Title: The Repackaged Fever: Qigong in Mainland China 2000-2023
Department: History
Description: This research will explore qigong's development in mainland Chinese society in the twenty-first century. Qigong is a set of traditional Chinese practices that use coordinated body postures, movements, and meditations to cultivate practitioners' qi life energy for health and spiritual pursuits. This research aims to discuss how the practice reintegrated into Chinese society after being oppressed by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). By analyzing qigong-related laws and official reports, media portrayals of qigong, and non-governmental teachings of different practices, it will examine qigong's division into two intertwined forms since 1999: the official, "scientific" qigong propagandized by CCP and the folk, implicitly religious qigong promoted by non-governmental qigong masters and organizations. Moreover, by interviewing governmental officials, qigong teachers, and ordinary practitioners, it will reveal how the two qigong forms interact and conflict as well as how they collectively constitute a crucial segment of the Chinese public's identities'.
Hometown: Beijing, China
Advisor: Ka Man Hui
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