Media Sampler of World Tai Chi & Qigong Day

World T'ai Chi & Qigong Day
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Media Coverage WORLD TAI CHI & QIGONG DAY
has Genergated in the Past?

Interview with World T'ai Chi & Qigong Day Founder, by Hong Kong's Acclaimed South China Morning Post
	A Simple Desire to Make Everyone Healthier has Prompted One Man to Organise World Tai Chi Day from his Kansas Home.

. . . [Bill Douglas] picked up a list of college courses that advertised Tai Chi 101 as being good for stress. "I'd never heard of it - and I thought it was pronounced Tay-Ee-Chy - but I thought I'd give it a go."

This week, two decades later, Douglas is still trying hard not to be stressed - about a world event, promoting China's gentlest martial art, into which he has put his life savings and his full pushing hands energy.

World Tai Chi Day is next Saturday, and Douglas hopes the world - and particularly the world's health organisations and professionals - will join in.

Last year they had 108 events around the world - by coincidence a lucky number in Chinese tradition - and this year they hope to have as many as three times that - from Slovenia to South Afric, from Thailand to Tel Aviv.

He has staked his savings on setting up the website (www.worldtaichiday.org) and getting everything organised - the fax bill alone last month was about 15,000 dollars: what return can he possible expect?

"I don't know: I have no idea," he admitted on the phone from his home town of Kansas City. "I just know I had to try it."

Douglas, now 43, first became interested in spreading the word about tai chi when his mother died several years ago during an angioplasty operation. Already a teacher of the martial arts form, he tried to interest his parents in trying tai chi for their health, but both had rejected it as "too weird."

But afterwards he found a note his mother had written just before the operation.

"She said she wished that a couple of years ago she had paid attention to the exercise I wanted to teach her: she said she wished she had done it so that she could see her grandchildren grow up."

It made Douglas think about how many other people he could help before it was too late: "I wanted tai chi to be so widespread that nobody could think of it as weird."

With missionary zeal he began to teach the breathing and the movements in local hospitals, schools, medical universities and even in prisons where apparently studies showed violence to have decreased by around 70 per cent after tai chi classes were introduced.

"It shows people where they can use that excess energy, so it can be constructive," he said.

But running classes in hospitals and prisons in the local area is one thing. World Tai Chi Day, with all the organising and cajoling and free information kits whizzing around via courier companies is quite another. How did it happen?

"Now that is a weird story," he said.

Douglas had originally had the idea some years ago, just after completing The Complete Idiot's Guide to T'ai Chi & Qigong. But after scribbling some notes to himself about how a global event could work he didn't go any further, or tell anybody about it: it seemed too ambitious, too time - demanding, too impossible to do from Kansas.

"Then a few years later, after my mother had died, my sister called me one morning and said she had this dream. She said my mother had appeared and said your brother has been writing some interesting things."

His sister had been described with an uncanny accuracy what those notes had said, and recounted how in the dream his mother had said he shouldn't have self doubt and should follow his ideas.

It was after that phone conversation, and with the blessing of his (slightly bewildered, but supportive) wife and his two teenage children (who "did tai chi until they were teenagers when suddenly everything Dad does is wrong", Douglas said cheerfully) he "grasped the bird's tail" with both hands, and went into the project whole heartedly.

"Does your sister usually have supernatural dreams?" I asked Douglas. "No, actually she's very conservative - she was even on the election team for Bob Dole. She's not one of those flighty new age types at all." And her brother doesn't seem like that either.

His facination with tai chi and qigong is less about the arcane spiritual side then about the physical side, and he is full of anecdotes and statistics - which he can apparently send to anyone interested by email as a database of 1,600 scientific studies - about how this is the best thing for mental and physical health since whole meal bread.

"We had a surgeon who came to the class," he said. "She'd been in a really bad car accident a few years back - and had whiplash and chronic back pain that wouldn't go away.

As a doctor she had tried everything that Western science could offer and nothing helped: after two months of tai chi she went back to normal."

About 70% if illnesses, he continued, are caused by psycho-social stress: "Five million kids are on Ritalin [an anti-stress drug] - if everyone did tai chi and learned how to control stress, then half the Health system in America would be redundant."

His enthusiasm - as he talked about how tai chi and qigong are immensely sophisticated methods of cleansing the central nervous system and getting rid of past pain and trauma, as well as improving things like balance, posture and strength - was infectious.

The next morning, after talking to Douglas, I visited a free tai chi class in the fake Roman amphitheatre in Hong Kong Park. This one - which runs on Tuesdays, Fridays and Saturdays - was mainly for tourists, organised by the Hong Kong Tourist Association, and involved running through the short form - from Parting the Horses Mane to being a Needle on the Seabed - again and again in the sunshine. It was taught by Lung Chi - Fai, a 19 year old computer student at City University who has the advantage of being son of tai chi master Lung Kai Ming, and grandson of another tai chi master from China. "Most people who come to my classes haven't done tai chi before," he said. "So with every class I have to start from the basics. But perhaps it will give them the interest to learn in their own countries. It is a great form of exercise: you move slowly, but you still sweat."

According to the Chinese Martial Arts Association (hkcmaa@hkscb.org.hk or tel: 2504 8164) in Hong Kong, there are about ten thousand people in the SAR who have learned tai chi, and many thousands more who have dabbled. The association hopes that hundreds of them - and some beginners - will come to the Hong Kong World Tai Chi event which will be held at Lai Chi Kok Park (Mei Foo MTR) from 10 am.

Victoria Finlay, SCMP

By working "with" our local media, we help them
elevate the health & wellbeing of their viewers/readers,
and become co-creators of a healthier world.

This list of World Tai Chi & Qigong Day MEDIA, is by no means a comprehensive look at WTCQD media . . . but rather samples global media coverage of local groups healing work, like yours, in your community . . . the free Organizing Kits, and Media Kits provided each year at www.worldtaichiday.org empowers local groups to partner with media to co-create a world of health and calm.
(scroll down to view past coverage)

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Clockwise from left, Debrah Roemisch,
Jay Proescher, John Milligan and Sandy
Gebhard pose in tai chi positions. They
will teach workshops next Saturday as
part of the festivities for World Tai Chi &
Qigong Day.

Newspaper photo of World Tai Chi & Qigong Day event

Janelle Sou Roberts/The Journal Gazette

Brazil National Television and National Newspaper
cover World Tai Chi & Qigong Day 2006 !!

Click (above) Photo to View TV News Clip

Toronto, Canada Television Covers World Tai Chi & Qigong Day !

Toronto, Canada television coverage of World Tai Chi & Qigong Day event

USA Weekend (Circulation 23,000,000) - Feb. 26, 2006 edition

Try tai chi -- it's gentle exercise
http://www.usaweekend.com/

Tai chi, a 2,000-year-old form of exercise, is non-competitive, gentle and self-paced. Anyone can do it, and the benefits are extensive.

"Tai chi is a combination of biofeedback, visualization and gentle exercise movements that together have a profound impact on mental, physical and emotional health," says Bill Douglas, founder and international director of World Tai Chi and Qigong Day, which takes place April 29 this year. "Tai chi is used as therapy for chronic pain and limited mobility, but its greatest power is preventive." . . .

Studies of tai chi show it reduces blood pressure, episodes of anxiety and depression, and symptoms of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. It also helps give a boost to the immune system, builds bone mass, and improves chronic pain, limited mobility, balance and coordination.

To learn more, find instruction on the basics or discover a class in your area, go online to worldtaichiday.org.

Read entire article at:
http://www.usaweekend.com/

BBC Worldwide Radio - Ecuador
Interview with World Tai Chi & Qigong Day Founder, 2 days before World Tai Chi & Qigong Day, 2006.

[interview in both Spanish and English]

KPFK Radio
- Los Angeles, California, US

Interview with World Tai Chi & Qigong Day Founder, 3 days before World Tai Chi & Qigong Day, 2006.

International Herald Tribune - London

on World Tai Chi & Qigong Day 2006

Tai chi - Old energy for a new age

By C.J. Moore International Herald Tribune

MONDAY, JUNE 5, 2006
http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/06/05/opinion/edmoore.php

LONDON World Tai Chi and Qigong Day has recently come and gone, with thousands of participants in 34 countries giving free tai chi demonstrations and classes. Now in its seventh year, the event aims to send a "positive wave of energy" around the world and draw attention to the benefits of this ancient Chinese form of exercise which is steadily establishing itself in the West.

The early morning practice of tai chi, which can be seen in city parks throughout China, is now an increasingly common sight in Europe and America, too, where it is hailed as the new yoga. Its benefits have been validated by recent studies indicating that regular practice contributes to better balance, flexibility and mobility, can reduce cardiovascular stress, and can help with symptoms of arthritis and multiple sclerosis. Tai chi could well join a growing list of "alternative" therapies invoked by Western health authorities to counter the stress and strain of modern living.

. . . the first stage is to make yourself mentally and physically fit and healthy, that is already well worth attaining.

. . . the underlying philosophy is not one of aggression but of heart, mind and body operating together using a universal source of energy, known as ch'i.

From this surrounding field or source, energy is said to be "gathered" and stored in such a way as to let it flow through the body and create balance and harmony. If this sounds vague and undefinable, that is exactly what it may seem like to a Western mind. Nonetheless, 3,000 years' tradition of using the same principles in traditional Chinese healing adds up to a lot of acquired and precise knowledge. . . .

The link between the health side and tai chi is played out in a series of related tuning-up exercises known as qigong (or ch'i kung) which are designed to clear the meridians, or energy channels, through the body. Organic health problems are seen as related to blockages in these channels, and it is important to keep energy flows clear, especially with advancing age. For this reason, and given the gentle and unpressured style of the movements, tai chi is often recommended for older people.

. . . it can change one's disposition: "After practising over a period of time, a hot-tempered man will change into a gentle man." . . . numerous Taoist masters have turned westward and brought an extraordinary tradition of knowledge with them, including tai chi.

This is an art that needs no special place, fancy equipment or expensive outlay, and its regular practice can build up grace, beauty and strength in a remarkable way, whatever age one may be. Maybe we should have World Tai Chi and Qigong Day every week.

C.J. Moore is the author of "In Other Words: A Language Lover's Guide to the Most Intriguing Words Around the World.

Read entire article at:
http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/06/05/opinion/edmoore.php

Brazil National Television and National Newspaper cover World Tai Chi & Qigong Day 2006 !!

Dutch National Television in The Netherlands covers World Tai Chi & Qigong Day 2006 !!

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ASHVILLE, NORTH CAROLINA CITIZEN TIMES NEWS
-April 25, 2006 12:15 am

Mountain residents will join in public spaces Saturday from 10 a.m. to noon to celebrate the Eighth Annual World Tai Chi and Qigong Day

www.citizen-times.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?
AID=/20060425/HEALTH/60424033/1200

ASHEVILLE — Mountain residents will join in public spaces Saturday from 10 a.m. to noon to celebrate the Eighth Annual World Tai Chi and Qigong Day. This year, events will be in Asheville, Hendersonville, Waynesville, Marion and Franklin.

YMCAs, recreation centers and private teachers are sponsoring free demonstrations and workshops with one goal: to share the health benefits of these healing arts with as many people as possible. All events are free and available to everyone. You do not have to be a YMCA member.

World Tai Chi and Qigong Day starts in New Zealand and spreads time zone by time zone, sweeping across six continents, with 1,600 events planned in 63 nations. "People are becoming so enthusiastic about tai chi that we are expanding our celebration beyond Asheville to five cities throughout Western North Carolina," said Michael Clark, founder of Heaven and Earth Tai Chi and organizer of the local event for the past two years.

"We are excited about welcoming families to try something new at World Tai Chi and Qigong Day," said Kristin Weaver, wellness director at Reuter Family YMCA in South Asheville. "This day celebrates healthy living by encouraging people to practice the holistic healing arts we offer, such as tai chi, qigong, yoga and NIA."

Tai chi and qigong are low-cost, gentle and effective health enhancement methods that are accessible to people of all ages. . . .

THE JOURNAL GAZZETTE, FT. WAYNE, INDIANA:

www.fortwayne.com/mld/journalgazette/living/14405210.htm

Focus your mind, calm your body in next week's World Tai Chi Day

By Stefanie Scarlett

The Journal Gazette

If it seems like the world has been holding its collective breath, waiting for the other shoe to drop, it's time to exhale.

One world, one breath.

That’s the idea for the eighth annual World Tai Chi & Qigong Day, which seeks to create a healing wave of positive energy and calm around the globe.

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TUCSON CITIZEN NEWSPAPER, TUCSON, ARIZONA:

www.tucsoncitizen.com/ss/body/9399

Cover Story: Tai-dal wave

Practitioners will create a worldwide flow of calm during Saturday's World Tai Chi & Qigong Day. Events are planned in Oro and Green valleys.

SANDRA VALDEZ GERDES

Published: 04.24.2006

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ACORN NEWSPAPER, THOUSAND OAKS, CALIFORNIA:

www.toacorn.com/news/2006/0420/Community/033.html

Learn from the masters at tai chi event -- 2006 World Tai Chi and Qigong Day is scheduled for Sat., April 29 at Arcadia County Park, 405 S. Santa Anita Ave., Arcadia. The event is free and open to the public. Free classes and information on health benefits, both mental and physical, will begin at 8 a.m.

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THE JOURNAL NEWS - Westchester, New York

www.thejournalnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?
AID=/20060428/NEWS02/604280392/1027/NEWS11

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SHREVEPORT TIMES:

www.shreveporttimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?
AID=/20060429/NEWS01/604290371/1002/NEWS

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YORK DAILY RECORD:
TAI CHI, QIGONG: Join in celebration

Daily Record/Sunday News

Apr 28, 2006 —

York's Tai Chi and Qigong instructors invite York County to join them in their seventh annual observation of World Tai Chi and Qigong Day at 10 a.m. Saturday at the gazebo at Farquhar Park on North Newberry Street in York.

Organizers will also join the Unity Celebration planned at Crispus Attucks Community Center to unite the community against racism.

www.ydr.com/newsfull/ci_3762280

Utah Health Magazine - Utah's Guide to Healthy Living

www.uthealth.com/

Natural Living -- University of Utah and Local T'ai Chi Schools to Celebrate World T'ai Chi and Qigong Day - April 29

Published Wednesday, March 29, 2006

. . . As part of the annual World T'ai Chi and Qigong Day, celebrated in 60 countries around the globe, University of Utah T'ai Chi instructor, Professor William Parkinson, and participating Utah T'ai Chi and Qigong (pronounced "tie-chee and chee-gong") schools invite everyone, regardless of age or physical condition, to experience these ancient Chinese forms of exercise by joining local practitioners at the sixth annual Utah observance of World T'ai Chi and Qigong Day. . . .

NEW YORK TIMES:

www.nytimes.com/2006/04/28/arts/28spar.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

SENTINAL NEWS - EDISON, NEW JERSEY:

ems.gmnews.com/news/2006/0503/Front_Page/051.html

Tai chi aims to calm the body, soothe the soul

BY JOHN DUNPHY

Staff Writer

EDISON - Like a wave, their arms swam through the air.

. . . Members of the World Institute for Self Healing (WISH), the Huaxia Edison Taiji Club, the Chinese Heritage School of New Jersey and the Murray Hill Chinese School presented demonstrations in the grassy fields of Roosevelt Park Saturday as part of the World Tai Chi and QiGong Day.

Labeled as "an unprecedented global health and healing event," it began at 10 a.m. April 29 in New Zealand. Mass tai chi and qigong exhibitions followed in parks and public places around the world.

Then, as the Earth turned, these events would unfold time zone by time zone, across 60 nations, spanning six continents, creating a healing wave of health education, according to a press release.

"I see this big gap between the Eastern and Western cultures," said Kevin Chen, a member of WISH and an organizer of the Roosevelt Park event. "I wanted to be part of this movement to introduce what we call a self-healing, preventive culture."

Australia's Pigmy Possum News on World Tai Chi & Qigong Day Events:

World Tai Chi and Qigong Day aims to promote ancient Chinese art

Date Posted: 06/Jun/2006 Category: Alternative Therapies

More than 34 countries worldwide have recently marked the 7th annual World Tai Chi and Qigong Day with free Tai Chi demonstrations and classes. Accordingly to the International Herald Tribune, London, the event aims to send positive energy around the world, as well as promoting the ancient art of Tai Chi.

SENTINAL NEWSPAPER - WOODBRIDGE, NEW JERSEY:

ws.gmnews.com/news/2006/0503/Front_Page/013.html

CHRIS KELLY staff Barbara Garfinkel, of Colonia, demonstrates the wuji qigong tai chi form Saturday during the World Tai Chi and QiGong Day at Roosevelt Park in Edison. Garfinkel and other members of the tai chi class at the Metuchen Senior Center will be working with residents of the Cedar Oaks Nursing Home in South Plainfield on May 23.

DOVER POST - DOVER, DELAWARE:

Tai Chi demonstration to be held at Brecknock Park

By Jia Din

Staff writer

jia.din@doverpost.com

Chinese Tai Chi, an ancient Chinese martial art that promotes physical and spiritual well being, will be performed at 10 a.m. Saturday, April 29 at Brecknock Park in Camden-Wyoming.

The event is part of the eighth annual World Tai Chi Day. World Tai Chi is an internationally recognized education program for Tai Chi that combines Eastern styles of training with a Western format. Members of the organization throughout the world will be showcasing Tai Chi skills through outdoor demonstrations in their local communities.

The Traditional Chinese Tai Chi School of Camden-Wyoming is participating in this event by inviting everyone to Brecknock Park to learn about and participate in Tai Chi.

Dr. Har Ming Lau, Tai Chi expert and instructor at the school, said the goal of the event is to provide awareness of the benefits of Tai Chi.

"Tai Chi is good for the whole body and it's not too difficult to learn," he said. "It's a type of holistic exercise that increases energy and can potentially prevent bone loss, high blood pressure, hypertension, stress and many other things."

Lau, who has studied Tai Chi since the age of 12 and has competed in international tournaments, said Tai Chi has varying styles and follows the spiritual philosophy of Daoism.

"The purpose of Tai Chi is for people to exercise their whole body," he said. "It consists of a series of movements that helps with healing the body, mind and spirit so there's harmony."

Lau said Tai Chi, which is an integral part of Chinese culture, is not strenuous and can be practiced by people of all ages, from the very young to the very old.

"People who practice Tai Chi are from varying backgrounds and they do it for different reasons," he said. "Some need it for meditation, some are interested in the martial arts aspects and some do it to relieve stress and get some balance in their lives."

Lau and others who practice Tai Chi will be available at the park to answer questions and to give demonstrations to anyone who wishes to join in on the exercise.

"This will be a good resource for the community," he said. "Martial artists and others can gather together and learn from each other." If you go...

What: Tai Chi demonstration

When: 10 a.m. Saturday, April 29

Where: Brecknock Park, Camden-Wyoming

Admission: Free and open to the public

Information: Call 670-6995 or email chinesetaichi@aol.com

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THE DAILY NORTHWESTERN NEWS - Evanston, Illinois - May 01, 2006

www.dailynorthwestern.com/vnews/display.v/
ART/2006/05/01/4455a899917a1

Moving meditation

Local tai chi school participates in martial arts celebration

By Anna Prior

It's 10 a.m. Saturday and although the air is brisk and the sky is overcast, six people are out in Raymond Park moving their arms and legs in slow, fluid motions.

These people, gliding through a series of controlled poses as cars pass by and children play on the nearby playground, are students and instructors from The Human Process, an Evanston-based tai chi and Arica meditation school located at The Evanston Arts Depot, 600 Main Street.

Saturday marked the eighth annual celebration of World Tai Chi and Qigong Day, and as the clock struck 10 a.m. across the world, devotees of the martial arts form went outside to participate in the event.

"It's fun," tai chi instructor Peter Norman said. "Tai chi is great for people looking for a healthy form of exercise."

Norman described tai chi as a "soft martial art," based on meditation. Tai chi focuses on balance and timing as well as relaxation, he said.

"It's really a moving meditation," Norman said. "People can do it to de-stress."

World Tai Chi and Qigong Day founders Bill Douglas and Angela Wong Douglas started the tradition eight years ago as a "global healing event."

ARIZONA DAILY STAR NEWS

www.azstarnet.com/allheadlines/126098

World Tai Chi and Qigong Day 2006 — McCormick Park, 2900 N. Columbus Blvd. Groups around the world will perform tai chi and Qigong exercises and discuss the benefits of each. 9 a.m.-1 p.m. April 29. Free. 331-3941.

SMOKY MOUNTAIN NEWS -- ASHVILLE, NORTH CAROLINA -- 4/26/06

www.smokymountainnews.com/issues/04_06/04_26_06/art_taichi.html

World Tai Chi and Qigong Day will be held Saturday, April 29, as local residents join tens of thousands of people around the planet who enjoy the health benefits of these gentle mind-body exercises. Asheville-based teacher Michael Clark of Heaven and Earth Tai Chi . . .

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Oregon Daily Emerald Newspaper - Wednesday, May 3, 2006

www.dailyemerald.com/vnews/display.v/
ART/2006/05/03/4458b4414213f

Eugeneans give pause for tai chi and qigong

World Tai Chi and Qigong Day brought community members outside to demonstrate and celebrate health

By Thomas Miller

Freelance Reporter

A silence filled the air Saturday as various tai chi and qigong instructors and practitioners sunk their hips and glided across a grassy baseball diamond during the third annual World Tai Chi and Qigong Day at Skinner Butte Park in Eugene.

Even runners and bike riders on the path along the Willamette River joined in and celebrated.

"It's fun that even the joggers are stopping by," said Le Allen, tai chi practitioner and Eugene resident. "The rich community support and the acknowledgment of the ancient art was vital to this event."

Eugene's own World Tai Chi and Qigong Day celebration on Saturday was a free event that promoted the related disciplines of tai chi, a moving meditation that focuses on graceful movements and calm breathing, and qigong, an art and science that uses postures, breathing and concentration to gather one's life energy.

The event originated in Kansas City, Mo., . . .

Peace River Record Gazette

Martial Art, Tai-Chi becoming a popular form of exercise and stress relief

By Mark Rieder

R-G staff

Tuesday June 06, 2006

Peace River Record Gazette — Tai-Chi is a discipline that uses the same movements as many of the martial arts -- such as Taekwondo.

Tai-chi’s growing popularity was underscored during World Tai-Chi and Qigong Day, April 29. Practitioners of Tai-chi gathered at Riverfront Park to demonstrate the activity.

Jeff McCann, local Tai-Chi practitioner and instructor, said it is an increasingly popular activity.

Usually perceived as an exercise for mature adults, McCann said it has benefits for people of all ages, especially in today’s fast-paced world.

“It’s ideal for stress and a variety of illnesses ... like high blood pressure,” he said.

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