World Tai Chi Day ~ Saturday April 25th 2026

Shifu Gary and Shifu Chey lead a group of students through a qigong exercise during World Tai Chi Day.

World Tai Chi Day is one of my favorite martial arts events of the year. Each year on the last Saturday in April, people in countries all over the world (I think the official number is 88) gather together in groups to practice Tai Chi and Qigong together.

Doing Tai Chi as a group feels different than doing it alone. It feels more powerful and it feels more connected to the environment, including the people around us. It could be totally psychosomatic. Maybe we’re joining our qi together. Maybe there is some science that can explain how synchronicity in a group subtly changes the function of our brains. (A quick Google search revealed that yes, being on the same “wavelength” as others is, scientifically speaking, A Thing.)

Whatever the neurological or mystical Daoist reasons may be, doing Tai Chi and Qigong with a huge group of people is a powerful, moving, and at least for me personally, a healing experience.

The world is in deep conflict right now, but I am grateful that with Shifu Gary’s help, we were able to carve out a space of peace and unity. I am an activist, and as any seasoned activist will tell you, there is no more powerful force for positive change than coming together in community. To me, coming together in community not just with my own classmates and students, but with others all around the world at the same time, to share in the joy of unified movement, is really what it is all about.

~ Shifu

Photos available on our Facebook and SmugMug pages. Thank you to my students Rey and Ilze for their photos as well.