Tai Chi Newsletter.

Longstanding members of the commuity will remember the tall Chinese boy, Ning Haitao, who came to the city in 1998 to study, and was a regular at Tai Chi class. He was first brought to the town by Charlie, who acted as his sponsor. During the first year he attended Templemore School, and then he progressed to Methodist College in Belfast to study for "A"-levels. We are pleased to inform you that Haitao is now at Edinburgh University, studying computer science. We wish him well, and we are grateful for the wonderful cultural exchange.

New Members should collect an application form from Danno Ryan, and then register as soon as possible. Places cannot be kept for anyone as that would be unfair to others wishing to join the community. (limited places available). When you are allocated your personal membership number please remember it, and ensure that you enter it in the attendance sheet beside your name.

Our own Tai Chi master Wen Hui, and her son Peter Jan, have returned home to Belgium after spending a very enjoyable holiday with her parents in the city of Shenyang, N.E. China. She informs us that she intends to start her own Tai Chi classes in her home town of Leuven in the near future.

Because of the increase workload with regard to the administration processes of the community, it has been necessary to appoint a person to look after this important work. This ensures that things are kept running smoothly. In the past it has been difficult to supervise class activities and also provide administrative back-up. As a consequence Tai Chi instruction may have suffered on occasions. Danno will now issue membership forms to all new members, and keep the register up to date. He will also provide a membership book containing personal membership numbers. This will allow people to check their own numbers, which should then be entered adjacent to their own names at each class.

Qigong was referred to in various terms because in China there were different schools of thought: Confucianism, Taoist, Buddhist, and medical. There were also various styles of Qigong throughout the country. many books were written on the subject, but no explaination of the meaning was made, nor a formal name recognised. It was not until 1953 when Liu Quizheng wrote and published "Practise on Qigong Therapy", did Qigong be given a full explaination and recognised as a formal name instead of the various terms previously used by the different schools in China.

Energy is the foundation of our own health. When our energy is at it's peak, our immune system is at full strength. When our energy declines we become vulnerabe to illness. All healing depends on energy. Energy comes to us in many ways, but ultimately it is our own reserves of energy that provide the inner strength that keeps us healthy.
Energy is the foundation of life, without it we die. If we learn to increase our energy to higher levels, we can use it to support ourselves and others when we are hurt or unwell The energy that our bodies need is not mere fuel, it is much more than that. Like everything in the universe, our bodies are a source of energy. This was the same conclusion that the natural scientists of ancient China reached centuries ago, through painstaking observation of their own bodies and the world around them. They found that people responded in very different ways to similar events and environments.
What seems to have no effect on one person, could just as easily lead to serious illness in another. For example; some people can walk all day in the rain with no adverse effects, while some of their companions would have caught cold by nightfall.

The community has been assessed by the governing body of the TUGBI, and has been awarded membership of the Tai Chi Union of Great Britain and Ireland. As a result, details of our community and its activities will now be featured regularly in each publication of the TCUGBI magazine, which is distributed all over europe and beyond.

As with all exercise routines, warm-ups are essential before Tai Chi practise. They help the body to become more flexible, they also open up channels along which the Chi energy flows. The two largest and most important joints in the body are the knees and shoulders. By loosening these up you are most likely to get rich benefits from the later Tai Chi and Qigong forms. Regularly practised, they give long-term protection against arthritis and other painful ailments that reduce the original flexibility of the body. Circling the knees is an example of an exercise that is performed regularly in class to help relieve knee problems.

Our own Tai Chi player Mark McEvoy is currently developing a website ( THIS SITE. *editor*) in which he intends to provide information about our community. This website will carry news about our activities and events.

The community extends a warm welcome to all the new people who have joined us recently. We wish them well in their future study of the art. we suggest that the best, and possibly only way to get the greatest benefits out of Tai Chi, is to learn the form one step at a time.

Some of our newer members have declaired an interest in purchasing Community T-shirts. The last T-shirts produced were for those who took part in the Walled City Festival demonstrations team. (These are produced anually and will be available next year also.) We have been in contact with our suppliers and they have agreed to produce a sample of the designs, which will be of our community's own logo on the front of the garment, and a large print photograph of Tai Chi master, Wen Hui, on the back. The sample is available to view from Charlie. T-shirts cost £5 and Sweatshirts cost £10. When ordering everyone should pay in advance. Please be patient as it may take a while to collect names and the money.