Translations (译文)
Connections is available in English, Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, French, German, and Chinese. We are very grateful for our translators who volunteered to translate: Rubén Coirini, Daniela Famulari, Gennaro Ripa, Françoise Desagnat, Jean-Claude Miremont, Thilo Krienke, Milena Locci de Oliveira de Lazzari, and Li Mingyang. Thank you very much! Here are the links to the other languages:
Welcome to Our New Members
I would like to welcome all new members who have recently joined Yang Family Tai Chi. Thank you for joining us and welcome to our tai chi family! I am happy you have chosen to join us and hope that you feel welcome and receive great value from your membership.
I hope that all members will have a long and fulfilling relationship with our association. For those members who have been with us through the years, I appreciate that you have chosen to stay with us as we continue to spread tai chi chuan worldwide to help humankind.
Sincerely,
Yang Jun
President
Grandmaster Yang Zhenduo's Birthday
On July 14, our tai chi family around the world celebrated Grandmaster Yang Zhenduo's (1926 - 2020) 99th birthday. We remembered his valuable contributions to tai chi chuan, our association, the health and wellness of people around the world, and the many beautiful memories we shared with him. He was a deeply loved teacher and role model whose kindness and generosity touched many lives. His high moral standard was an example to everyone.
Association members from around the world sent in videos from their schools and centers, which were used to create a video commemorating his birthday. (Videos from China can be viewed on our association's WeChat page.)
China Trip - Special Yang Family Tai Chi Event - October 2026
Next year is the centennial celebration of Grandmaster Yang Zhenduo’s birth. To mark the occasion, Yang Family Tai Chi will be holding a multi-day event in Leshan, Sichuan, in mid-October 2026. This celebration will involve a three-day tournament with ranking opportunities and a one-day scientific forum and showcase presentation by tai chi masters from China. Similar to past Yang Family Tai Chi adventures, there will also be a tour following the event with Wudang Mountain as one possible destination. More information available soon.
Mark your calendars and start saving up for this once-in-a-lifetime experience!
New YFTC Center in Florence, Italy
Maurizio Curia, a Certified Instructor from Florence, Italy, is happy to announce that the school he directs has now become a Yang Family Tai Chi Center. (Website)
Ranking Exam Schedule
The Yang Family Tai Chi website publishes a list of upcoming ranking events around the world. We encourage members to visit our ranking events page on our website under the heading "Events" for more information, including links to study material for the written exams.
October 5, 2025: Ribeirão Preto, Brazil
October 25, 2025: Mexico City, Mexico
October 25, 2025: São Paulo, Brazil
November 15: Royal Oak, Michigan, USA
November 15: Cologne, Germany
Please Update Your Email Address
Have you changed your email address since you first became a member of Yang Family Tai Chi? If so, please let us know by updating your email address. As a member, you may be missing out on messages, special announcements, and newsletters because we don't have your most current email address.
Please send any updates to members@yangfamilytaichi.com or go to the Member Area of our website and select Membership Management, where you can update your information. Forgot your password? You can reset it in Membership Management too.
We encourage directors and instructors to help us by reminding students to keep their email address current.
Master Yang Jun's Seminar Schedule
Whitehorse, Yukon, Canada
October 3-5: Traditional Hand Form (103)
Rome, Italy
October 15-17: Instructor Seminar
San Ciprián, Spain
October 25-26: Sword Form
Mendoza, Argentina
November 15-17: Traditional Hand Form (103)
Ribeirão Preto, Brazil
November 20: Push Hands
November 21: Saber Form
November 22-23 Traditional Hand Form (103)
Please visit our association's website for more information as it becomes available.
Seminar in Kunming, China
6th Instructor Training, Part 1 (July 12 - 16)
Seminar in Taiyuan, China
2nd Sword and Saber Seminar (August 1 - 3)
Seminar in Taiyuan, China
3rd Push Hands Seminar, Part 1 (August 9 - 13)
Seminar in Royal Oak, Michigan, USA
As always, we had a terrific four-day seminar on fundamentals, hand form, sword, and push hands taught by Master Yang Jun. With cool and sunny weather at the end of August, we met new and old participants and friends from Michigan and around the country. So much to learn and lots of hard work. Everyone gained so much from this seminar!
Push Hands Seminar
Sword Seminar
Hand Form Seminar
Karla Groesbeck attended the seminar and shares her experience:
"In Ann Arbor, Michigan, most of the Yang tai chi practitioners come from a non-traditional line of Yang tai chi. The Traditional Yang Family style is not the usual form we do. Although we all know we want to do it much more after such a fantastic seminar! My students who attended the seminar and I prepared by learning the 49 Form. I said to my students, "Master Yang will teach you everything else." And, in this, he exceeded all expectations.
All of us were greatly impressed and inspired by the information that was shared. It was a clear, very well-organized, and well-crafted distillation of his vast experience. I feel we received the richest explanation of Master Yang Jun's history with the teachings of his grandfather and family, as well as the creation of his own unique language of teaching. He graciously started with the fundamentals, provided much communication of the method, and again, deeply expressed the highest-level principles for external and internal power. I feel like I received everything I could have wanted (new and familiar material) in such a big way, in such a short period of a few days.
We will practice the exercises Master Yang shared, and we are all incredibly grateful for the personal corrections and teachings he gave us. We are all deeply affected by his generosity and respect. His kindness also greatly inspires us to work harder. We feel his belief in us and all of his students.
It is a challenge to adequately share thankfulness for his teaching, knowledge, and dedication. So, simply, for everything, many, many thanks!"
Remembering Jean-Robert Haefeli
In our hearts, we remember Jean-Robert Haefeli, a very special man who passed away in July.
Jean-Robert was a dedicated tai chi practitioner. He attended his first seminar with Grandmaster Yang Zhenduo in 2004. Over 20 years, we experienced his kindness, humbleness, and loyalty to our school. He holds a special place in the memory of our Paris YFTC Center.
Jean-Robert's passion for the sea and for photography leaves us with unforgettable memories. Many of you met him at seminars where, each year, he took photos of all the participants as they received their certificates.
He is also the noteworthy photographer of some of the great photos of Grandmaster Yang Zhenduo that have been seen around the world. You may remember seeing some of these photos online or in Yang Family Tai Chi's publications. His artistic talent can also be seen in his photo of Master Yang Jun and his wife Fang Hong Laoshi during their visit in 2016, and also in two albums devoted to Grandmaster Yang Zhenduo.
We are thankful for the many expressions of sympathy we received, which greatly touched his wife and family.
With all our gratitude, rest in peace, dearest friend!
Carole & Duc - YFTC Paris Center
Summer Seminar in Dordogne, France
Anniversary
On June 15th, members celebrated the 30th anniversary of Cercle Éventail in France. It was founded in 1995 by its current president, Philippe Denis, a disciple of Master Yang Jun.
The anniversary celebration brought together over sixty people in a warm and joyful atmosphere. It was an opportunity to reconnect with longtime members who helped Cercle Éventail grow. The day featured a variety of activities drawn from Chinese culture and tai chi chuan: Taoist exercises, qi gong, discovery workshops in tai chi chuan, juggling, fan practice, and calligraphy.
After sharing a meal, three stories from the classic Zhuangzi were told, followed by a skit about learning the “Senior Form”, demonstrations in honor of Grandmaster Yang Zhenduo’s birthday, and finally, a collective dance!
We thank everyone who contributed to the success of this event!
Journal Gem
"Mindfulness in Motion: A conversation with Master Yang Jun about the role of the mind in tai chi chuan" by Dave Barrett. Issue #27 (2010), pages 12-15.
This article can be found in our Members-Only Area on our website.
Contribute to Our Journal
Volunteer Opportunities
Yang Family Tai Chi depends on volunteers who donate their time and talent to make our association a success. We currently need more volunteers to help our association as we move forward into the future. We have an immediate need for people with skills such as website updating and management, writing, translating, video editing, social media, and assisting our department heads and executive with various tasks. We also welcome volunteers in other areas.
Do you have any skills or knowledge you would like to share? If you would like to volunteer but aren't sure how you can help, please just send an email telling us you would like to help in some way and we will suggest some ways you could volunteer.
We are very grateful to all our volunteers who have helped make our association and its events successful. Building a strong group of new volunteers will help us improve our service to our members and also reach more people around the world! Please contact Pam Boyde (pamboyde@yangfamilytaichi.com) if you would like to volunteer.
Join Our Association
Become a member of Yang Family Tai Chi! For more information about membership benefits and how to apply, please visit our membership page on our website.
Posting to Yang Family Tai Chi's Social Media Pages
Want to post news on Yang Family Tai Chi's social media pages? Yang Family Tai Chi would like to keep its social media pages updated with current information from the association, centers, and schools. Ana Horta is managing Yang Family Tai Chi's social media pages on Facebook and Instagram. If you would like to share news on Yang Family Tai Chi's social media pages, please send an email to Ana at anamaghorta@gmail.com.
VISIT YANG FAMILY TAI CHI'S SOCIAL MEDIA PAGES
Previous Issue
Did you miss the last issue of Connections? You can read it here.
Next Issue of Connections
Connections is published in March, June, September, and December. We publish association news and school news (upcoming events, recent past events, awards, other news) but not general school advertisements.
The next issue of Connections will be published in December 2025. Please send any announcements to me at carolyn@yangfamilytaichi.com by November 19, 2025.
Carolyn Fung,
Editor
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