List of research on tai chi and tai chi benefits

Over the last two years, I have seen quite a few post on facebook about the benefits of tai chi. As someone studying and working in a university, I thought I would use those tools so dear to us like citation management tools to create a list of all the research I have come across on tai chi. If you want the list, you can find it here I welcome all comments on this list and please feel super free to let me know any that I've missed.

Review of the Lou Tan school -At the crossroads of changes

After a few weeks away from the Long Tou Shan Tai Chi school near the town of Yangshuo, and mostly over the jetlag, I feel pretty good about giving my appreciation of the place. I need to start by introducing this review with a bit of context and from which angle I’m doing it.

Context

The first bit of info that is important is how the school present itself to the world through its website and blog. That is, after all, how we can get a glimpse of what the school is before we get there. So comparing the real life school to it’s web image seems important. Going there is, for some of us, a big decision. It’s not only quite far from the North American continent but it’s also a 3 hour flight, 1 hour bus, 30 minute taxi ride from Beijing and the expense is significant both for the flight and the stay. One underlying question I will answer then during this review will be to see if the school meets the image or what is promised through its virtual self.

The second caveat  as I put in my title points to the crossroad at which the the school is at which will bring significant changes. Mei, the master and founder of the school is taking a break from daily and continuous teaching. She is leaving the tai chi part of the school to her son Da Zhu. She will be at the school a few months during the year but won’t lead the school anymore. The other change is that the school will also become a sight for traditional chinese healing and learning. Already, Cupping and Moxibustion treatment are offered and there are plans to add calligraphy, chinese cooking and culture classes. People will be able to go there to learn any of these art and practices which will make tai chi a part of a bigger whole and not the whole of the school anymore. My stay at the school happened during this moment of flux.

I did enjoy the school and the main reason for this review is to make sure people get a fair image of what to expect. I posted and talked about it enthusiastically and without this review, people could feel this tai chi school would be a lunch bag let down. With the proper information, you will hopefully be able to make an informed decision on whether you go or not. Now you might ask why am I writing this review in the language of the english people. The answer goes with my first review point

Good people - Minimal English

Although the website mentions instructors (and we’ll get to the plural of instructor later) speak english, the level at which it happens is basic and vocabulary is minimal. This mean that during your learning, you spend the first few days figuring out what the meaning of the instructions are so you can then focus on what is to be done.

At the school, only Mei, her son and his wife speak english. Everybody else on sight don’t speak a word and few will be willing to use a translation app to speak to you. This is an important information to have since you will have to communicate with the people living there for food, transport, tai chi, accommodation and any other need you may have during your stay. You should absolutely make sure you either speak mandarin or have WeChat and a translation app on your phone to communicate with people.

It is and will be even more a Chen style school

With Mei gone most of the time, the school is mostly a Chen style school. Da Zhu does have some issue with Yang style and often uses it so show “the bad way of doing tai chi” so he can then show the right “Chen way” of the art. The morning teachings are split into a 8 -10 warm up and fundamental, followed by breakfast and a 10h30 - 12h30 form teaching. Both sections will be taught within the Chen tradition. From tai chi walking to silk reeling (Ch'an Ssu Chin), the fundamentals are taught from a Chen’s perspective. It is especially striking during the walk where hand/feet and weight transfer are quite different from Yang and Dong to Chen. Da Zhu does not seem to have the desire to keep with the teaching of Yang style tai chi and that’s ok. You just need to know where you are going; a Chen school.

Dig down into tai chi, this space is for

With bad internet and being 30 minutes away from the nearest town (Yangshuo), this school is the perfect environment to focus on your tai chi and practice many times a day. There are so many places on the premises where you can go and practice that only your will (or lack thereof) will guide how long and how often you practice. The practice hall has a sound system and you can bring your own relaxing music to do your afternoon sessions and the roof has a magnificent view of the Yangshuo region which is conducive to meditation and long slow form. The place still being a tai chi school only, other practitioner get it and leave you to your practice or join you quietly.

Peace and quiet you will have

Similar to the previous point but more general, the place is a quiet, quiet...quiet. The only noise are birds and the loud chatter of the folks living there during meals. They speak loud!

That aside, an important reason why I chose this school was for the peace and quiet advertise. I’m doing a Restorative Justice certificate at Fraser University and needed time even while on vacation to read, concentrate and do my homework. I was not disappointed. It was easy to retire to my room every day and focus on my schooling without any distraction or noise. Ok, one small lie on distraction. The view is so gorgeous and changing that if you go outside to read or study...you will probably be distracted by all the beauty out there.

One instructor. Many arrivals

This is very important. Although the website describes Da Zhu as the lead instructor, in reality he is THE instructor. There is no team to lead to there might be a translation issue with the title because without a team, you can’t be a lead anything. There are also people arriving at the school at different times. Without a structured teaching system, you sorta left to the draw of the luck as to when you arrive and what is taught at that particular time. In my case, I was lucky to be there while Mei was also and learn the Fan form from here for the first two weeks. I then started learning the Chen 18 movement form as Da Zhu was starting a new group so I could jump in. Two other people got there while we were ¼ through the form and had no tai chi experience. They had to tag along and hopefully get up to speed on their own time. If you are new to tai chi or to Chen style, that might be a problem. Unless you stay there for a long stay.

For long stay, not short ones

The school is definitely made for long stay and not for short one. Now when I say long stay, I mean a few months. During my conversation with one student who had been there twice already, it seems that a fair amount of time to spend at the school is at the minimum 2 months. Because of the one instructor situation, your knowledge of tai chi in general and the Chen style in particular and depending of your arrival date, you might spend the first few weeks just figure what’s going on and be ready for some grasping of tai chi only after this initial period of omg-what-did-I-get-myself-into. In a way, you have to be somewhat of an independent learner able to take what was given to you during the teaching period and run with it for the rest of the day/week. My own experience was that 3 weeks wasn’t enough. I ended my stay with neither the fan nor the 18 movement Chen form completed.

On the positive side of things, I think my stay has been the beginning of my “year of the kua” where I will relearn in some way, the form but with all my moves started from the kua (pelvis).

Good food. Just not as advertised Another selling point of the school was the focus on the healthy food. I wanted my stay to not only be good for my soul and my tai chi but also for my body. The idea that I was going to “the first taiji retreat centre in China offering a distinctly energising and yet delicious diet helping you to reach and stabilise your ideal weight while providing absolutely all nutrients your body needs.” was very appealing to me. For the first two weeks, I would say that we did get most of that. We had healthy meal with plenty of delicious vegetable, eggs and tofu. The rice was always present and we had steamed pumpkin bread as a treat for breakfast twice.

There was no trace of the superfood, the specialized filtered water or the western dishes mentioned on the website though and after two weeks, there was a change of cook which brought an end to Mei’s vision of well-balanced, whole-food, plant-based and detoxifying eating experience. The food remained mostly balanced and still very good but compared to the previous cook and their attention to variety and healthiness, the new eating situation sustains you but I would be hard pressed to say it participate in bring balance and health in your life anymore. To be clear, there are no menu at the school. Meals are prepared and you eat what’s on the table. The food is good and variety most of the time decent. It’s just not what’s advertised.  

During classes ask questions. Say when you don't understand

You will be a student there and one thing I learned through my three weeks is that you need to ask questions if you are not sure of something. You are in charge of your own tai chi journey and unless you ask questions or say you don’t understand, the teacher will assume you get it and move on. During the third week in particular, I started asking more questions and clarification and not only it helped me but it also helped other students who benefited from getting answers to my questions.

Lots of demo, not enough practice

One word I would say is central to the teaching I receive at my club in Montreal is “again”. That beautiful, simple and soothing word is so important in the practice of tai chi because you learn and understand tai chi through repetition. You do over and over again and a good teacher will have YOU do new and old moves rather than show you how it's done. Tai chi is in the body and the mind and the air around your and only through being into tai chi can you really learn it. The teaching at the school is sadly not that. With the instructor now there, we spent more time listening to instructions and looking at demonstrations than actually doing the form and doing the new moves. The instructor was also often demonstrating the moves in ways that was quite inaccessible to us. His posture and height was much too low and we could not relate to movements done at such a level. To give you an analogy, it is as if an instructor was teaching you snake creeps down and was going all the way down to the ground and then you would be left to your own device to understand all the layers that leads to this achievement. The necessary steps of knee alignment, kua opening, sitting not bending would be overlooked which would probably lead to injury or at the very least, frustration. I was expecting to DO a lot and get lots of correction which I did not get other than the hours of practice I got with Master Mei.

Bring cash; virtual payment options don't work

During my whole stay, the credit card machine did not work. This was not only annoying but cost me quite a bit of money for I had to go to Yangshuo twice a week to take out money at the ATM to pay my weekly board fee. Each trip cost me about 10$CAD for a taxi and I also had to pay for ATM fee both from my bank and the bank owning the ATM. My bank withdraw limit on my account would not let me take more money out and they only accepted cash while I was there. It’s sad that in a country that is so close to the gods of the internet, there was no virtual way of paying for my fee other than hard currency.

Extras are coming

With the “change in management” comes also a change in what is available, what is free and what will be extra. For example, each room is equipped with a kettle and cups but there is no tea at your disposal. It seems to be a bring your own tea or you can also ask for some but will be charged for it. Same for coffee. They have a great coffee machine and you can find decent beans in Yangshuo but you won’t be able to use the machine without being charged for it anymore. I say anymore because this change happened just after I left and was relayed to me by a fellow student who was still at the school.

You are guest in their home. People live there more than they work there

After a week or so, I realised that this is more than a school, it’s a home where people actually live. Da Zhu and his wife are living there. Lui, the third partner with Da Zhu and Mei is also living there with his wife and son. The cook lives there and someone’s grand-mother is also living there. This is their home and it it their home before it’s their job. Contrary to hotels and other school where people go there to work and then go back home, the people who make this place run are living there more then they’re working there. It was to me something that helped me understand the dynamic between the people there and us, the students. This is not a hotel and one should not expect hotel service. It’s a school and a home. You, are a guest in their space.

People who are going to the school are tai chi enthusiasts and who don’t care much for what surrounds their learning. If the school is to go beyond this very narrow niche of a few dozen people a year, the Long Tou Shan Tai chi school will have to make some adjustments. My hope is that this review will help others make an informed decision and prepare carefully if they decide to go. I had a good experience at the school. I was also in a state of mind where I refused to let anything spoil my trip and prevent me from taking care of myself the way I needed too. It however did not prevent me from seeing discrepancies from the advertised school, goals that were not reached, compromises I had to make and bang for buck. China is a huge and beautiful country with many beautiful sights to see and tai chi schools. My next trip will probably lead me to another one.