In leaving the old and welcoming in the new, the Confucius Institute at the University of Sheffield launched its next round of workshops in celebration of Spring Festival (or Chinese New Year as it is also known).
Following on from the successful workshops in Chinese Language and Calligraphy, the Sheffield Confucius Institute continued this success and held its third workshop, a Tai Chi experience with teacher Luo Sufang.
On Thursday the 18th of February, on the eighth day of the Lunar calendar, the Baduanjin & Qigong Workshop was held. Over 30 participants joined the workshop, including Director of Global Engagement at the University of Sheffield, Dr Malcolm Butler and Deputy Director of the Sheffield Confucius Institute, Prof Li Xiao.
To start of the workshop, Sufang introduced the audience to two different “salutes”, which are common within Chinese culture, the hold fist salute and the fist and palm salute.
While the fist and palm salute is used during special ceremonies, such as weddings, birthdays, banquets etc, the hold fist salute is widely used among martial art masters and students.
Sufang then introduced and demonstrated Qigong, a series of orchestrated movements, breathing and meditation, which are designed to draw upon natural forces and elements to balance our inner energies.
Sufang emphasis four aspects that must be attention to when practising Qigong, these are gentle movements, rhythmic breathing, focused mind and the dāntián breathing (point approx. two inches below the naval where qi resides).
Sufang also introduced Baduanjin 八段锦, a form of Qigong exercises and its eight main movements.
These exercises are simple and easy to learn, are particularly useful to British audiences, especially during Lockdown, as they help relieve anxiety & promote mental health.
Throughout the workshop, Sufang demonstrated various movements and positions and the audience joined in throughout. All participants practiced alongside Sufang and the workshop came to a close with some wonderful feedback from the audience.
Feedback from participants:
Thank you very much, very interesting!
Participant
Chinese New Year Tai Chi workshop
Thank you Sufang!
Participant
Chinese New Year Tai Chi workshop
Thank you very much Sufang!
Participant
Chinese New Year Tai Chi workshop