News and Events
Launch Conference of the Centre for Daoist Studies
The Confucius Institute is playing an increasingly important role within the University of Wales, Trinity Saint David, fostering thriving relationships between university departments and Chinese partner organizations. One such important recent collaboration involves sponsorship of the launch conference of the new Centre for Daoist Studies.
The inaugural conference of Centre for Daoist Studies will take place at the Lampeter campus on 23 October 2010.
Focusing on Daoist practices that come under the generic heading of Yangsheng, (or literally, ‘nurturing life’), many of which are already familiar to Western practitioners of Taiji (Tai Chi) and Qigong (Chi Kung), the conference is entitled ‘The Embodiment of the Dao: Daoist Yangsheng (道家养生) and the cultivation of health and vitality’. The conference will bring together some of China’s most renowned practitioners from Yangsheng temples and associations specialising in the disciplines of Daoist Qigong (Qi Breathing Meditation), Taiji and Martial Arts Culture, as well as experts and scholars from the UK in the fields of Daoist health theory and practice.
The aim of the conference is to enable interaction between scholars and practitioners of these traditions and to highlight their significance in the modern world. The conference will ask how the positive health claims of traditional Daoist practices can be quantified within a modern scientific framework; it will identify certain areas of practice currently confined to mainland China and compare them with practices developed in the West; discussions will focus on comparison of theory with practice, making the fruits of world-class scholarship available to those practising within these traditions, as well as providing scholars with access to the practical experiences of practitioners. This is an opportunity for western practitioners of Taiji and martial arts to reconnect with the Chinese roots of their tradition and for their Chinese counterparts to learn from developments in the UK. In particular, the conference hopes to identify potential collaboration between Chinese and UK scholars and practitioner groups involving research, teaching and community health projects.
The conference programme will consist of a mix of talks, workshops and practical demonstrations, with plenty of opportunity for delegates to meet guest speakers. Amongst the programme highlights is a demonstration of competing skills from east and west as Abbot Liu Suibin, a level 7 Black Dragon, invites his western counterparts to engage in martial arts combat.
Further to its launch in October, the Centre for Daoist Studies will engage in a number of specialist areas, carrying forward Yangsheng training programmes; initiating pilot projects that take Daoist Yansheng practices and principles into the community; and carrying out academic research into Daoist culture, eventually implementing a programme of degree courses.
For more information about the conference programme and biographies of contributors and to register for free delegate attendance, please see the conference website or contact Dr Yanxia Zhao by email on: yanxia.zhao@trinitysaintdavic.ac.uk
(Please note that lunch and dinner will be available to delegates at their own cost at the Lloyd Thomas 1822 Dining Hall).
The Black Dragon comes to Lampeter
