Around 1985 an advertising campaign in Taiwan newspapers touting the beneficial effects of ch'i-kung (the Chinese art of cultivating one's inner ch'i, or vitality) suddenly made this particular branch of knowledge, somewhat esoteric in modern industrialized society, into a hot topic.

Do you believe in ch'i-kung? Does it really have curative effects?

More and more people are curious to find out about ch'i-kung. But ch'i-kung is an old Chinese art, not something that has only just been discovered. And it hasn't only been promoted in Taiwan since 1985. Ten years ago a certain Liu Ch'u-ch'iang offered correspondence-course tuition in various types of health-oriented ch'i-kung, and apparently this proved popular among the armed forces. Another well-known form of ch'i-kung was advocated by practitioners of Yoga.

Two years ago with the introduction of a more relaxed policy towards the mainland, a huge amount of information has flooded into Taiwan from across the Taiwan Strait. Naturally enough, the rage for ch'i-kung that started in mainland China in the early'80s also spread over here like wildfire.

Overt results of this have been a surge of ch'i-kung advertisements in newspapers and magazines, ch'i-kung signboards cropping up on the streets and an increase in books about ch'i-kung in the bookshops, which also now display them more prominently on the shelves. In the past two years four specialist ch'i-kung magazines have started up, and one of the largest-circulation newspapers, the China Times, has started running a ch'i-kung column as well as sponsoring a series of lectures on the subject.

Before these contacts across the Taiwan Strait, there was a great divergence between ch'i-kung as practiced in mainland China and Taiwan. One approach adopted in Taiwan was based on folk religion with an admixture of martial arts and esoteric study, symbolized by the magazine Esoterica, founded in 1963, which still continues today. Another approach, symbolized by ch'i-kung teaching centers run on business lines, was to regard ch'i-kung as a kind of body-building sport. The former was limited to a few enthusiasts for the transcendent and sublime; the latter appealed through claims of instant success, guaranteed universal cures and enhanced sexual performance, but its vulgar "packaging" ensured that its influence was only restricted to a narrow field.

One major reason for the rise in the number of people in Taiwan practicing ch'i-kung is the introduction of mainland Chinese thinking on the subject. This has given those who hesitated between the two established approaches a new way of accepting ch'i-kung--as a science.

Ch'i-kung in mainland China covers a broad scope, including life-prolonging exercises based on deep breathing techniques and the application of ch'i-kung in various fields. Most significantly, ch'i-kung is being cried up on the mainland as a "great science of our motherland" and slogans call for an effort to be made to re-establish the Chinese "science of ch'i-kung." Not only has this brought about the rehabilitation of one of the previously decried "four obsolete things," but it has been given a new face and placed squarely on a par with mainstream modern science.

As far as its angle on ch'i-kung theory and research is concerned, mainland China is clearly following the principles of materialist dialectics. But can that completely explain the mysterious phenomena behind the life of the human body?

Currently schools in Taiwan offering public instruction in ch'i-kung operate on the basis of two, three or four-month terms, with classes twice a week. Tuition fees range between NT$4,000 and NT$50,000 per term. Exchanging knowledge and skills for cash, which must be paid on time, is the modern style of learning. But ch'i-kung is not knowledge, and neither is it a skill. It is a never-ending adjustment of the mind and body aimed at attaining a totally natural equilibrium which will allow your potential abilities and your true nature to come to the fore. Practicing ch'i-kung essentially relies on your self-cultivation during the whole course of your life. The teacher can only provide you with a method, the basic guidelines, and even a genius cannot expect to master the entire technique in one or two terms without committing himself to a lifetime of self-cultivation.