LET'S TRY TAICHI DAY (Auckland, 21st November, 2004 )

Massed Presentation of Clubs

Sunday morning witnessed a bleak and overcast sky with no promise of anything better. Owairoa Primary School grounds (Howick) smelt of recently mown athletic track - but the grass lay cold and damp in the early morning stillness as helpers staked out the demo area and put up the organiser's tent.

With these ill omens we prepared for a Spring gathering of Auckland's TaiChi Clubs for fun, fellowship and promotion to the public. We had deliberately decided to have this event outdoors to encourage an informal picnic atmosphere, a relaxed enjoyment of Spring by both the public and participant families alike. It was a risk and, alas, it had not quite come off.

But who could have foreseen that within 60 minutes the massed Chi of over 250 club teachers and students would dispel the weather's gloom and make this morning, as one participant put it, the biggest TaiChi thing he had ever seen in Auckland. Participant groups ranged from fledgling teachers with nascent students to some of Aucklands leading Clubs.

Over a dozen associations attended and group sizes ranged from 2 to 35+ persons. The morning began with a massed presentation of participating clubs to the attending audience. The generously roped-off demo area only just contained the approximately 250 participating Tai Chi enthusiasts.

Just as events were about to kick off we were all treated to the unexpected arrival of two officials from the Chinese Consulate: Deputy Consul Wang Jianzhou and Consul Wang Yanjun. This of course was a great privilage for participants and everybody was so pleased to see our TaiChi fellowship and efforts recognised in this way.

There was a great mix of ages and races attending. Chinese martial arts experience was well represented by both established Kiwi and more recently arrived teachers. There was an impressive number of fit and spritely participants from local suburbs or Retirement Villages who were taking advantage of ACCs subsidised TaiChi "ThinkSafe" programmes or attending local Community Centre classes.

The morning's programme proved to be a very tight and busy schedule - response to the event had been so overhwelming. Events were basically of three types: teacher, club and specials. A great feast of varied and colourful presentations unfolded throughout the morning with four of the five major TaiChi styles (Yang, Chen Wu, Woo) represented in both open fist and weapons routines. Traditional, competition and contemporary forms were all well represented.

The introductory event was presented by our most mature Tai Chi practioners of the day. This group of 40 European Kiwis was from Chenshi Taichicise and their ages ranged from 63 to 93 years young. They demonstrated the Chen style Silk-reeling and the Traditional Four-Step.

One of the more impressive events of the morning was the GongFu Fan Routine I & II performed by the North Shore Chinese Society and The TaiChi Tuition Centre.

The teacher's Push Hands demonstration was clearly the highlight event of the morning. The GongFu of the teachers must have been powerful for the only downpour of the day ocurred precisely when they marched onto the field. The sudden squall just as quickly subsided by the time these teachers marched off 10 minutes later. Sifu KeeWee Jin so impressed the Consuls that they wanted to experience his Push Hands GongFu for themselves and in so doing one was, accidentally, almost knocked over the chair.

Deputy Consul Wang

We wanted to maintain interest with both the public and participants so demonstrations were strictly limited to 5-10 minutes. Clubs doing the same, or at least similar routines, performed together. This meant that performers sometimes missed out on their own club music but people were flexible and understanding. It was actually good to have different stylists "on stage' at the same time performing similar weapons routines as the stylistic differences were more easily observed by the public.

Most of the demonstrations were accompanied by a commentary and explanation aimed at those who knew little to nothing about TaiChi. These were announced in both English and Chinese. The morning concluded with an offer of a free TaiChi lesson to members of the public. Unfortunately this was not well patronised due to the inclement weather.

Despite the poor weather the morning was acknowledged a great success with everybody getting on very well and thoroughly enjoying our time together - even in the rain. It was a truly rare and wonderful opportunity for everyone involved to witness in one place, at one time, the large "multi-coloured coat" that is the cultural heritage of TaiChi.

Malisa, Derek, Consuls

"Lets Try Tai Chi Day" was organised by Chenshi Taichicise Centre with assistance from Counties Manukau Sports and a number of key helpers including Peter Yu (President NZ ChinWoo Athletics Ass). The idea behind this first time event was to foster TaiChi Club fellowship and the promotion of TaiChi to the public (with an emphasis on its health and fitness benefits). Sometimes the world of Martial Arts can get a little too competitive, guarded or isolated.

TaiChi is regularly praised as one of the most noble, harmonious and cultured of the Martial Arts. We believe that genuine TaiChi followers instinctively cultivate a spirit of fellowship in all their relationships. We Tai Chi teachers and instructors should be leaders in bringing our clubs together in a spirit of friendship, sharing and openness. This is what we wanted to promote by organising this Auckland Spring-time event.

We do not know where our Auckland event will go in the future but we do want to build on the "momentum" already created by doing the same for Spring 2005. "Lets Try Tai Chi Day" 2005 will be held on Sunday 20th November 2005, 9am-midday. Why not move with the "Chi" and join us or organise the same for your own city/region outside of Auckland?

Auckland region Clubs who would like to join in with this event may like to contact us at the email address below so that we can put you on our contact list. For those clubs who would like to run this event in their own region do contact us if you would like any advice or to make use of our "Let's try TaiChi Day" Logo/Poster.

If there is a significant level of interest for this event outside of Auckland we could look at possible "synergies" (eg common advertising, web page) that group collaboration makes possible. The organisers (Malisa & Bernard) can be contacted at taichiday@taichichen.com. You may like to check out www.taichichen.com\clubcentralindex.htm for more photos of this event.