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HEALTH QIGONG – APOLOGIES TO ALL BY DAN DOCHERTY

The TCUGB was Nigel Sutton’s idea in 1990 just before we took ‘the Bash Street Kids’ to Taiwan for a tuishou competition. He had the immediate support of Gary Wragg, Linda Broda, Ian Cameron, Paul Crompton, Ray Wilkie, John Hine, Trevor Barrie and me. I guess we all practiced or taught some form of Qigong, but no-one really talked about it that much back then.

In 1992 Li Hongzhi, a police forestry band trumpeter started teaching classes in what he called Falun gong, a combination of simple health exercise and Buddhistic moral precepts such as truthfulness, compassion and forbearance. Li initially charged for classes, but when his books became popular, he decreed that classes should be free of charge and Falungong was officially recognised by the Chinese government and there were many Communist cadres amongst its practitioners.

The China Qigong Scientific Research Society was established in 1985. The Falungong organisation became a member.

Some say that in the mid-Nineties there were more than 70 million Falungong practitioners in China.

 By this time, however, Falungong became estranged from the state-run qigong associations. Communist Party authorities in the Spring of 1999 launched a campaign of propaganda, large-scale extrajudicial imprisonment, torture and coercive re-education.

There is no doubt that Falungong had all the makings of a cult.  There is also no doubt that it was a force for good, both in its moral philosophy and the provision of free health giving exercises for the general public. A replacement was needed; the Chinese set up a committee of experts.

In 2004 an officially sanctioned set of exercises was given the moniker ‘Health Qigong’. There is no doubt that these exercises are good for health and that those teaching them, such as Masters Faye and Tary Yip are benefiting society.  I have a high regard for them both on a personal and on a professional level.

My own Qigong practice is not officially recognised. It includes a non-martial, non-meditative set of Neidan Qigong which is a health Qigong, though not one of the official ones. [some of the exercises are for the bed chamber] and a series of 24 Neigong exercises with martial. meditative, internal alchemy and health aspects. It may also be considered to be a cult by some as we practice ritual initiation [Bai Shi]

The TCUGB, after considerable discussion, got our logo trademarked. This is often done in the commercial world and is the case with Tat Chi Caledonia [I suggested the name to Bob and Ronnie back in 1995]. However the TCUGB Board [except for Master Faye Yip] was surprised to learn that Master Tary Yip had trademarked ‘Health Qigong' in January.

I thought it important for members to know about this and announced it on Facebook. Certain members claimed they had been threatened with legal action for using a trademarked term in  their literature. They asked for confidentiality. My assistant contacted the trademark office who said that they were unaware that ‘Health Qigong’ was a generic term and so not suitable for trademark and was probably legally unenforceable as it was registered as a word trademark.. My assistant also found out that TCUGB Board member Mark Peters had trademarked  ‘Tai Chi Training for Rehabilitation.’ In January as well. In retrospect they said that this wording seemed generic also, but not as much. Mark explained that he had no intention of enforcing the trademark, though for a while it seemed to be a conspiracy theory..                                                                                                              

As is the procedure I told members who wished to make a complaint to contact the TCUGB Secretary.

The TCUGB Board does its best. We can’t and won’t offer a 24 /7 service including free legal advice. We’ll make mistakes sometimes as I did here. I apologise to all  members.

Best regards

Dan Docherty