Tai Chi and Qigong (Chi Kung)
The future?
It seems at the moment that Tai Chi is undergoing a rise in popularity. There is much talk about it's health benefits and as more research is carried out (in the typical western manner) more benefits are bound to come to light. Tai Chi as a martial art, however, seems to have pushed somewhat to the sidelines, particularly in the Western World. It is highly unlikely that Tai Chi will simply just disappear, but in the west we seem less able to hold on to anything in the long term and there may come a time when today's "fad" of Tai Chi starts to fade, leaving only those who have deeper reasons for taking it up, either for health or as a martial art (or both). Tai Chi is liable to be carried along from one generation to the next, each adding their own signatures to the forms and it's other aspects, and so continuing much longer than all of us who have not yet learnt the ways of immortality! It has been evolving since it' s seeds were first sown, I see no reason why this will not continue for a long time to come.
