is widely practiced for arthritis.

November 26, 2011

China to Build First Tai Chi Theme Park

"China will build a theme park showcasing the traditional martial art of Tai Chi in Wudang Mountains area, legendary home of the marital art and a UNESCO World Heritage Site renowned as a center of Taoism," reports Xinhua News Agency in China.
This is to be a joint venture with the American company Landmark Entertainment, and is aimed at increasing tourism. Hollywood-directed performances of tai chi will be featured along with the Daoist (Taoist) heritage of the mountains.

November 21, 2011

New Movie "Man of Tai Chi" to Feature Keanu Reeves

Actor Keanu Reeves will make his directorial debut with "Man of Tai Chi," a martial arts film that will have at least forty minutes of fighting! "I want to make a good, solid kung fu movie. Good story, good plot — but let's get some good kung fu going!" He was interviewed on MTV.

November 10, 2011

Ed Young Art Exhibit

Ed Young, children's book artist and tai chi teacher, will be having an exhibit of his works in Abiline, Texas,  November 11, 2011-January 28, 2012 at the National Center for Children's Illustrated Literature. Young, who is about to turn 80, immigrated to the United States as a youth, and studied architecture, before turning to illustration.
In 1964, he happened to meet Professor Cheng Man-ch'ing, who was visiting the United States. After  Cheng decided to stay on, Young became one of his assistants and translators, and became a taiji teacher himself in the New York area.
Young's book Lon Po Po, the Chinese Red Riding Hood story, won the Caldecott Medal, the highest US honor in children's book illustration. Two other books, The Emperor and the Kite, and Seven Blind Mice, by Young himself, have won Caldecott Honors. Recent books include Wabi Sabi (with Mark Reibstein), Moon Bear (with Brenda Guiberson),  Hook, and Tsunami (with Kimiko Kajikawa). His newest book, The House Baba Built, a picture-book memoir about his boyhood in wartime Shanghai, is meeting with critical acclaim.
For an article about the exhibit, see the Abiline Recorder.
A video of Young discussing The House Baba Built can be seen at the BBC's site.

November 8, 2011

Tai Chi for the Blind

A troupe of people with visual impairment performed this September as part of Beijing's National Day celebrations. The team members were massage students from the Zhangcheng School for the Blind, and had only been practicing tai chi for three months. (Xinhua, September, 2011)
Wan Zhouying, the instructor, reported that his teaching techniques needed to be adapted for the team. "Sometimes, Wan could not explain some specific actions or poses by words then he would ask students to touch him. However, even those students imitated him by touching, Wan still had to correct their actions one by one." The students derived health, confidence, and betterment of massage skills.