A two-day Chinese Taichi was organised for Year 0-3 junior Mandarin classes and Year 7-13 Chinese classes. Ms Hongchun Wang (Candice) who is our special guest. She is from The Confucius Institute at the University of Canterbury.

Ms Wang taught Columba students “Wu Qinxi (五禽戏 Five Animals Qigong), Taichi, Taichi Fan Dance and self defense martial arts”. Our students showed incredible motivation and accepted challenges during learning. They tried to put their best effort into learning Taichi and had lots of fun. Taichi is a great way to reduce anxiety and relieve stress at the end of Term 3.

The Five Animals Qigong is a traditional Chinese martial arts that integrates breathing and physical and mental regulation, which has low to medium intensity aerobic activities involving imitation of the movements and breathing of five animals (tiger, deer, bear, ape, and bird) (Guo et al., 2018). Taichi is for people of all ages to improve their physical and mental health, and sense of wellbeing. "Chinese Taichi Fan Dance" is a mind and body harmony exercise to help relieve stress and improve co-ordination.