Welcome to our Taiji Forum website!
Taiji Forum is a non-profit project, realised by a small core team and fuelled by contributions of practitioners from all over the world. Being practitioners ourselves, we are fascinated by the rich heritage of the Chinese internal arts – and we want to share our passion with you!
Many drops of water may form a big wave
Renewing the movement
Creating Community
Follow us!
Building Bridges – Our other projects
The International Push Hands Meeting
Our roots – Where we come from
Write for Taiji Forum
Many drops of water may form a big wave
Chinese arts offer a wide spectrum of experience, ranging from health and martial aspects over the fine arts (like calligraphy and painting) all the way to artistry and philosophical insights. They are practised for general well-being as well as for rehabilitation, for practical or spiritual reasons, in pursuit of beauty, in search of the flow, to find oneself, to lose one’s ego or just for fun. Some practitioners are professionals, some are enthusiasts, some call themselves master, some practise their whole life without this thought even crossing their mind. In any case, the Chinese arts are a way to empower people and to inspire change. – Addressing body, heart and mind, they challenge us to question ourselves, to work hard, to go our way, to find calmness in movement.
Renewing the movement
Our aim is to promote and celebrate the living Chinese arts in all their aspects. We put much passion, energy and voluntary work into the creation of this colourful mosaic showcasing the many ways in which Chinese movement, healing and martial arts are practised all over the world.
Roughly about 60 years ago, the Chinese internal arts became widely known in the so called “West” and other areas of the world for the first time in their history. Today, Taijiquan, Qigong and Chinese internal arts are taught worldwide and have built a wealth of intercultural connections.
We aim to spread the news about the various positive aspects of the Chinese arts without repeating cultural prejudices and without succumbing to scientific or esoteric mysticism. We believe that cross-cultural exchange as well as the diversity of approaches are defining the possibility for growth of the Chinese arts in a globalized world.
We want to portray this diversity, the many ways Chinese cultural heritage is nurtured and passed on all over the world. Our aim is not to list known systems and to discuss “traditional” vs. “modern” or “real” vs. “fake” approaches. We are not willing to judge between “original” family-style Taijiquan or “genuine” Daoist Qigong and newly evolved systems which place themselves in the tradition of Chinese internal arts. – We are simply curious to learn about how the traditional cultural knowledge of China connects and interacts with modern approaches towards learning and teaching, how new patterns emerge when Chinese arts are practised “abroad” and how this in turn maybe influences the development of the arts back in China.
We believe that the Chinese arts are living arts formed by the bodies of the practitioners, students and teachers alike, their work and their commitment, and that there must be evolution and development, because life is change – stagnation means death.
Creating community
We express our deepest gratitude to all people who contributed to the success of this project by sharing their experiences and their knowledge, writing articles or providing photos or videos!
Follow us!
You can follow us on Facebook.
If you are a fan of Qigong, subscribing to our YouTube-channel on Qigong Exercises is a must! 🙂
By the way: If you are German-speaking, we invite you to visit (or write for) our German sister site, Taiji-Forum.de! (Facebook, German Qigong channel)
Write for Taiji Forum
We are constantly searching for new angles, fresh views and unknown forms – perhaps you want to WRITE FOR Taiji Forum. If you share our enthusiasm or our spirit of research and discovery, we would be happy to hear from you!
Building bridges – Our other projects
We love connecting with experts and practitioners from different countries. Our hope is to further the exchange and build bridges between different ways to learn and teach Chinese internal arts, because we believe that a global movement is the future.
The International Push Hands Meeting
Founded in 2001 as an annual exchange meeting for the scattered push hands practitioners of different schools and styles in Germany and Europe, the International Push Hands Meeting in Hannover (Germany) evolved into Europe’s biggest meeting dedicated solely to the partner work in Taijiquan – Push Hands and Applications. The 5-day meeting (Wednesday – Sunday) always takes place in spring; its official language is English.
Touch – Feel – Communicate
The International Push Hands Meeting is dedicated to the internal arts and their (martial) application in contact, independent of styles. We host teachers of different schools and systems, seeing Push Hands as a means for cross-style communication and a great opportunity to test, to research and to enhance one’s skills, not to mention the fun of being able to communicate without words. Our approach towards Push Hands is experimental rather than competitive: it is not about winning or losing, but about the creation of a situation, where one can consciously explore one’s limits and widen one’s comfort zone in personal interaction.
Discover Push Hands!
While some of us just drop by now and then, we have many regulars who return every year. The International Push Hands Meeting is famous for its family-style atmosphere. We are always happy to see new faces – so why not give it a try? Since 2016, a continuous beginner’s workshop forms part of the morning sessions dedicated to learning new techniques and diving into the Taiji principles. The afternoon sessions are reserved for free Push Hands, accompanied by a short introduction course for those who wish to attend. – And you do not want to miss our gala and party on Saturday evening!
For the date and programme of the next Inte rnational Push Hands Meeting, see https://en.push-hands.de/.
Impressions 17th International Push Hands Meeting
German Site: https://push-hands.de/
Our roots – Where we come from
Our own way of Taijiquan is influenced by William C.C. Chen, a student of Cheng Man Ching. Albeit himself being a martial artist, his view has always been to make Taijiquan “simple, easy, natural and enjoyable”. For Grandmaster Chen this does not mean to compromise the martial or the philosophical aspect, but simply to make Taijiquan more accessible. His approach towards martial arts is marked by his openness towards other systems and the encouragement of his students to meet and exchange with other practitioners whenever possible. Also, his approach towards teaching – “If I can do it, you can do it even better!” – inspired us to reach out and find like-minded people to enjoy and practise our arts with.
Our Homebase is the Tai Chi Studio, Nils’ School for Taijiquan in Hannover (Germany), where he has taught Taijiquan and Push Hands for almost 25 years.
[More about Taijiquan – Meditation in movement see here]
You can find out more on the history of Taiji Forum, earlier named Taiji Europa here: Taiji Forum history
Write for Taiji Forum
We welcome original contributions of all kinds, provided they are related to the Chinese (internal) arts. Short articles related to practice are as welcome as texts with a more scientific focus.
On the Taiji Forum website you can already find several articles by practitioners and/or specialists covering:
- Qigong
- Taijiquan and other internal martial arts (as e.g. Baguazhang, Tongbeiquan, Xingyiquan, Liu He Be Fa, …)
- Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM)
- Chinese Philosophy
- Meditation
- Calligraphy
We are interested in articles of all kinds, especially:
“Specialist” articles
- Qigong and its (modern) history – especially practical approaches, (breathing) techniques, forms and single exercises
- Traditional Chinese Medicine
- Meditation and relaxation techniques
Personal experiences and stories
- Do you want to present your or your teacher’s way of doing Taijiquan/Qigong?
- Do you want to provide an insight into your personal connection with the Chinese movement, healing and martial arts? Or perhaps your method of teaching?
- Do you have a special approach towards teaching? Perhaps you worked with children or senior citizens?
- Do you want to share your thoughts and feelings about the Chinese internal arts? What do the arts mean to you?
- Have you been to an international meeting, a conference or a competition related to Chinese culture and want to share your experience?
- Are you a calligrapher, a painter, a wushu artist who wants to showcase or share your work in an appreciative environment?
These are but examples, so:
- If you have another topic in mind, on which you would like to write, do not hesitate to contact us!
- Don’t be shy: You do not need to be an expert or an experienced writer. We started writing not that long ago and we can confirm: Yes, writing is a bit of work, but it also offers much fun and interaction – to write is to connect! 🙂
- Contact
Please note: We are not interested in supernatural aspects of Qi or Qigong. Therefore, we do not publish any content on energy healing which advocates such practices as a way to deal with mental or physical illnesses. We also tend to be very critical concerning claims of (spontaneous) self-healing, especially if they are accompanied by an offer to coach others, as we believe practising and teaching of any of the arts does not automatically qualify for life counselling.
Author: Taiji Forum
Images: Nils Klug and Taiji Forum