Festival of Tai Chi 2011

The Festival of Tai Chi 2011 will be held on Saturday the 12th November at the Cashmere Club, 50 Colombo Street. Registration will start at 8:45 am. There will be a $5 charge per person.

This year’s event will be condensed from 9am until 1pm. Please note there will be no break for lunch therefore people will need to organize their own lunches this year. If you leave the venue you will be able to get back in. This is to allow the program to flow better.

The program will feature a mixture of Tai Chi and Qi Gong demonstrations and the dynamics will be different from previous years. As in the past there will be opportunities for interaction and participation.

On the program this year will be Dave Thew, Principal Instructor of Phoenix Tai Chi, member of the NZ Wushu team and gold medalist at the Nationals, Oceania, Australasian and World Championships.

Terry Young is the New Zealand Instructor for the Chen Style Taijiquan Academy of Melbourne and is based in Wellington He will demonstrate aspects of Chen Style, and he will be joined by Mercedes Godinez also from Wellington. These two are always popular with the crowd.

Gabrielle Euteneur, Senior Instructor of Tao Motion, studies the Mantak Chia form of universal healing. This is her first appearance at the Festival and she will demonstrate a sword form.

Vanessa Lukes will demonstrate the aspects of Zhineng Qi Gong. This is her first appearance at the Festival.

Trevor Johnson from Timaru as well as local practitioners, Mike Penter, Principal of Red Dragon Taijiquan, Hazel Thompson, Trevor Quirk, Loo Chi Hu, and Geraldine Parkes will also contribute towards the program.

For more information please contact the Secretary, Carolyn Veitch.

NEW ZEALAND WORLD TAI CHI QIGONG EVENTS.

Official events being organized by the NZ National Tái Chi Ch’uan Association
for 2011 are at the following venues.

AUCKLAND

Tamaki College Community Recreation Centre
Elstree Avenue, Glen Innes, Auckland

WELLINGTON

Onslow College, Burma Road, Johnsonville

CHRISTCHURCH

Barrington Park, Barrington Street, South Christchurch

ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING.

The Annual General Meeting of the Christchurch Branch of the Association
will be held at 6pm on 2 May 2011 at the residence of Loo Chi Hu QSM at
28 Cross Street, Phillipstown. Please bring a plate if you intend to attend.

Loo-Chi Hu, his life and times

LOO-CHI - Asia Downunder New Zealand

Bharat Jamandas – Senior Reporter from Asia Downunder has filmed Loo-Chi Hu, his life and times to be shown on:
Sunday 27th March 2011 TV1 @ 11am.

This was following Robin Greenberg's New Zealand International Film Festival Movie - the very successful "The Free China Junk". As part of the Film Festival's publicity, Bharat reviewed Robin's beautiful movie and took great interest in the story of Loo-Chi. The movie uncovered the remarkable adventure of five young fishermen who set off from Taiwan in 1955 intending to cross the Pacific in an old Junk. Their plan being to sail to San Franciso, hauling the boat across the US to take part in a trans-Atlantic yacht race - none of them having had any experience of junks or the open sea!! The sixth junk-mate, the young American Vice-Consul in Taipei, filmed the journey.

Robin's earlier film about Loo-Chi, "HULOO", premiered at the NZ International Film Festival 2008.

During September of 2010 Bharat visited Christchurch filming Loo-Chi, his daughter Lih-Lan, and two grandchildren Jessie and Holly here at his home and at the Barracks in Christchurch. Her family were here on sabbatical from Texas, USA.

It will be a beautiful little film of Loo-Chi at his home in Phillipstown, Christchurch, New Zealand, with his family; sharing with us his life as a Tai Chi Master and his seafaring days on the high seas.

Geraldine C Parkes
Committee Member