Morning Exercise

The most interesting cross-cultural phenomenon I have yet witnessed is the older generation’s morning exercise regimen. In each park in our area from about 5:30 – 8:00 every morning, elderly Chinese men and women come out to practice tai chi, different types of dance and yoga, and what I will call sword dancing – for lack of a better word. They fill the parks, and one has to really watch where he is going to keep from being stabbed by an errant fist, or a sword. What I cannot capture on camera is the slow, deliberate movements which all of these people are making. It is as if they are in a trance; the exercise is very spiritual, in a sense.

These morning rituals are very strange for me to watch, because I know that the Chinese state is officially atheist, and that most Chinese profess atheism, when asked. But the sword dancing, tai chi, and yoga are all very meditative, and seems quite out of place in an atheistic society. Philosophy aside, it’s pretty sweet to watch.