www.Longfei-Taiji.co.uk	Longfei Taijiquan Association of Great Britain
		Longfei Newsletter Volume 7 Issue 3

Lochinver House School Seminar

I was invited by Christine Smith, director of studies to talk and demonstrate the taiji gong fu fan to the boys at Lochinver House School. They were doing an art project which involved Chinese design, and thought a visual display and brief talk would help them with their ideas. It proved a great success, a total of 70 boys and some of the teachers attended.

The taiji gong fu fan, created by Professor Li for the 2008 Olympics in China, is a superb routine for demonstration. Not only does it provide a spectacular visual and even audio display, its clever choreography encapsulates many different aspects of Chinese culture including martial arts, gymnastics and Chinese opera.

The boys were very interested to see the different martial arts movements and discover how the fan was used to represent many different weapons, like the sword and spear, and also how the fan developed through history and its cultural influence. I also told them the famous story from Chinese opera about the Fan Princess and the Monkey. The 45 minutes went very quickly and the teachers informed me it was of great value in helping them with their project. In this century with the fantastic growth of China and our fascination with its culture, this was a successful way of introducing taiji into schools.

Simon Watson

Longfei Newsletter Volume 7 Issue 3 Table of Contents