When it comes to Baduanjin and Tai Chi, what flashes in my mind is the scene of an old man in a practice uniform in the park exercising slowly. And recently, young people with awakened blood have joined this Chinese regimen. According to the "Bilibili Youth Interest Trend Observation 2023 Spring Chapter", the contribution of Baduanjin increased by 90% year-on-year, and the playback increased by 93% year-on-year.
Young people's love for the sport is not only online, but also offline.
Since 2017, Baiyunguan has held several sessions of Baduanjin public welfare classes every year, which have lasted until now except for two years when the epidemic did not hold them. The course has a capacity of 80 students per session, has four classes, and is completed in four weeks, usually in the morning for the health practice of Baduanjin, and in the afternoon for the teaching of the Chinese martial art Taijiquan.
Deng Jiayi, the fifteenth-generation inheritor of the Wudang Sanfeng faction, is the apprentice of Li Xinjun, the initiator of the Baiyunguan public welfare activity, and is also a teacher of public welfare classes. "Since the first issue of this year, there has been a phenomenon of rushing classes, and now it is the sixth issue, and this phenomenon is even more obvious. ”
Only a small number of groups come to Baiyunguan to take classes, and more young people choose to learn on the Internet when they first try health exercises. On station B, the most watched video of the eight-paragraph brocade tutorial has been played 23.121 million times so far, and many users have posted their experiences after practice on social platforms.
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1. "Everyone thinks they are sick"
The popularity of Baiyunguan's class grabbing and station B's self-learning videos is actually a microcosm of the public's concern about health. According to the 2022 China Health Report, 28.8% of the Chinese population is young people aged 25-44, of whom 38.5% suffer from chronic diseases, the most common of which are hypertension (15.9%), hyperlipidemia (14.6%) and diabetes (7.4%). The unhealthy lifestyle has made contemporary young people more or less have "modern diseases", and "work without nodules" has been ridiculed as "the most silent flaunting of wealth".
From soaking wolfberries in a thermos cup, to a ginseng water bursting into flames, to the sour plum soup of traditional Chinese medicine, the popularity of five-tone therapy, young people are going further and further on the road of health preservation. Compared with running, iron and other sports, the more gentle Baduanjin health exercises are also gradually seen by young people.
Menmen, the head of an ecological experience base for traditional Chinese cultural content in Beijing, has been learning Xi exercises since 2017. "I don't really like running, going to the gym and ironing, I think it will be more comfortable to learn from Wudang teacher Xi so I stick to it. "To this day, we still have classes two or three times a week.
But there are very few people like Menmen who have persisted for a long time and can like it, Deng Jiayi said that in the six years since he taught, people who really like health exercises "can be counted on one hand". The number of people who participated in the Baduanjin public welfare class has gradually increased since this year, and it was mainly the middle and high-end people. "I think the only characteristic is that everyone thinks they are sick, they all feel that they are almost in good health or that the doctor tells them that there is something wrong with them, and they are advised to practice, and this is the vast majority. ”
In 2020, the State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine issued a guidance on TCM rehabilitation during the epidemic period, which mentioned that "after the discharge of mild and ordinary patients with new coronary pneumonia, a variety of exercises can be adopted, and after the discharge of severe or critical patients, appropriate traditional exercises can be selected according to their own recovery." This includes Baduanjin, Tai Chi, and other methods such as the Six Character Breathing Formula, Breath Healing, and so on. Academician Zhang Boli also introduced Baduanjin into the cabin hospital and required patients with mild symptoms to practice every day Xi...... With the endorsement of a series of experts, the public's trust in Baduanjin has only increased.
Second, health preservation is also the main purpose of training
In addition to the public welfare courses of Baiyunguan, there are many related training institutions on the market.
Badanjin is usually regarded as an introductory course due to its simplicity of learning, which belongs to the health Xi category, and there are many other exercises in addition to this. For example, in Deng Jiayi's studio, there are a total of four kinds of exercises: Taijiquan, Liangyi Neijiaquan, Taoist health and weapons, including Wufowl Opera, Wudang Nine-style Taijiquan, Wudang Longhua Boxing, Wudang Seven Star Sword, etc., a total of 26 small items. "Normally, we start with the basics and practice Xi, and then we start to learn Xi Tai Chi and weapon routines. Menmen said that she has learned four or five exercises so far.
Compared with fitness, which focuses on the shaping of external muscles, health exercises pay more attention to the coordination of internal organs, so the current training institutions pay more attention to improving the physical fitness of students first.
"The five basic essentials of practicing Xi martial arts are 'hand-eye-body steps', for example, after you stand up, you punch, your hands and eyes must all keep up, and then the body and body shape must also be on the body, including the strength to pass instantly, and the movements must also be coordinated, so as to meet the most basic requirements for practicing martial arts. Deng Jiayi said. "So my concept is to maintain health first, and after I really practice my body to the requirements, I will slowly graft the teaching content to martial arts. However, at present, there are very few students in Deng Jiayi's studio who can really learn Xi martial arts, and the purpose of more students is still to maintain health.
At present, the teaching methods of health maintenance training on the market are mainly divided into large classes and private classes, which are generally 8-10 people, and the fees are two or three hundred, and the private lessons are about 1,000 yuan. Private studio lessons like Deng Jiayi's are about 1,000 yuan an hour, and small class classes are about 400 yuan an hour and a half. Most students will choose to sign up for a class, and the ratio of students who sign up for a private lesson is about 5:2.
Third, it is mainly distributed in first-tier cities, and it is difficult to open a chain
At present, there are training institutions for health exercises all over the country, but they are mainly concentrated in first-tier cities.
Deng Jiayi believes that this is mainly due to the fact that the training courses of health exercises are relatively expensive, and it is also related to the public's awareness of health preservation. In addition, some cities in the south, such as Shanghai and Guangzhou, can practice outdoors for a longer time due to Xi temperature, which is also more conducive to attracting more people's interest. "What we pay attention to in our practice is the harmony between qi and man, that is, the combination of man and nature, which is a very important proposition. ”
However, even in first-tier cities, it is still difficult for the training of health exercises to expand as quickly as a gym to seize the market.
In 2011, Ma Yun and Jet Li co-founded "Tai Chi Zen", engaged in Tai Chi training, event consulting and other businesses, and in 2018, the two tried to promote the evolution of the Tai Chi Tui Shou Tao movement they founded, and released the short film "Gong Shou Dao" starring Ma Yun and 11 top action stars such as Jet Li, Donnie Yen, Wu Jing and other supporting roles, and held ring matches in 2017 and 2018 but did not let this sport get much attention. In the end, Jack Ma and Jet Li withdrew from Tai Chi Zen Culture Company in October 2020 and March 2022 respectively. In addition, Fosun Sports has also invested in the establishment of a chain Tai Chi health brand "Yi Tai Chi", which previously had branches in Chengdu, Nanjing and other cities, and now there is only one store left in Shanghai.
"It's hard to branch a traditional culture like Tai Chi, and I've been learning this skill for 23 years, and it's hard to say that I pass it on to another person through a period of training, and then he can teach it to other students, and it can only be taught by my mouth. Deng Jiayi said.
The Chinese cultural connotation contained in the health practice makes it more in line with the physical rhythm of the Chinese, but it is precisely this characteristic that makes it difficult to replicate and promote on a larger scale. The public's interest in Baduanjin and Tai Chi is likely to be another follow-up, but behind such a "breath", it shows the pulse of the common times.