On the evening of October 24, 2021, the Online Education College successfully held its first hybrid Tai Chi Open Class. This open class was entitled "Tai Chi knowledge and Tai Chi cultivation", which is taught by Dr. Zhou Xiaojun from the Chinese Language Department of the Online Education College, and presided over by Ms. Qian Haishan.
 

This open class mainly covered Tai Chi theory, practice essentials, attack and defense technology, on-site teaching, and Kung Fu display, etc.. It focused on the inheritance, innovation and popularization of Tai Chi in contemporary society. 
 

During the class, Dr. Zhou, the keynote teacher, introduced the Yin-yang philosophy, five elements and eight trigrams and other martial arts thoughts. He emphasized that Tai Chi is the hub and key to understand modern China and Chinese traditional culture. He also introduced the practice essentials and attack and defense strategies of Tai Chi Chuan(Taijiquan).  In the interactive session, Dr. Zhou taught the participants the basic movements, breathing method, the essentials of classic moves and the skills of attack. He actively kept interacting with the remote students in the whole process. The open class also had the guest teacher of Li School Tai Chi Chuan show the rare Li school Tai Chi Kung Fu, such as Thirteen hard Moves, Zhongpan sword and so on.
 

Through the combination of theoretical teaching and action drill, on-site teaching and remote guest display, individual and collective participation, this Tai Chi Open Class created a vivid and intuitive scene of teaching Tai Chi Culture and Kung Fu. In addition, the division of labor and cooperation between the keynote speaker and the host is also a successful attempt of this open class. During the class, the keynote teacher focuses on imparting knowledge and skills, while the host controls the teaching rhythm and answers participants' questions, The double division mode effectively ensures the best demonstration effect in the classroom.
 

The Online Tai Chi Open class was connected to a couple of Chinese classes in primary and secondary schools in the United Arab Emirates through the “eBLCU.com” teaching platform. It also invited guest teachers at home and abroad, such as Mr. Ding of the Confucius Institute in Havana, Cuba, and Ms. Bao of Beijing Chinese Language and Culture College. Over 40 people from Germany, the United States, Brunei and all over China participated in the online open class, and more than 240 martial arts and Chinese culture fans at home and abroad participated before and after.

Link of the Tai Chi Open Class video:   https://live.eeo.cn/pc.html?lessonKey=55bfb08a6feb0fc7

Lecturer Introduction:

Dr. Zhou Xiaojun, assistant professor of Online Education College. He focuses on education and study of online Chinese Teaching to Speakers of Other Languages. Dr. Zhou is a devotional Tai Chi practitioner and inheritor, who has been studying Tai Chi over 20 years and is benefited from Tai Chi practice. He offered both on-site and online Tai Chi class to more than 500 participants from over 40 countries and areas.