“Tell a non-tai chi person about tai chi and you get a yawn. Show them tai chi and now they're wide awake.”

Introduction
World Tai Chi Qigong Day has always been the biggest event no one has ever heard of. Usually on the last weekend of April, groups from every corner of the glove amass and at 10 a.m. their time, they begin celebrating the joy of tai chi chuan.

Although mildly successful in attracting a few curious souls, World Tai Chi Qigong Day was mostly a day enjoyed by players who already practiced tai chi or qigong. Buy David-Dorian Ross wants to change that, and he’s turning to the Web to make it happen.

In an industrious undertaking that would make Jerry Lewis proud, Ross will host a 24-hour live streaming event featuring World Tai Chi Qigong Day celebrations from around the world. Starting in New Zealand and ending in Hawaii, Ross will tai chi full 24 hours.

Ross, credited with taking tai chi mainstream through his instructional DVDs, will also have special guests, conduct studio interviews and answer viewer questions. Quite an undertaking, but one that Ross hopes will turn tai chi and qigong into the form seen ‘round the world.

-- Dave Cater

INSIDE KUNG-FU: What has been the benefit of World Tai Chi Qigong Day?

DAVID-DORIAN ROSS: Lots of ways to answer this question, but I think the primary benefit has been to create a rallying point for tai chi enthusiasts to come together without any of the barriers of style or lineage. Tai chi, like probably all martial arts, can be really iconoclastic. World Tai Chi Qigong Day (WTCQD) encouraged people of different styles to talk to each other and regularly share demonstrations and lessons with each other and with the public in a spirit of common interest. It's also been an opportunity to get official recognition for tai chi as a health practice generally beneficial to all. Through Bill Douglas's efforts—and those of some of the other advisors and friends to Bill—the World Health Organization, the National Institutes of Health, and many local governments around the world have “recognized” tai chi and WTCQD.

IKF: Do you think it has helped with awareness of tai chi around the world?

DDR: Yes, I think it has definitely made some headway. At the very least, it has gotten a lot of public demonstrations going annually and exposed many people who perhaps wouldn't have learned much about tai chi otherwise. However, I think we could do a lot more to spread awareness and bring tai chi into the mainstream of 21st-century culture.

IKF: Why hasn't World Tai Chi Qigong Day received more international publicity?

DDR: Well, as a journalist you know that every story needs a hook and editors run the stories with the strongest hooks.  So far, tai chi and WTCQD have not had strong hooks, and so it hasn't gotten much PR or editorial support. It's time for tai chi to re-brand itself.  Balance is sexy, people! Qi is powerful, and flow is the height of cool.

IKF: Does tai chi need a "name" exponent?

DDR: That's a good question. I don't know. Maybe. But it has to be the right person.  The last “name” exponent we had was David Carradine. That was a mixed blessing. You know who I'd like to see doing it? Ashton Kutcher. He understands the modern media landscape, he has enormous social media influence, and he has a wicked sense of humor. He's also quite physical and athletic.

IKF: What has to change for World Tai Chi Qigong Day to become more of a mainstream event?

DDR: WTCQD has to embrace social media and the web 2.0 landscape. The Internet is increasingly where people are coming to get information, to be entertained and to carry out commerce. If our purpose for putting on WTCQD is to share it with more people, then we have to take a lesson from John Dillinger. When asked why he robbed banks he said, “Because that's where the money is.”  We have to go where the people are.

IKF: What are your plans to take World Tai Chi Qigong Day mainstream?

DDR: We are going to take WTCQD to the Web and use social media platforms to get people to watch it. This is one of the keys to success when it comes to tai chi. We talk about it too much. Tons of articles and books get written about how good tai chi is for you.  Who cares? Tell a non-tai chi person about tai chi and you get a yawn.  Show them tai chi and now they’re wide awake.
The opportunity of the live streaming event lies in its use of visual media. Of course, I will be moderating the streams of video that we get, adding commentary and color, and by the way answering questions. It will be an interactive format where people all over the world can text and tweet me in real time and I can answer them back in real time. But that's only secondary to viewers getting to watch more tai chi in one place than probably ever before in history.

IKF: You will be streaming for 24 hours straight. What is the thought process behind this?

DDR: First, we’re like a news program just following events, not creating them. Since the beginning, World Tai Chi Qigong Day has been designed as a 24-hour series of local events, each one starting at 10 a.m. in the local time zone. It starts in New Zealand and progresses westward until 24 hours later when it ends in Hawaii. Magically, because of the time zone changes, it's still April 24.
Our live streaming project was conceived as a way for people to tune in and watch the events no matter where you live. Can't make it to your local event? No problem: just go to www.drtaichi.com and watch.

IKF: How will you reach the masses?

DDR: Well, we're working on a number of avenues right now.  Easiest of all is for the people who are participating in WTCQD events all over the world to tell their friends and families to tune in and watch. My company, Full Circle Media Group, is in the business of growing social media networks. We currently have a following of about 10,000 and we hope to double that by April 24. We are also reaching out to a number of celebrities, strategic business partners and other martial artists to have them tell their social networks about it.

IKF: Give us the details of World Tai Chi Qigong Day and your streaming 24-hour telecast.

DDR: WTCQD and the Webcast—which is called “24 Hours of World Peace”—will occur this year on April 24, the last Saturday in April. It begins at 10 a.m. in New Zealand, which is 3 p.m. Friday April 23 PST. At 10 a.m., groups there will begin to hold their tai chi events, demos, expos, free classes and friendly push hands. An hour later, the same thing will begin in the next time zone and so on.
We'll have as many groups as we can streaming video of their events live (or slight delay) into our control center located in Orange County, Calif. We'll manage the streams, and I (like Jerry Lewis at the Labor Day Telethon) will be there in the studio for 24 hours hosting the show. We'll have interviews, promotions and we'll also be showing a documentary we're making on WTCQD called “One World, One Breath” (which is the motto of Bill Douglas and WTCQD).

Sidebar 1
Up Close
What: 24 Hours of World Peace
Celebrating: World Tai Chi Qigong Day
Concept: Streaming, interactive 24-hour telecast
Moderator: David-Dorian Ross
Contact: www.drtaichi.com
When: April 24 at 10 a.m. New Zealand time (April 23, 3 p.m. PST)