In his presentation M a s t e r Z h a n g described what is Taijiquan and short-ly introduced both the past and pre-sent and the princi-ples of Taijiquan. He also elaborated on how Taijiquan can help people main-tain good health and in the end how to practice Taijiquan.

The lecture lasted about one hour and was followed by a performance of 24-T a i j i q u a n and Taiji sword by students of Master Zhang.. The rest of the time Master Zhang taught some Taijiquan basic mo-vements to all parti-cipants.

About Taijiquan, lecture and performance

Master Zhang Fan

Mr. Zhang Fang began training in wushu at the age of 12 with well-known wushu masters such as Wang Huai (

), Li Bing Ci (), Wu Bin (

) and Xie Zhi Kuei ( ). He continued both his training and studies in Beijing's Dong-cheng elite sporting

school ( ) and Shi Sha Hai Ti Xiao ( ) sports school, his basic training was followed by a suc-cessful competition career. Amongst ot-her achievements, he won the Chinese youth wushu team c h a m p i o n s h i p s , competing in the same team as the

now famous movie star Jet Li (

).

CONFUCIUS INSTITUTE AT THE UNIVERSITY OF HELSINKI

23.10.2010 Event

About Taijiquan

Event

Lecture

Performance

23.10.2010

2.30-4.30pm

Kaapelitehdas, (D entrance, 4th floor) Helsinki, Finland

Master Zhang Fang

Head Coach of the Finnish Wushu Federa-tion

Both during and after his competiti-on career, Zhang Fang has worked as a full-time teacher and coach of wushu. He gradu-ated from the Bei-jing Sporting Poly-technic with wushu as his major sub-ject. In 1989 Zhang Fang rece i ved

teaching certificates from the highly res-pected Yang and Chen style masters Yang Zhen Duo (

) and Chen Xiao Wang (). From 1990

up to the present day, Zhang Fang has worked as the only professional full-time taijiquan and

wushu teacher in Finland. He played a key role in founding the Finnish Wushu Fede ra t ion i n 1991.He regularly teaches wushu all over Finland, inclu-ding Kuopio, Oulu, Jyväskylä, Lappeen-ranta, Vaasa, Seinä-joki and Järvenpää.

“Zhang Fang

has worked as

the only

professional

full-time

taijiquan and

wushu teacher

in Finland”

Page 2 About Taijiquan

Combiled by Jaana Janhunen Photos by Zhou Jun