Original title: Square Inch Sees the World, Tai Chi Has New Wind (Theme)
New Observation on Taiji Cultural Inheritance in Wenxian County, Henan Province (subtopic)
Xinhua Daily Telegraph reporter Tang Jianhui
"You don't see the waters of the Yellow River coming up in the sky, rushing to the sea and never returning." When the Yellow River flows through Wenxian County, Henan, the Yiluo River, which has a clear water color, and the Yellow River, which has a yellow color, forms a scene of two clear and clear waters and blends with each other, like a natural "Taiji map".
Luoshui microwave, mighty river, the confluence of Heluo, gave birth to Taiji culture. In the middle of the 17th century, Chen Wang Ting of Chenjiagou Village, Wenxian County, Henan Province, drew on the strengths of all families, gathered the yin and yang principles of the I Ching, and created a set of boxing techniques that combine internal and external cultivation, rigidity and softness, Chen's Taijiquan. In the past 400 years, on the basis of Chen's Taijiquan, many schools such as Yang's, Wu's, Wu's, and He's have gradually formed, which have been passed down from generation to generation and stretched endlessly.
Taijiquan, which means that "Tai Chi" is shaped in a "fist", flows the blood of the Chinese nation and contains the spirit of Chinese culture. Today, Taijiquan, derived from Taiji culture, is passed down in protection, innovated in development, and has become a popular sport and a business card for civilizational exchanges.
Tai Chi plays a new national trend
On December 17, 2020, Beijing time, the Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of UNESCO decided to inscribe Taijiquan on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. Taijiquan became the 41st item in mainland China to be inscribed on UNESCO's list of intangible cultural heritage.
Imagine what kind of sparks will burst out when traditional tai chi meets fashion elements? We can find the answer from the post-90s female boxer Li Linghui.
In the Spring Festival of 2022, a short video called "Chen Jiagou New Year Greeting" was widely circulated on the Internet, and Li Linghui received the attention of netizens and successfully broke the circle. In the video, Li Linghui led four generations of Chen Jiagou boxers to practice a set of boxing together, with uniform movements and full of momentum. And accompanied by the copy: "Back to the ditch for the New Year, our family's correct way to greet the New Year!" ”
Li Linghui was born in Chenjiagou, and her mother Chen Chunai is a national first-class boxer and her taijiquan enlightenment teacher. After graduating from university, she quit her job as a university teacher and returned to her hometown to pass on her tai chi career.
On the short video platform, Li Linghui's works are divided into four sections, namely "Tai Chi Teaching", "Tai Chi Life", "Tai Chi and Geography" and "Fitness and Tai Chi". At present, each collection of works has been viewed more than 1.3 million times, with the highest reaching 14.66 million times.
Fashionable mirrors, popular soundtracks, exquisite pictures, a set of Tai Chi boxing, the number of likes and comments can easily exceed 10,000. In just over a year, Li Linghui has accumulated 390,000 fans on the short video platform. Netizens said: "It turns out that Tai Chi can also be so handsome!" "Take apprentices?" "Where can I learn?" ......
Li Linghui told reporters that her works have a unique idea. "First of all, the formal beauty and artistic conception beauty of Tai Chi bring people a beautiful visual appreciation. A set of moving actions let people see the true kung fu of the Chinese nation, and the traditional Chinese cultural concepts of peace, inclusiveness, rigidity and softness have also spread subtly. Li Linghui said that on the other hand, this kind of expression with a strong sense of rhythm and beautiful pictures is easier to win the love of young people.
Tradition and fashion, integrity and innovation, are skillfully integrated and perfectly interpreted in Li Linghui's short video works, showing the perseverance, uplifting and endless spiritual strength of young people in the new era. Tai Chi is no longer a sport reserved for the elderly in people's impressions, and ancient Tai Chi can also be played by young people to play new tricks and become a new national trend leading fashion.
Live streaming has set off a new craze
"King Kong pounding, the center of gravity is on the left, loose the right crotch and turn right... Dear families, please follow my movements and practice together. Every morning at six o'clock, Zhu Hongxia, a female boxer from Wenxian County, will start broadcasting on time on her WeChat video account and bring the majority of netizens to practice tai chi together.
Zhu Hongxia, 56 years old this year, is the 13th generation of Chen's Taijiquan and has practiced Taijiquan for more than 30 years. In her early years, she suffered from severe lumbar disc herniation, in order to strengthen her body, she successively practiced tai chi with Chen Suying and Zhang Baozhong, and her physical condition was greatly improved.
After the Spring Festival in 2021, due to the impact of the epidemic, the number of people who came to the village to learn boxing was greatly reduced than in previous years, which gave Zhu Hongxia the idea of teaching Tai Chi through live broadcasting. "Such a good thing should be shared with everyone!" Zhu Hongxia told reporters.
Since then, Zhu Hongxia has begun to explore how to live broadcast. "When I was older, I was very uncomfortable with online live broadcasting, and I didn't know what to say to the camera at first." Zhu Hongxia said frankly that the number of people in the live broadcast room at that time was dismal, and no one came to see it for a long time.
She thinks about the content of the lessons, perfects the teaching methods, and gradually accumulates popularity by selling Tai Chi courses, Tai Chi shoes and some local specialty agricultural products live. In order to make communication more convenient, she also specially found a teacher to learn Mandarin pronunciation for two years.
After more than a year of hard work, Zhu Hongxia has become a well-known local taijiquan anchor, with an average of more than 300 viewers watching the live broadcast online in real time every morning. While her popularity has risen, her standard of living has gradually improved.
"Taijiquan is a treasure of traditional Chinese culture, and as a heir, I have the responsibility to carry it forward." Zhu Hongxia said that Tai Chi spreads the concept of healthy life, and through practice, it can not only strengthen the body, but also help us relax and enjoy life.
Like Zhu Hongxia, Zhu Yakun, a 35-year-old coach of the Wenxian Taiji Martial Arts Hall, has been teaching Tai Chi live on the online platform for three years, with more than 80,000 fans. "Teaching netizens to practice tai chi online is my main job now." Zhu Yakun said that in the past, I went to work as a coach in a martial arts hall outside the province, and my income was still small far from home. Now through live streaming to teach tai chi, sell tai chi courses and specialty agricultural products, the income is several times that of before.
"In Chenjiagou, live streaming of Tai Chi has become a new way to spread Tai Chi culture." Yan Shuangjun, director of the Theoretical Research Department of the Taijiquan Professional Committee of the China Intangible Cultural Heritage Protection Association, introduced that there are currently 20 or 30 live broadcast professors of Taijiquan in Chenjiagou Village, most of whom are young anchors around 30 years old.
The ancient village has a new charm
It is bordered by the Yellow River in the south and Taihang in the north, Yin and Yang are combined, and Taiji is Tiancheng.
Chenjiagou Village is located on the Qingfeng Ridge on the north bank of the Yellow River, and there is a local saying: "If you drink Chen Gou water, you will bend your legs." "This small village of just over 3,000 people has more than 800 boxers, more than 50 martial arts schools and 18 martial arts clubs. Recently, the reporter came here and saw many students practicing tai chi under the guidance of teachers, and there were many extraordinary boxers among the villagers.
Chen Bing, the 12th generation of Chen's Taijiquan, returned to his hometown after graduating from university and founded the Chen Jiagou International Taijiquan Institute. In order to inherit and promote Tai Chi, since he founded the first Tai Chi gym in Chicago in 2004, his gym has covered more than 30 countries and regions around the world, and many of his students and disciples are from overseas.
At the Chenjiagou International Taijiquan Institute, the reporter met two "foreign students" from Poland. "I'm 44 years old and I've been learning boxing for 12 years. As a child, I watched Chinese kung fu movies and fell in love with Tai Chi. A student told reporters that working abroad is very stressful, and the original intention of learning boxing is to relax.
"Through learning, foreign boxers can understand Chinese Tai Chi culture deeply. They know that Tai Chi is not a simple comparison, but a combination of physical and mental cultivation. Chen Bing said that many people once opposed Tai Chi going international, but he believes that when the whole world is practicing karate, taekwondo and yoga, there is no shadow of practicing Tai Chi, which is the greatest sadness. China's intangible cultural heritage must go global.
Compared with the older generation of boxers, Chen Bing's advantage is that he can explain the profound Tai Chi ideas to students in simple terms. "Taijiquan emphasizes the combination of movement and static, rigidity and softness, giving people a state of tolerance and peace, which is the philosophical thought of the East." Chen Bing believes that the idea of harmony and inclusiveness advocated by Taijiquan is constantly being accepted by the world through international dissemination.
Taijiquan has swept the world and has been spread and promoted in more than 150 countries and regions, with hundreds of millions of practitioners. Nowadays, many students from abroad come to Chen Jiagou every year to learn boxing from Chen Bing. Chen Bing not only teaches offline, but also under the local promotion, the recorded teaching courses he guided will be launched on sports software, and people can learn and practice anytime, anywhere in the future.
Movement and static, yin and yang; Heaven and man are one, inclusive. The international spread of Taijiquan has brought new charm and vitality to the ancient village of Chenjiagou, and has also become a business card to show China to the world.
From September 16th to 21st, the 11th China Jiaozuo International Taijiquan Exchange Competition and 2023 Yuntai Mountain Tourism Festival was held in Jiaozuo, Henan, which is a grand event for the international martial arts community and the national tourism community, and also a great opportunity for the display and promotion of Taijiquan culture. The competition included a Tai Chi Pusher Competition, a Tai Chi Elite Competition and an interactive exchange between famous artists. In addition, there will be "Tai Chi Rap" finals, in the form of "Tai Chi + Rap" and "Tai Chi + Street Dance" to create a new IP of "cultural tourism + music + consumption".
With the salary of tradition, the fire of the present is ignited. Taijiquan, which opens and closes in an orderly, rigid and flexible manner, skillfully integrates the dialectical philosophical thinking of the Chinese nation with martial arts and art, and contains Chinese way of thinking about the universe, nature, society and self, which is the long-standing genetic code of Chinese culture. After a hundred years of inheritance, the ancient Taijiquan culture will continue to develop in this deep fertile land that belongs to it.
Source: Xinhua Daily Telegraph