Blind Tai Chi student Zheng Yuankang practices his art at a training center in Beijing. Photo: IC

Tai Chi master Wan Zhouying, right, directs his blind assistant Zheng Yuankang. Photo: IC

Blind students practice Tai Chi every morning at Master Wan's training center in Beijing. Photo: IC

Zheng Yuankang, a former disciple of Master Wan now working as his assistant, directs a student at a training center in Beijing. Photo: IC

Wan Zhouying, a famous Tai Chi master, started to teach blind people shadowboxing in 2009. As a 12th-generation practitioner of Chen Style Tai Chi Chuan, Wan began learning Tai Chi in his childhood.

Inspired by a friend, Wan established a training center to teach visually impaired people to practice Tai Chi in the hope of easing their solitude.

The difficulties for blind students in learning Tai Chi were unexpected. To teach every move, Wan has to strike a firm position for the students to touch him and feel the positions of his body, including the shoulder, the wrist and the ankle. It is followed by another round of training where Wan corrects their movements one by one.

Despite these difficulties, Wan believes that blind people are naturally suited to learn Tai Chi and they better comprehend the subtlety of this physical art that demands internal exploration from the practitioner.

The effort of learning Tai Chi has paid off for the students, who, after physical practicing and learning Tai Chi theory, say they have become less stressed and more open-hearted.

Wan then quit his job as a university lecturer and established a training center in Beijing dedicated to Tai Chi training for the blind.

This August, 35 teachers from schools for the blind as well as rural primary schools around China came to Beijing and joined Wan for a 12-day Tai Chi training session. Wan hopes to popularize the sport among the blind to help them out of internal loneliness and connect them to the world.

Global Times