This just became a Tiger Claw Foundation supported event for 2009. I won’t be going because I have a previous engagement on that day, but we have a freelancer headed there and our publisher might go. It looks really good - a lot of heavy hitters in the Tai Chi world.
Here’s the official website.
Just got this press release from
We are sending a rep from Kung Fu Tai Chi, but it’s not going to be me, which is too bad because this sounds really interesting. We might even send two. Since our parent company Tiger Claw has a TN office, it’s well within reach.
Vanderbilt Hosts Largest Tai Chi Chuan Integral Health Forum Outside of China Tai Chi Chuan Grandmasters, Researchers and Health Professionals Gather for First United States Dialog Nashville, Tenn.
— May 29, 2009 —
The Vanderbilt Center for Integrative Health and Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tenn., will host the first International Tai Chi Chuan Symposium on Health, Education and Cultural Exchange in the United States that gathers five grandmasters of traditional Tai Chi Chuan, academic researchers and health professionals. The symposium, “Traditional Tai Chi Chuan: A View through the Lens of Science,” runs July 5-10 and is designed to focus on the role of Tai Chi Chuan in integral health (www.taichisymposium.com).
What is Tai Chi?
Tai Chi Chuan is a martial art noted for its slow movements and extraordinary power. Also practiced by tens of thousands of people for health benefits, Tai Chi Chuan is among the world’s fastest growing health fitness activities today. Once an obscure Chinese martial art, today Tai Chi Chuan is taught not only in martial art schools, but also in community centers, parks programs, senior centers and health education classes around the world. An exercise people can practice well into their eighties and nineties, Tai Chi Chuan needs no uniform, equipment or special court.
Largest Symposium outside China
As the largest integral health forum held outside of China, the symposium opens the first U.S. dialog between the wisdom of Chinese culture and clinical science. For five days, grandmasters from five traditional Chinese family styles of Tai Chi Chuan, academic researchers, physicians and Tai Chi Chuan enthusiasts will share data, exchange discoveries, discuss Tai Chi Chuan research issues and plan future research collaboration.
The international symposium features 45 academic presentations and 25 poster sessions focusing on everything from general subjects on Tai Chi Chuan to clinical investigations of its role in health. Topics covered during the symposium will include biomechanics, kinesthetics, meditation, physical and mental health benefits, therapeutic value, the nature of chi and more. Presenters are coming from institutions around the world, including Harvard Medical School, Center for Cognitive Therapy, University of Missouri, National Institutes of Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, University of Illinois, University of California, Beijing Sports University (China) and the Mayo Clinic.
Grandmasters Meet Researchers
Grandmasters of the five traditional Tai Chi Chuan styles — Chen (Chen Zhenglei), Yang (Yang Zhenduo), Wu/Hao (Wu Wenhan), Wu (Ma Hailong), Sun (Sun Yongtian), — will teach daily workshops on their styles. To open greater information exchange about Tai Chi Chuan, the symposium will host several panel sessions between the five grandmasters and some of the most highly respected scholars in the country.
About the Symposium
The first of its kind in the United States, the International Tai Chi Chuan Symposium on Health, Education and Cultural Exchange is a forum that offers attendees the opportunity to network with others seeking a deeper understanding of how the practice of Tai Chi Chuan can enhance health, wellness and quality of life. For more information visit www.taichisymposium.com.
Media contact: Dave Barrett, Director of Communications International Tai Chi Chuan Symposium Forest Grove, Or. 503 349 5184 (cell) 503 357 8917 (home) davebarrett@ipns.com
I lived in Shanghai for nearly two years and never saw this gentleman.
Master Ma Hailong
Is he living outside of Shanghai but still in charge of the Wu association there?
good research
This should be a worthwhile event - Sifu Yang Yang (an extremely pleasant and knowledgeable individual who I had the pleasure of meeting in person when he visited w/my sifu at our school) is chairing the Academic aspect (he had graciously invited me to come, and had even encouraged me to submit an article for it, but unfortunately my schedule was not able to accommodate such an endeavor at this point).
Looking forward to hearing your report on the event!
I’m sorry I’m not there now…
…however one of our freelance contributors, Dale Napier, is there in our stead. Dale has an upcoming article in our Sep/Oct 2009 issue (on stands Aug 4). He’s blogging his experience there and you can also follow him on Facebook. He promises to have a full report for us soon. Thanks Dale, and I envy you being there!
I’ve been hearing nothing but glowing reports
We’ll have a full report too in our next issue.
Mission Accomplished!!!
July 12, 10:20 PM
With a great vision, two years of thorough planning, hard work in preparation and countless voluntary effort, the International Taichi Symposium, held at Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, concluded the evening of Friday July 10, 2009 in huge success.
The International Taichi (Taiji) community has reached a new milestone. During the past six days, Grandmasters from all five Taichi Styles shared their lifetime of knowledge with participants by giving keynote speeches on Taichi’s history, philosophy, characteristics, features, key requirements, and applications. They also taught the Standardized 16-movement forms. The 16 Form Taijichuan was adapted to the universities’ sports curriculum in China. They were created by renowned Taichi Grandmasters Chen Zhenglei, Yang Zhenduo, Wu Wenhan, Sun Yongtian, and Ma Hailong. It was very fascinating for the symposium participants to learn the forms directly from the Grandmasters. Most of the symposium attendees were Taichi instructors from more than a dozen countries. However, it was quite challenging for them to learn all five forms in only five days. Many of them admitted that they now empathize with their students about learning a new Taichi form.
Taichi is very gentle; it appears to be easy to learn for non-practitioners. In practice, Taichi requires whole body coordination with specific foot work, body alignment and arm and hand movements. It looks flowing and smooth as if the eyes, head, hands, wrists, arms, elbows, shoulders, waist, legs, knees, ankles, and feet are all moving in sync. Ed Jones, Lifestyle Program Director of the Centers of Disease Control & Prevention and coordinator of the Taichi program at the CDC, commented on how frustrating it can be to first learn Taichi.
More than 50 scientists, medical specialists, and Taichi experts presented their research results on Taichi and Qi-Gong. They found overwhelming evidence confirming that Taichi and Qi-Gong have profound effects to help cancer survivors, aging citizens, early stage dementia patients, HIV/AIDS patients, and people suffering from knee osteoarthritis and arthritis. Taichi and Qi-Gong can also enable people to manage stress and anger. The most amazing finding is that practicing Taichi can actually burn more calories than some aerobic exercise regiments. Distinguished author and medical researcher, Dr. Esther Sternberg, highly recommends that Taichi and Qi-Gong be included in general medical treatments for patients.
This symposium was held mainly to celebrate 10th anniversary of the International Yang Family Tai Chi Chuan Association. During the celebration banquet held on July 6, Master Yang Jun, President of the Association, was appointed as the 5th Yang Family Lineage Holder by Grandmaster Yang Zhenduo, due to his mastery in Yang Style Taichi as well as his valuable contribution to promote Yang Style Taichi worldwide. Master Yang Jun established the International Yang Family Tai Chi Chuan Association with Grandmaster Yang in 1999. The Association began with only a few Yang Style centers and 300 members. In the past decade, more than 6,000 people joined the Association. Currently, it boasts over 2,000 active members with 28 centers in 12 countries.
With a jam-packed schedule from dawn until late evening daily, most participants were exhausted when the symposium ended. But they were happy and felt fulfilled simply because they learned such a vast wealth of information and Taichi/Qi-Gong skills during the week. They also renewed their friendships with others and built bonds with new friends. It was hard for them to say goodbye. At a request from many, Master Yang Jun, the President of the Symposium, promised he will work hard with others to have another symposium of this type of magnitude in the future.
Odd coverage…
…not sure what the point of this piece is but it name-drops the Symposium…
Jet Li & Chenjiagou
July 21, 7:01 PM
To Taichi (Tai Chi, Taiji) aficionados, Chenjiagou (Chen-jia-gou, Chen Jia Gou) is the Mecca for Taichi. Chenjiagou, sometimes referred to as the Chen Village, is in Henan Province of China. Interestingly, it is located about 10 miles from the confluence of the Yellow River and the Lo River which is also considered to be the birth place of China, or the epicenter of Central Plain (Zhongyuan).
At the recent International Taichi Symposium hosted at Vanderbilt University, Grandmaster Chen Zhenglei highlighted the countless generals, intellects, scholars, philosophers, and warriors that were either born, raised, or lived in the Central Plain. Zhongyuan was the center of culture, politics, literature, agriculture, medicine, arts, and creativity of all forms, including martial arts.
Though the Chen Style Taichi is now a widely known, this was not always the case. The Chen Family was very modest and kept a low profile; they did not try to promote Taichi until 1928. Today, with the efforts of Grandmaster Chen, a lineage holder of Chen Style Taichi and three other Chen Family Buddha Warriors (Chen Xiaowang, Wang Xian, Zhu Tiancai), Chen Style Taichi has become well known among practitioners around the world. However,the roots and history of Chenjiagou remains a mystery to many.
There are few glimpses of Chen Village in modern media. Fortunately, in Jet Li and Michelle Yeoh’s movie, Tai Chi Master, there is a bonus feature with a walkthrough of the Chen Village. It is interesting to see that the original section of Chen Village is quite austere. There is nary a bamboo forest or airy pavilion. Instead, it is comprised of modest peasant homes that reflect the humble village name, “the Ditch of the Chen Family” (Chenjiagou).
Hello all,
I was priviledged not only to attend the Symposium but was also staff, as IT Manager. I worked on registration when they found themselves short handed for that function and I was priviledged to check in Dale Napier when he arrived.
He is very nice and always, and I mean always, has a smile on his face.
I tried to be nice to Dale every time I saw him, as we REALLY wanted him to give us a good mention in your magazine! 
Seriously though, he was always a gentleman and we truly enjoyed having his participation at our little event.
HI DALE!! We hope you say nice things about us!!
I announced the Symposium on this forum on a thread quite a while back however there was very little response. I was pleasantly surprised when quite a few of the participants told me they had heard about the Symposium from my announcement thread on this site though. So I guess there are quite a few more people who read this forum than who post on it.
On to the good stuff:
The Symposium was truly awesome. All of the Grand Masters who participated gave excellent instruction during their classes and demonstrated an incredible level of knowledge about Tai Chi Chuan during their lectures and round table discussions.
Of course that is to be expected, since all of their first names are “Grand”… 
Attending the event can only be called the definition of “information overload”. It was five straight days of non-stop, morning to night, learning about Tai Chi Chuan and it’s effects on health. We started early in the morning, 6:15 a.m., on the Esplanade of Vanderbilt University with “morning warm ups with the Grand Masters”. Each morning there were two GM’s leading warm ups in their style at opposite ends of the Esplanade. This was a truly wonderful way to wake up, get stretched and warmed up and get to mingle with some of the true greats of our art.
It was pretty eye opening to be standing next to people like Hang Hoong Wang, Violet Li, Eugene Gaudreau, Rod Fergusson, Betsy Chapman, Jan Guyron (I hope I spelled everyone’s names correctly) and on one morning…
Dale Napier 
and seeing them line up right along with the rest of us lowly students and warm up with the GM’s.
After that, BREAKFAST!! 
After breakfast we went to the days “Keynote Address”. Each GM addressed us with many insights into their art. I have extensive notes on every address except for GM Sun, who I had to miss for Symposium business. 
From there those of us in Group B (there were two groups, A and B) went to the Sportsplex and took our classes on the 16 posture forms of the various family styles. It was a good venue, if quite a bit warm. I will not go into too many details on the classes except to say that every one of them was truly wonderful.
After the morning lesson, Lunch!! 
After lunch was the lecture series done by the academics, medical and scientific experts as well as some Masters of TCC like Rod Fergusson. The only problem with these lectures was that there were always three groups of three lecturers to choose from! You had to decide which series you were going to see for the day and it was always, always a tough choice. I wish there had been three of me, so I could see them all!
After that, Group B once again recollected and we would go the Life Center for the afternoon class. A truly remarkable place to hold the classes. Very comfortable.
After class, DINNER!
After dinner there was always a special event. Monday was the 10 Year Anniversary of the International Yang Family Tai Chi Chuan Association Banquet. It was truly wonderful and I want to once again thank the Executive Director of the Symposium, Lauren Wade, for showing us all a truly good time while we were in Nashville. She did the best job I’ve ever seen anyone do keeping us entertained every night.
Anyway, the Banquet was HUGE, with all the GM’s and their families and disciples there. I must say it was a special treat to see the GM’s singing opera…
There was a very special announcement made at the banquet regarding Master Yang Jun, the President of our Association. He was named the fifth lineage holder of the Yang Family that night by Grand Master Yang Zhen Duo. I feel priviledged to have attended the event to see him come into his own.
There were different events each night, all of them were truly wonderful. The Friendship Banquet and BBQ on Friday night was quite a treat. Again, Lauren Wade and her daughter Nicole Fedele did simply a terrific job putting that all together for us to enjoy.
What else to say? There’s simply too much to put into words. I’d be here for days…
For those who would like to get a small taste of the event, Violet Li has a shutterfly page to post pictures. The link to that is:
http://internationattaichisymposium.shutterfly.com/
You’ll even see me on there in some pics, but I’m not saying where!
Mike Lucero also has a shutterfly account that he linked on the Yang Family Tai Chi site: taichisymposium.shutterfly.com
There’s a pic or two of me on there as well…
I hope to hear from others who attended the Symposium as well to get their feelings on the happenings there.
Next Year?
Is there going to be a repeat of this seminar next year? It sounds like it was great and am looking forward to Dale’s report in the magazine. Bob, your brief report was good and heightens my interest in going if it’s repeated. Thanks. MP
Anyone do anything hands on? Seems to be all form work, and modern wushu form work at that!?!? Any applications happening?
Thanks
Jake
Dragonsihing,
No, there will not be a repeat next year. GM Yang Zhen Duo said to do it “one more time” and so we are in the preliminary stages of doing so. However the plan, as of now, is to do it again in 2012.
It took two years to put this one together and it was awesome, so with three years the next one should be even better.
As soon as I have any more details I will let everyone here know.
Three Harmonies,
No, there was no “hands on” at the classes.
This was the Symposium for “Health, Education and Cultural Exchange” so there was no combat training involved. There were demonstrations of martial movements during the classes but they were not practiced by participants.
There was quite a lot of pushing hands going on while we waited for the buses to take us from one place to another but that was spontaneous amongst the guests and not a scheduled event.
Bob
Bob
Thanks.
Too bad. I do not quite understand “martial” arts training without the martial part, but to each their own.
Jake
“martial” arts training without the martial part
When you’re young, martial arts means fighting with others
When you’re older, martial arts means fighting with yourself.
When your body declines, you face the hardest battles in the martial arts. I’ve often wondered if some aspects of taiji were constructs to maintain the Confucian seniority of elder masters. Obviously, at some point, the young fighter can beat the old fighter strictly on the power of youth (there are exceptions, of course, but those are remarkable cases). On another level, the therapeutic aspects of taiji are undeniable. Perhaps it was a construct for old fighters to stay healthy under the burden of their accumulated scar tissue.
My mom practiced taiji for a spell. It was a good social outlet for her and she felt it improved her golf game. Was it martial as in fighting? No, not at all. But my mom has different adversaries, the remainders of a long and fruitful life. After all, she had to contend with raising me. :o
[QUOTE=GeneChing;952464]When you’re young, martial arts means fighting with others
When you’re older, martial arts means fighting with yourself.
My mom practiced taiji for a spell. It was a good social outlet for her and she felt it improved her golf game. [/QUOTE]
True! I hadn’t picked up a club for two years but went golfing with the hubby on vacation this summer. My swing was more fluid and I was banging the ball pretty far!
old guys
[QUOTE=GeneChing;952464]On another level, the therapeutic aspects of taiji are undeniable. Perhaps it was a construct for old fighters to stay healthy under the burden of their accumulated scar tissue.
My mom practiced taiji for a spell. It was a good social outlet for her and she felt it improved her golf game. Was it martial as in fighting? No, not at all. But my mom has different adversaries, the remainders of a long and fruitful life. After all, she had to contend with raising me. :o[/QUOTE]
Exactly… when you’re in your 50’s or 60’s before you ever start, there’s not a lot of martial left in your body, no matter what your mind thinks. Taiji provides an outlet for that and beats the ever livin’ heck outta watchin’ tv from a chair as you get older…
Three Harmonies,
That’s not what the Symposium is about. The Symposium is specifically for “Health, Education and Cultural Exchange”.
The Symposium was designed as a way to highlight the aspects of the art beyond the martial.
Tai Chi Chuan makes a lot of claims as a “health style”, the Symposium was designed to give Healthcare providers, educators and the top Masters of the art of Tai Chi Chuan a chance to get together in one place and explore that aspect of the art from a scientific perspective.
We wanted to step away from the martial arts and explore the other aspects of the art that don’t often get brought out in the open in such a public fashion.
There isn’t a single thing wrong with martial arts seminars, I go to as many as I can, but this was designed with an entirely different meaning.
Take a look around on the internet. How many martial arts related TCC seminars do you see advertised? There are hundreds, probably thousands, of them every year. Why do another one of those?
To each their own, as you say. I, for one, discovered a lot about TCC that I did not know and I’ve been a student of the art for 21 years.
I think it was wildly succesful specificially for that reason.
Bob
Honestly… I see very, very few people actually training Taiji as a martial art. Very few seminars, classes, etc. Certainly hear / see more of the “health” aspect of Taiji than anything else IME.
Cheers
Jake
That all depends on your framing
Some people limit martial arts only to being fighting other fighters. But in a broader sense, martial arts is about fighting for personal health. Obviously, you need to be healthy to be a decent fighter. General health comes before anything in the martial arts. And as we age, that becomes a much more formidable opponent than anyone you’ll face on the street or in the ring.
Don’t fault others because they can only make it a short way down the path. You can fault people for thinking they’ve gone a long way when they’ve only gone a short way - that’s ego and ego is always a fault. But to limit martial arts to a narrow personal definition is also ego.
Tai chi as a combat method will always be with us. You, of all people, Jake, know how effective it can be when trained properly. People like you will always continue to train it so because an effective method has intrinsic value. However, in all honesty, only a few can really train martial arts fully. The bulk of practitioners in America are nibblers. But there’s nothing wrong with that. Quite the opposite, if martial arts is to grow, we need more nibblers. So don’t be a hater. Support the tai chi nibblers.
That being said, I don’t think this particular symposium was about nibbling at all. Bringing tai chi under an academic lens, especially when it comes to therapeutic benefits is very progressive. That’s what our Tai Chi as medicine thread is all about. That’s a future path of tai chi which holds so much promise.
Three,
As you say, to each their own.
I have gone to quite a few “martial” seminars for Tai Chi Chuan over the years. I quite enjoy them.
Me? I’m what Gene called a “nibbler”.
I started training TCC for the martial aspects. I learned quite a lot of the martial art, though I wasn’t very good at it (my own fault, I was quite young and when I started and after learning a few “tricks” I was satisified).
I thought I really “had it” at that time and was convinced of my own greatness.
That’s when I met my current teacher, who very quickly disabused me of the notion that I was any good at the martial aspects by the simple expedient of taking me to the ground on a regular basis.
When I asked him what I was doing wrong, the answer was quite simple: “All of it”.
That’s when I was finally introduced to the principles of TCC.
I’ve been working on learning the underlying principles of the art ever since.
I’m still lousy at the martial art, but I’ve made vast improvements. It’s not as easy to take me to the ground as it once was, so I’ll keep going.
Along the way, I learned quite a bit about anatomy, kinesiology and health.
My advancing years have taught me that “fighting” isn’t as easy as it looks, but that “healing” is even harder.
Personal healing as well as helping to heal others has become sort of a passion of mine lately.
I think it convenient that I happen to be training a “martial art” that allows me to do both.
That said, I’ve been “teaching” Tai Chi Chuan for a while now. You know what? I have yet to have a single person show up to one of my classes asking me to teach them how to fight.
Not once.
I get asked to teach people how to do “That healthy Tai Chi thing”.
Some are interested in the martial aspects, to be sure, but most are not the least interested in that side of things.
I have tried to run classes that are geared toward the martial aspects, I have very few people sign up for them. But when I advertise “Tai Chi for Health” or “Chi Kung for Health” classes, I fill up nearly every one of them.
There seems to be more of an interest in the health maintenance side of the art than the martial side.
Since they are both the same thing, I don’t see what difference it makes really. If you learn one side, you learn them both.
“The more you know, the more you know you don’t know. The more you know, the faster you will learn.”
Bob
Thanks for the reply. Will be looking forward for info on 2012. All the other replies were interesting and informative. I do TCC for health and keeping my martial arts training from the past alive. My teacher has also done other martial arts in his younger days but really concentrates on training his TCC. WE do share applications, but for many in the classes its health first, MA second. MP