scholarly journals “Hang the Flesh off the Bones”: Cultivating an “Ideal Body” in Taijiquan and Neigong

Author(s):  
Xiujie Ma ◽  
George Jennings

In a globalized, media-driven society, people are being exposed to different cultural and philosophical ideas. In Europe, the School of Internal Arts (pseudonym) follows key principles of the ancient Chinese text The Yijinjing (The Muscle-Tendon Change Classic) “Skeleton up, flesh down”, in its online and offline pedagogy. This article draws on an ongoing ethnographic, netnographic and cross-cultural investigation of the transmission of knowledge in this atypical association that combines Taijiquan with a range of practices such as Qigong, body loosening exercises and meditation. Exploring the ideal body cultivated by the students, we describe and illustrate key (and often overlooked) body areas—namely the spine, scapula, Kua and feet, which are continually worked on in the School of Internal Arts’ exercise-based pedagogy. We argue that Neigong and Taijiquan, rather than being forms of physical education, are vehicles for adult physical re-education. This re-education offers space in which mind-body tension built over the life course are systematically released through specific forms of attentive, meditative exercise to lay the foundations for a strong, powerful body for martial artistry and health.

1992 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 49-84 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charlotte Ikels ◽  
Jennie Keith ◽  
Jeanette Dickerson-Putman ◽  
Patricia Draper ◽  
Christine Fry ◽  
...  

ABSTRACTA team of seven anthropologists conducted a coordinated, cross- cultural investigation to examine how structural and cultural variables shape the strategies people employ to assure themselves a secure old age. Central to the investigation was the goal of determining how people in the societies involved (Hong Kong, the United States, Ireland, and Botswana) perceive old age and its place in the adult life course, e.g. whether they view old age as an improvement or a decrement compared with other stages of life and the characteristics on which they base their views. The seven sites were selected to ensure broad representation in terms of the key structural variables of scale, complexity, subsistence pattern, residential mobility, and population structure. Both across and within sites people differed in their willingness and ability to discuss the concept of the life course. We attribute this variation to five factors: (i) characteristics of the social field, (2) education, (3) cultural salience of age categorisation, (4) predictability of life events, and (5) variability in timing of normative social or work roles.


2014 ◽  
Vol 34 (4) ◽  
pp. 246-259 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander Edmonds

This article draws on ethnographic fieldwork on plastic surgery to explore tensions in aging norms and ideals for women in Brazil.  I situate my analysis in relation to debates about a “de-chronologized life course.”  Some scholars argue that the life course in late capitalism has become less standardized.  In this account, chronological age diminishes in importance as consumers are defined by life style choices available to all ages and the period of youth extends into middle age and beyond.  In Brazil consumers embrace plastic surgery as a means to “manage” aging, mental well-being, and reproductive and sexual health.  This promise of a flexible and optimized aging trajectory seems to echo the notion of a de-chronologized life course.  I argue, however, that medical discourse and patients’ accounts show ambivalence about aging and conflicts in the ideal of medically-managed sexual fitness for women.  Drawing on analysis of changes in family structure and women’s health regimes, I argue that passage through the life course, rather than becoming more flexible, is in some ways becoming more rigidly defined by biological processes.


Author(s):  
Tania Zittoun ◽  
Jaan Valsiner ◽  
Dankert Vedeler ◽  
Joao Salgado ◽  
Miguel M. Goncalves ◽  
...  

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