Local university helps spread benefits of qigong, tai chi

The Taiji Health Center at Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine has signed an agreement with the Macau Traditional Chinese Medicine Society to cooperate in health education and research.

The two parties also plan to set up a branch of the taiji health center in the special administrative region.

The agreement was signed during the second China-Shanghai International Taiji Health Symposium and the 15th China-Shanghai International Symposium on Qigong Science, which gathered about 200 experts and qigong enthusiasts from China, the US, Japan, France, Germany, Sweden, Singapore and elsewhere.

Yang Yongqing, vice president of Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, said tai chi and qigong are important parts of traditional Chinese culture and have made active contributions to the physical and psychological health of the Chinese people.

“A lot of research and practice has proven that they are effective in treating diseases before they appear and also curing chronic diseases. So they are worth promoting widely,” he said.

Zhang Huaiqiong, deputy director of the Shanghai Health Commission, said Shanghai has organized 14 symposiums on qigong science since 1986, making great contributions to international exchanges in the area.

According to Li Jie, director of the Shanghai Qigong Research Institute, qigong is increasingly popular in the world, and so are cooperations with outside institutions.

The School of Medicine Lyon-East, University Claude Bernard Lyon 1, is a good example of international cooperation. It has been sending professors and students to the Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine to participate in a training program for medical professionals from the Belt and Road countries since 2017.

Li and some of her colleagues were invited to deliver lectures at the French institute over the past year. And the two universities now plan to set up a summer camp next year with courses in humanities and medicine.