We certainly know what a Buffalo is but it is doubtfull we know what Yin and Yang might be. Yet consumer culture seems to be based on being torn between two opposing forces. I see that new students are curious about the Tai Chi but in the same breath they have a fear of something so new. It makes more and more sense that Master Stephen Hwa now introduces the 10 silk reeling "exercises" from day 1. https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=parea10 as an essential precursor to learning the Tai Chi form.
We want people to like the Tai Chi and I often think it should be like opening a christmas present...a nice surprise. Yet it has to have some aura of being familiar so that people are not too freaked out. If it is too "new" it seems to tank, if only slightly "new" it seems to appleal a little more. It is appealing for its "newness" but acceptable for its "familiarity".
The "Exercises" are new on the whole: the "walking", "upper/half/quarter body" turning, the "internal discipline" . Yet there are several other movements/postures that seem immediately recognizable as being Tai Chi...not so "new", but familiar. People recognize those slow, configurated movements like "swimming in air" as being very familiar.
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