#taijimelody challenge: let’s promote Taijiquan and nature!
This week I read about an interesting challenge. It’s called the #taijimelody challenge. Yes, it involves a hashtag and happens on social media! And as my last post was about using technology to promote Taijiquan and Qi Gong, I got really excited. So I reached out to one of the initiators, Estevam Ribiero.
Estevam Ribeiro lives in Brazil and he started teaching Taijiquan in 1979. He is a disciple of Chen Xiao Wang. And he is also an amazing artist, painting wonderful pieces!
In just one sentence: what is the #taijimelody challenge?
The taijimelody challenge is about the link between Taiji and nature.
How did you come up with the idea?
The idea came from another challenge, called “photo nature”, that I received from my friend Davidine SV Sim. She is a Taiji sister under GM Chen Xiao Wang and likes photos and nature like me. I had the idea that because she has many photos in beautiful nature spots. Just like many of our taiji friends in facebook. I thought we could spread this nice link,Taiji-nature-photo through the internet and create a wave of taiji-images. To help people get in touch with one of the great pleasures that we taijiists have when we use this art to connect with nature. The point is to create a deep ecological feeling. I think many people in the world are “intellectually” aware of the ecologic urgency. However, with Taiji, we can realize that we and nature are one thing. And that we depend on nature, not the opposite.
After some sharings we got Melody Lee and Mickey Lee (her taiji partner and famous Taiji champion in America) to spread the challenge much further because of their taiji connections and beautiful photos. In doing so, one of their friends, Bee Wu Tang from Germany, thought it was Melody Lee’s challenge and to keep connected, she suggested the #taijimelody title. I think it is a nice name because it calls for the beauty of this art challenge.
Now Bee Wu Tang has also created the #baguamelody, and I think this will be a nice wave, because Bagua links with nature as good as Taiji.
Just wondering, do you know how many people already participated?
No, I have no idea how many people had already participated… but there are already many photos on Facebook and Instagram.
So if I want to take the challenge, what should I do?
Simply start using #taijimelody, but I will nominate you anyway. You surely deserve make part of this wave, as you do a wonderful job with your blog spreading good information on Taijiquan.
Oh, thank you for your kind words and I gladly accept the challenge!
One final question: should I post only pictures from the same day or could I use some from 10 years ago?
You can use any photo from present or past, as long as nature and Taiji get along in the photo expression. It is important and I made it clear when I started , that this is not a competition, and you only do it if you feel comfortable to post publicly (because the idea is to make more and more people have get inspired to try Taiji). Some of my Taiji friends have posted only with friends because they didn’t feel like posting public, and that’s great, too.
Thank you Estevam for answering my questions! And I will start with the challenge right away, posting Taijiquan picture in nature for the next 7 days.
If you, the readers of my blog, want to see my photos, follow me on Facebook or Instagram. And of course I will nominate many other people. But feel free to start the challenge on your own. Just use #taijimelody and post a photo of you doing a Taiji posture in a nature scenario!
Happy Qi!
Angelika