On May 19, 2019, Rizhao, the national taijiquan fitness promotion and display for the elderly was underway, and the creative "sea, land and air" joint exhibition and performance method was shocking. At the same time, the linkage exhibition and performance of sub-venues in Shandong Province have been carried out successively, with a total of more than 360,000 people participating. As an organizer, Cao Xuecheng, chairman of the Shandong Provincial Association for the Elderly, smiled, which is a step closer to his dream of letting 10 million elderly people practice tai chi by 2030.
Actively promote the cultural and sports pension, take the road of combining health and wellness
Cao Xuecheng is 74 years old this year, with a large body and strong spirit, and can maintain such a good state, which is about inseparable from the "health care" concept that he personally practices and vigorously promotes. Now talking about the pension is "medical care", mostly how many pension beds have been added, and how many drug bonuses have been reduced. This is somewhat misguided in terms of orientation. When people reach old age, they have three fears, one is afraid of loneliness and loneliness; the second is afraid of serious illness; and the third is afraid of losing dignity. If young people pursue "spirit", then the elderly pursue "health and longevity": live happily, grow old slowly, and walk without illness. But how to achieve "health and longevity"? Cao Xuecheng gave four words "stylistic pension", specifically four sentences: "go out, move, learn, and have fun". "Coming out" means going out of the house; "moving up" means participating in cultural and sports fitness activities; "learning" is learning knowledge that is beneficial to physical and mental health; "having fun" is to maintain a good attitude. By doing these four things, the elderly can stay healthy and get sick less. Cao Xuecheng has a habit of finding himself a little uncomfortable, not only to take medicine, but also to play a game of football and sweat a lot. In this regard, Cao Xuecheng calculated an account, if through the "cultural and sports pension" to let the elderly feel less than once a year, then the province's 22 million elderly people can save billions of medical expenses a year. What is "doing something old"? The four sentences summarized by Cao Xuecheng are very classic: "I am not guilty, my family is not tired, I save medical expenses, and I dedicate myself to the whole society!" Doesn't that equate to "doing something old"? With this concept, Cao Xuecheng formulated the direction of "four free and one increase" for the Elderly Sports Association: send health, send happiness, send happiness, send dignity, and increase longevity.
It is necessary to carry out small projects well, and it is even more necessary to develop large projects that benefit the people
For the work of the Old Sports Association, many people have an inertial understanding: Isn't it just organizing the elderly to engage in some sports competitions? In this regard, Cao Xuecheng does not think so. Before retiring, Cao Xuecheng had five years of experience as the director of the Provincial Sports Committee, and then retired from the position of deputy director of the Standing Committee of the Provincial People's Congress and a member of the party group, and took over as the chairman of the Shandong Provincial Association of Old Sports in 2009. He knows sports and stands tall. If competitive sports are to look at the level, look at the results, look at the ranking, and speak with strength, then the work of the Old Sports Association must speak in terms of the number of participants and the degree of popularity. Cao Xuecheng has repeatedly emphasized the "three transfers": from focusing on art appreciation and good small projects to large projects that benefit the public; from focusing on participating in various competitions to getting rankings, to focusing on the training of business backbones; from serving a small number of enthusiasts of small projects all year round, to providing fitness services for more elderly people, conscientiously doing a good job in rational allocation of resources, and putting limited funds and valuable energy into such a good project as popularizing taijiquan as much as possible.
So what programs can be widely organized for the participation of the elderly? After extensive research and demonstration, Cao Xuecheng focused the project on "Tai Chi Chuan". In Cao Xuecheng's view, tai chi is a project that can be learned with money or no money, can be practiced with physical strength and weakness, can be played in the size of the venue, can be played for a long time, can be poor and rich, and can be singled out in groups. In addition, this project is a representative of traditional Chinese culture, which is not only beneficial to the physical and mental health of the elderly, but also beneficial to the inheritance of traditional culture, which is convenient for popularization and promotion. Cao Xuecheng quickly determined the work idea of focusing on popularizing taijiquan and driving the development of other projects, and formulated a development plan of three stages in 15 years: strive to achieve 90% of the villages (residences) have a business backbone team of more than 10 people by 2030, more than 50% of the elderly in the province practice taijiquan, and the elderly population who practice taijiquan exceed 10 million! The Association of Sports for the Elderly should truly take on the heavy responsibility of organizing more elderly people to join the ranks of fitness and expanding the sports population for the elderly, and make historic contributions to the implementation of the two national strategies of national fitness and healthy China and the promotion of national intangible cultural heritage.
Let Tai Chi blossom everywhere
Liang Xiulan, a 67-year-old villager in Fist Village, Longquan Town, Zichuan District, Zibo, is in good health, has a wide range of hobbies and has a rich and colorful life. However, 2 years ago, her life was completely different, because her body continued to appear various discomforts, and Liang Xiulan was emotionally bored and did not want to go out. In order to change the mood of the old man, her family helped her sign up for a tai chi training class in the town. Liang Xiulan was resistant at first, but slowly, she opened her heart, integrated into the team, and her body gradually improved, and even became the backbone of the team. After returning to the village, Liang Xiulan organized a team of 20 people and led everyone to exercise together. There are too many elderly people like Liang Xiulan who benefit from tai chi. In order to popularize taijiquan among the elderly, Cao Xuecheng formulated a work idea of creating a "hometown of taijiquan" as the starting point and focusing on taijiquan "going to the countryside and entering the village". The Elderly Sports Association at all levels has extensively carried out taijiquan backbone training courses to cultivate the backbone of taijiquan promotion, and then these backbones will influence and drive the people around them, so that more and more elderly people have joined the team of playing tai chi. Liang Xiulan participated in the Taijiquan backbone training class held in Longquan Town, Zichuan District, for 19 Taijiquan activity stations in 19 villages.
Soon, the wind of tai chi blew throughout the province, and by the end of 2019, the Old Sports Association had trained a total of 360,000 taijiquan business backbones, influencing and driving millions of elderly people to take tai chi as a healthy way of life for the elderly. In many villages and towns, there are more people playing tai chi and fewer people playing cards, and tai chi brings health to the villagers at the same time, but also brings a breeze to the cultural revitalization of the village. With the increase of spillover effects, the Association of Old Sports has naturally formed a large old body pattern of "party and government leadership, departmental responsibility, association organization, social support, focusing on the grassroots, facing the whole". Not long ago, under the guidance of the Group Department of the General Administration of Sports and sponsored by Guangming Network, li Changshun, vice chairman of the Old Sports Association in charge of the promotion of taijiquan, became one of the only ten volunteers in the country who won the title of "the most beautiful national fitness volunteer". This is undoubtedly an affirmation of the promotion of Tai Chi of the Old Sports Association. "Look at you busy, like the old sports association." It is not someone else who says this, it is Cao Xuecheng's old partner, as long as she sees who is busy, she loves to say this sentence, because Cao Xuecheng is always much busier than when he was on the job. But Cao Xuecheng has been like a day for ten years, for the "Tai Chi Dream" of tens of millions of people, in order to make more elderly people healthy, dedication is thorough, but also busy and happy. Cao Xuecheng's requirements for the old sports association are to always uphold two spirits: the spirit of "Taishan Mountain Pickers in the New Era" and the spirit of "Volunteer Work". We have 1.3 billion Chinese people, and there is still a long way to go to achieve national health, but if there are more "Cao Xuecheng" in the country, this road may be much easier. I wish Chairman Cao's "Tai Chi Dream" of tens of millions of people to be realized as soon as possible.
Source/Home of Old Cadres Author/Reporter Laughing