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One year ago this month, fifty wheelchair Tai Chi practitioners dressed in white silk Tai Chi uniforms and moving in slow graceful harmony performed the "Thirteen Postures of Wheelchair Tai Chi Chuan" on the main stage at the Beijing Olympics Theme Park. "They moved so beautifully and inspirational as if they were dancing in the chair," one of the reporters on the scene described.
This event, organized by the Beijing 2008 Olympics Committee as one of the kickoff events for the opening ceremony of the Beijing 2008 Paralympics Games on September 6, also intended to introduce wheelchair Tai Chi Chuan, an innovative and effective mind & body healing art to the world.
The work of promoting the wheelchair Tai Chi Chuan began in 2005 when Dr. Guo proposed to Beijing 2008 Paralympics Committee and China Disabled Person's Federation to promote the wheelchair Tai Chi Chuan program during 2008 Olympics and Paralympics. Seeing that wheelchair Tai Chi Chuan as an innovative and could potentially become an effective method of rehab and promoting the general health condition for people with physical disabilities, the two organizations decided to adopt the proposal and planned to promote the 13 Postures of Wheelchair Tai Chi Chuan Dr. Guo developed.
In October 2006, the two organizations invited us to Beijing conducting the very first national wheelchair Tai Chi Chuan instructor's training workshop for Tai Chi instructors and professionals from all over China who work in the organizations providing services for people with disabilities. The workshop was a great success, and in the spring of 2007, China Disabled Person's Federation issued a policy statement to all provincial organizations responsible for providing services for people with disabilities requesting to promote the wheelchair Tai Chi Chuan in their regions. Advocated by China Disabled Person's Federation and supported by the provincial organizations, the 13Postures of Wheelchair Tai Chi Chuan was soon promoted and gained enormous popularity throughout China.
The initial success prompted the Beijing 2008 Olympics Paralympics Committee's decision to include wheelchair Tai Chi Chuan demonstration at the opening ceremony of 2007 Olympics Cultural Festival. In the summer of 2007 invited by the Beijing 2008 Paralympics Committee and the China Disabled Persons' Federation, we went to Beijing and directed a wheelchair Tai Chi Chuan demonstration at the festival. Eighty individuals with physical disabilities from regions across China were chosen to participate in the demonstration. The event, the very first time bringing the wheelchair Tai Chi Chuan at a national stage, further ignited the enthusiasm and the popularity of wheelchair Tai Chi Chuan practice across the country.
Wheelchair Tai Chi Chuan classes were offered to in cities as well as in agricultural areas. Many regions also included the Thirteen Postures of Wheelchair Tai Chi Chuan as either a competition or demonstration event in their local Paralympics festivities. The fast growing popularity of wheelchair Tai Chi Chuan and the enormous health and social impacts perceived among people with physical disability in China were the determining factors for the 2008 Beijing Olympics Committee and China Disabled Person's federation deciding to bring the wheelchair Tai Chi Chuan program to the international stage on September 5, 2008.
The development of the 13 Postures of Wheelchair Tai Chi Chuan began two decades ago in working with people with physical disability, rehab therapists and physicians. Each of the 13 moves was selected and modified according to the characteristics and health needs of people with ambulatory disabilities. The routine is dynamically and symmetrically constructed providing a series of gentle and circular movements that would improve and stimulate the rotating range of the torso, waist, lower back, shoulders, arms, and wrists. In addition, by incorporating various types of wheelchair turnings and moving with the movements in the routine makes the practice of these gentle flowing moves with revealed hidden power and gives the practitioner a sense of uplifting and empowerment.
In recent decades Tai Chi Chuan has become increasingly popular both as a basic exercise program and as a rehab alternative for the general population in the world. Ample of studies have shown that frequent Tai Chi Chuan practice contributes significantly to the improvement of mental and physical well being for people of all age groups and physical condition. However, since the conventional method of Tai Chi practice requires the participants to have ambulatory ability, people with ambulatory difficulty are not always able to be benefited from such low-impact exercise.
The recognition and fast growing popularity of wheelchair Tai Chi Chuan in China demonstrates that wheelchair Tai Chi Chuan is a practical and effective mind and body healing method for people with disability. Integrated with the principles of traditional healing methods, the therapeutic effect of Tai Chi movements and the characteristics of people with physical disability, the form of wheelchair Tai Chi Chuan not only would provide the practitioners with enormous healing effects, it would also build self-confidence and encourage proactive self-care practice. "When I practice at the park every morning, people would look at me with admiration, and it made me feel so good. Now I always look forward to going out practicing wheelchair Tai Chi Chuan everyday at the park," one gentleman from Shanghai told us during an interview. When asked why park was a preferable place to practice the wheelchair Tai Chi Chuan, one lady from Tianjin said: "because we want to show the world that we (people with disability) also can perform Tai Chi Chuan, and we perform it beautifully."
Professor Zibin Guo is a medical anthropologist at University of Tennessee Chattanooga. You may contact Professor Zibin Guo at www.appliedtaiji.com or zibinguo@appliedtaiji.com.
Professor Yuyang Zang is an exercise science faculty at Nanjing University, China. You may contact Professor Yuyang Zang at zangyy@nju.edu.cn.
For more information on wheelchair Tai Chi, click here.
To watch a video of the seated Tai Chi program, click here.
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