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111-568: Chinatown, San Francisco , known as the "original" Chinatown, is a neighborhood on Grant Avenue/Stockton Street. Chinatown, San Francisco may also refer to: Chinatown, San Francisco The Chinatown centered on Grant Avenue and Stockton Street in San Francisco , California , ( Chinese : 唐人街 ; pinyin : tángrénjiē ; Jyutping : tong4 jan4 gaai1 ) is the oldest Chinatown in North America and one of

222-639: A comprehensive conclusion. Tai chi has been promoted for treating various ailments, and is supported by the Parkinson's Foundation and Diabetes Australia , among others. However, medical evidence of effectiveness is lacking. A 2017 systematic review found that it decreased falls in older people. A 2011 comprehensive overview of systematic reviews of tai chi recommended tai chi to older people for its physical and psychological benefits. It found positive results for fall prevention and overall mental health . No conclusive evidence showed benefit for most of

333-538: A disciple of Yang Chengfu , was the first known proponent of tai chi to openly teach in the United States, beginning in 1939. His son and student Choy Kam Man emigrated to San Francisco from Hong Kong in 1949 to teach tai chi in Chinatown . Choy Kam Man taught until he died in 1994. Sophia Delza , a professional dancer and student of Ma Yueliang , performed the first known public demonstration of tai chi in

444-421: A few dozen classical texts originally written in classical Chinese by tai chi masters, the " tai chi classics ". In these texts, it is noted that the physiological and kinesiological aspects of the body's movements are characterized by the circular motion and rotation of the pelvis, based on the metaphors of the pelvis as the hub and the arms and feet as the spokes of a wheel. Furthermore, the respiration of breath

555-648: A missionary in Canton, came to work with the Chinese immigrants in San Francisco. In November 1853 he organized the first Chinese mission in the United States, which provided much needed medical aid and conducted day and night schools that taught English to Chinese immigrants. He also published a Chinese/English newspaper, the Oriental , which staunchly defended the Chinese as anti-Chinese sentiment began to grow in

666-463: A place of vice caused it to become a tourist destination, attracting numerous working-class white people, who sought the oriental mystery of Chinese culture and sought to fulfill their expectations and fantasies about the filth and depravity. The white customers' patronization of Chinatown prostitutes was more extensive than gambling. After catering for three decades to white people as well as Chinese bachelors, Chinatown's prostitution sector developed into

777-466: A post office, and other infrastructure. Recent immigrants, many of whom are elderly, opt to live in Chinatown because of the availability of affordable housing and their familiarity with the culture. Due to a combination of factors, some more broad-based related to difficult circumstances for San Francisco itself, while other factors are more specific to this neighborhood, San Francisco's Chinatown faces

888-414: A powerful vested interest, favoring the vice industry. As the tourist industry grew up, the visitors came to include members of the white middle class, which pushed the vice businesses to transform into an entertainment industry as a more respectable form in which to serve white customers. After the completion of the transcontinental railroad in 1869, San Francisco saw the birth of its tourism industry. By

999-492: A progressive city like San Francisco should feel compelled to tolerate in its midst a foreign community, perpetuated in filth, for the curiosity of tourists, the cupidity of lawyers and the adoration of artists. Dr. Williamson, Annual Report to the Board of Health (quoted in 1901) In March 1900, a Chinese-born man who was a long-time resident of Chinatown was found dead of bubonic plague . The next morning, all of Chinatown

1110-533: A routine that would be much less difficult to learn than the classical 88 to 108 posture solo hand forms. Another 1950s form is the "97 movements combined tai chi form", which blends Yang, Wu, Sun, Chen, and Fu styles. In 1976, they developed a slightly longer demonstration form that would not require the traditional forms' memory, balance, and coordination. This became the "Combined 48 Forms" that were created by three wushu coaches, headed by Men Hui Feng. The combined forms simplified and combined classical forms from

1221-575: A separate Vietnamese enclave on Larkin Street in the heavily working-class Tenderloin district of San Francisco, where it is now known as the city's " Little Saigon ". San Francisco's Chinatown was the port of entry for early Chinese immigrants from the west side of the Pearl River Delta , speaking mainly Hoisanese and Zhongshanese , in the Guangdong province of southern China from

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1332-489: A straight spine, abdominal breathing and a natural range of motion. Tai chi relies on knowing the appropriate change in response to outside forces, as well as on yielding to and redirecting an attack, rather than meeting it with opposing force. Physical fitness is also seen as an important step towards effective self-defense . Tai chi movements were inspired by animals, especially birds and leopards. There are also numerous other supporting solo practices such as: There

1443-416: A struggle for survival. Officially, Chinatown is located in downtown San Francisco, covers 24 square blocks, and overlaps five postal ZIP codes (94108, 94133, 94111, 94102, and 94109). It is within an area of roughly 1 ⁄ 2  mi (0.80 km) long (north to south) by 1 ⁄ 4  mi (0.40 km) wide (east to west) with the current boundaries being, approximately, Kearny Street in

1554-541: A whole and to the city government. The state legislature of California passed several measures to restrict the rights of Chinese immigrants, but these were largely superseded by the terms of the Burlingame Treaty of 1868. In 1880, the Burlingame Treaty was renegotiated and the United States ratified the Angell Treaty , which allowed federal restrictions on Chinese immigration and temporarily suspended

1665-589: Is Grant Avenue , with the Dragon Gate ("Chinatown Gate" on some maps) at the intersection of Bush Street and Grant Avenue, designed by landscape architects Melvin Lee and Joseph Yee and architect Clayton Lee; Saint Mary's Square with a statue of Sun Yat-sen by Benjamin Bufano ; a war memorial to Chinese war veterans; and stores, restaurants and mini-malls that cater mainly to tourists. The other, Stockton Street ,

1776-418: Is at present, cannot be rendered sanitary except by total obliteration. It should be depopulated, its buildings leveled by fire and its tunnels and cellars laid bare. Its occupants should be colonized on some distant portion of the peninsula, where every building should be constructed under strict municipal regulation and where every violation of the sanitary laws could be at once detected. The day has passed when

1887-816: Is categorized under the Wudang group of Chinese martial arts —that is, arts applied with internal power. Although the term Wudang suggests these arts originated in the Wudang Mountains , it is used only to distinguish the skills, theories, and applications of neijia from those of the Shaolin grouping, or waijia (hard/external styles). Tai chi also adopts the Taoist ideals of softness overcoming hardness, of wu wei (effortless action), and of yielding into its martial art technique while also retaining Taoist ideas of spiritual self-cultivation. Tai chi's path

1998-425: Is connected with Henan's Thousand Year Temple and a nexus of nearby villages: Chen Village, Tang Village, Wangbao Village, and Zhaobao Town. These villages were closely connected, shared an interest in the martial arts and many went to study at Thousand Year Temple (which was a syncretic temple with elements from the three teachings ). New documents from these villages, mostly dating to the 17th century, are some of

2109-432: Is coordinated with the physical movements in a state of deep relaxation, rather than muscular tension. Tai chi is a complete martial art system with a full range of bare-hand movement sets and weapon forms, such as the jian (straight sword), dao (curved sword), and qiang (spear), which are based on the dynamic relationship between yin and yang . While tai chi is typified by its slow movements, many styles (including

2220-402: Is frequented less often by tourists, and it presents an authentic Chinese look and feel reminiscent of Hong Kong , with its produce and fish markets, stores, and restaurants. It is dominated by mixed-use buildings that are three to four stories high, with shops on the ground floor and residential apartments upstairs. A major focal point in Chinatown is Portsmouth Square . Since it is one of

2331-404: Is no scientific evidence for the existence of qi, nor any demonstrating the effectiveness of acupressure or traditional Chinese medicine beyond that of placebo treatment. Further training entails learning tuishou (push hands drills) , sanshou (striking techniques), free sparring, grappling training, and weapons training. The fundamental training concepts of the art are detailed in

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2442-494: Is one of developing naturalness by relaxing, attending inward, and slowing mind, body, and breath. This allows the practitioner to become less tense, to drop conditioned habits, to let go of thoughts, to allow qi to flow smoothly, and thus to flow with the Tao . It is thus a kind of moving meditation that allows us to let go of the self and experience no-mind ( wuxin ) and spontaneity ( ziran ). A key aspect of tai chi philosophy

2553-679: Is primarily Cantonese and Taishanese -speaking, both dialects originating in southern China. Most Chinatown residents have origins in Guangdong Province and Hong Kong ; albeit there are some Mandarin -speaking residents from Taiwan and central and Northern China, but lesser in comparison to Cantonese-speaking people, despite Cantonese being a minority language amongst people in China and ethnically Chinese people in Asia. There are two hospitals, several parks and squares, numerous churches,

2664-432: Is sometimes referred to as " shadowboxing ". The etymology of tai chi's Chinese name is somewhat uncertain because of the lack of a record of spoken usage. Before the mid-nineteenth century, it appears that outsiders generically described the art as zhanquan ( 沾拳 , "touch boxing"), "Long Boxing"( 長拳 ), mianquan ("Soft/Cotton/Neutralizing Boxing"; 軟/棉/化拳 ) or shisan shi ( 十三式 , "the thirteen techniques"). In

2775-481: Is to work with the flow of yin (softness) and yang (hardness) elements. When two forces push each other with equal force, neither side moves. Motion cannot occur until one side yields. Therefore, a key principle in tai chi is to avoid using force directly against force (hardness against hardness). Laozi provided the archetype for this in the Tao Te Ching when he wrote, "The soft and the pliable will defeat

2886-598: The California Gold Rush , and purportedly the first Chinese prostitute in San Francisco. Arriving from Hong Kong in 1848, she became the best-known Asian woman in the American frontier . When Ah Toy left China for the United States , she originally traveled with her husband, who died during the voyage. Toy became the mistress of the ship's captain, who showered gold upon her, so much so that by

2997-525: The Committee of Fifty and, within a week of the end of the Great Fire, on Saturday, April 27, 1906, formed an additional Subcommittee on Relocating the Chinese, because he felt the land was too valuable for Chinese. Opposition arose, however, from politicians who feared that the removal of the Chinese would affect San Francisco's lucrative trade with Asian countries. Moreover, the government of China

3108-580: The San Francisco Bay Area , especially in Silicon Valley , such as Cupertino , Fremont , and Milpitas , where many Mandarin-speaking Taiwanese Americans settled. Despite these developments, many continue to commute in from these outer neighborhoods and cities to shop in Chinatown, causing gridlock on roads and delays in public transit, especially on weekends. To address this problem, the local public transit agency, Muni extended

3219-487: The San Francisco Planning Department , Chinatown is "the most densely populated urban area west of Manhattan ", with 15,000 residents living in 20 square blocks . In the 1970s, the population density in Chinatown was seven times the San Francisco average. During the time from 2009 to 2013, the median household income was $ 20,000 – compared to $ 76,000 citywide – with 29% of residents below

3330-634: The Song Dynasty (960–1279), and there is no mention in the Ming (1368–1644) histories or hagiographies of Zhang Sanfeng of any connection between the immortal and the martial arts." Another common theory for the origin of tai chi is that it was created by Chen Wangting (1580–1660) while living in Chen Village (陳家溝), Henan. The other four contemporary traditional tai chi styles (Yang, Sun, Wu and Wu/Hao) trace their teachings back to Chen village in

3441-713: The Tin How Temple (Queen of Heaven and Goddess of the Seven Seas) on Waverly Place is the oldest Chinese temple in the United States. It is dedicated to the goddess Tin How or Mazu , the Divine Protector of seafarers, much honored by Chinese immigrants, especially arriving by ship, to San Francisco. The original building was destroyed in the 1906 earthquake, and it opened on the top floor of a four-story building at 125 Waverly Place in 1910. After closing in 1955,

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3552-508: The UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage Lists in 2020 for China. The five major styles of tai chi are named for the Chinese families who originated them: The most popular is Yang, followed by Wu, Chen, Sun, and Wu/Hao. The styles share underlying theory, but their training differs. Dozens of new styles, hybrid styles, and offshoots followed, although the family schools are accepted as standard by

3663-441: The national poverty threshold . The median age was 50 years, the oldest of any neighborhood. As of 2015, two thirds of the residents lived in one of Chinatown's 105 single room occupancy hotels (SRO), 96 of which had private owners and nine were owned by nonprofits. There are two public housing projects in Chinatown, Ping Yuen and North Ping Yuen. Most residents are monolingual speakers of mutually unintelligible dialects of

3774-454: The "Chen-style national competition form" is the "56 Forms". The combined forms are "The 42-Form" or simply the "Competition Form". In the 11th Asian Games of 1990, wushu was included as an item for competition for the first time with the 42-Form representing tai chi. The International Wushu Federation (IWUF) applied for wushu to be part of the Olympic games . Tai chi was added to

3885-743: The 15th regular session of the UNESCO Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage included tai chi in the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. Traditionally, the foundational tai chi practice consists of learning and practicing a specific solo forms or routines ( taolu ) . This entails learning a routine sequence of movements that emphasize

3996-678: The 1850s to the 1900s. On August 28, 1850, at Portsmouth Square, San Francisco's first mayor , John Geary , officially welcomed 300 "China Boys" to San Francisco. By 1854, the Alta California , a local newspaper which had previously taken a supportive stance on Chinese immigrants in San Francisco, began attacking them, writing after a recent influx that "if the city continues to fill up with these people, it will be ere long become necessary to make them subject of special legislation". These early immigrants settled near Portsmouth Square and around Dupont Street (now called Grant Ave). As

4107-458: The 1850s, San Francisco "was all but submerged in Caucasian forms of gambling and prostitution and lewdness" . During the late period of the California Gold Rush , a few Chinese female prostitutes began their sexual businesses in Chinatown. In addition, the major prostitution enterprises had been raised by criminal gang group "Tong", importing unmarried Chinese women to San Francisco. During

4218-574: The 1850s. The original building was destroyed by the earthquake, and the present church building on 925 Stockton Street was built in 1907. Other Christian denominations followed, including the Methodist Church on Washington Street (founded 1870, rebuilt 1911) and the First Baptist Church (founded 1880, rebuilt 1908 on Waverly Place) as well as Catholic, Congregational, and Episcopal. The pattern these early missions followed

4329-450: The 1870s and further established in the 1880s and 1890s, Chinatown's exotic, infamous reputation began to attract tourists. Tour providers emphasized the vice-ridden elements of the area, strongly encouraging any curious visitors to take a professional guide or police escort with them to venture into Chinatown. These early tours often included staged reenactments of the "depravity of the locals" who were paid by tour operators to participate in

4440-416: The 1870s to 1880s, the population of Chinese sex workers in Chinatown grew rapidly to more than 1,800, accounting for 70% of the total Chinese female population. In the mid-19th century, police harassment reshaped the urban geography and the social life of Chinese prostitutes. Consequently, hundreds of Chinese prostitutes were expelled to side streets and alleys hidden from public traffic. From 1870 to 1874,

4551-441: The 1880s and 1890s, twenty to thirty tongs ran highly profitable gambling houses, brothels, opium dens, and slave trade enterprises in Chinatown. Overcrowding, segregation, graft, and the lack of governmental control contributed to conditions that sustained the criminal tongs until the early 1920s. Chinatown's isolation and compact geography intensified the criminal behavior that terrorized the community for decades despite efforts by

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4662-587: The 1880s, Chinatown became a haven for later waves of emigrants from China in the 20th century. Working-class Hongkonger emigrants began arriving in large numbers in the late 1960s. Despite their status and professional qualifications in Hong Kong, many took low-paying employment in restaurants and garment factories in Chinatown because of limited English. An increase in Cantonese -speaking emigrants from Hong Kong and Mainland China has gradually led to

4773-627: The California legislature formally criminalized the immigrant Asian women who were transported into California. In 1875, the U.S. Congress followed California's action and passed the Page Law , which was the first major legal restriction to prohibit the immigration of Chinese, Japanese, and Mongolian women into America. In 1882, the Chinese Exclusion Act declared that no more skilled or unskilled immigrants would be allowed to enter

4884-569: The Chinese emigrated from, was subdivided into many distinct districts and some with distinct dialects. Several district associations, open to anyone emigrating from that district(s), were formed in the 1850s to act as a culture-shock absorber for newly arrived immigrants and to settle disputes among their members. Although there are some disagreements about which association formed first, by 1854, six such district associations were formed, of various size and influence, and disputes between members of different associations became more frequent. Thus, in 1862,

4995-579: The Chinese language: historically Hoisanese , now Cantonese and some Mandarin . In 2015, only 14% of households in the SROs were headed by a person that spoke English fluently. The areas of Stockton and Washington Streets and Jackson and Kearny Streets in Chinatown are almost entirely Chinese or Asian, with blocks ranging from 93% to 100% Asian. According to a study by the San Francisco Planning Department in 2018, 81% of

5106-462: The City granted 43 building permits to Chinese businesses. By the time of the first post-quake Chinese New Year in 1907, several dozen buildings were completed, using old bricks unburnt by the fire, and Chinatown was filled with happy people. The reconstruction of Chinatown was completed more or less in 1908, a year ahead of the rest of the city. While the city's proposals to relocate Chinatown failed,

5217-542: The Grand Historian , and Zhuangzi , as well as from famous Chinese thinkers like Zhu Xi , Zhou Dunyi , and Mencius . Early tai chi sources are grounded in Taiji cosmology. Taiji cosmology appears in both Taoist and Confucian philosophy , where it represents the single source or mother of yin and yang (represented by the taijitu symbol [REDACTED] ). Tai chi also draws on Chinese theories of

5328-528: The Great Fire, which ended on April 21, 1906, the City seized the chance to remove the Chinese from the old downtown business district. Certain city officials and real-estate developers made more formal plans to move Chinatown to the Hunters Point neighborhood at the southern edge of the city, or even further south to Daly City . Abe Ruef , the political boss widely considered to be the power behind Mayor Eugene Schmitz , invited himself to become part of

5439-474: The Sing Chong and Sing Fat bazaars on the west corners of Grant Ave (then Dupont St) and California St, which have become icons of San Francisco Chinatown. This design strategy leveraged the ethnic identity and exoticness that city planners used to justify the relocation of Chinatown to become the same forces that made the area an attractive tourist location. In constructing "Oriental" style architecture,

5550-585: The Six Companies and police/city officials to stem the tide. The San Francisco Police Department established its so-called Chinatown Squad in the 1880s, consisting of six patrolmen led by a sergeant. However, the Squad was ineffective largely by design. An investigation published in 1901 by the California state legislature found that Mayor James D. Phelan and Police Chief William P. Sullivan Jr. had knowingly tolerated gambling and prostitution in Chinatown in

5661-482: The United States and Qing China were normalized through the Burlingame Treaty of 1868. Among other terms, the treaty promised the right of free immigration and travel within the United States for Chinese. Business leaders saw China as a plentiful source of cheap labor, and celebrated the treaty's ratification. But this did not last for long. The mostly male Chinese immigrants came to the United States with

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5772-682: The United States at the New York City Museum of Modern Art in 1954. She wrote the first English language book on tai chi, T'ai-chi Ch'üan: Body and Mind in Harmony , in 1961. She taught regular classes at Carnegie Hall , the Actors Studio , and the United Nations . Cheng Man-ch'ing opened his school Shr Jung tai chi after he moved to New York from Taiwan in 1964. Unlike the older generation of practitioners, Cheng

5883-834: The United States) while living in Hong Kong in the late 1950s. More traditional practitioners hold that the two aspects of health and martial arts make up the art's yin and yang . The "family" schools present their teachings in a martial art context, whatever the intention of their students. Tai chi's health training concentrates on relieving stress on the body and mind. In the 21st century, tai chi classes that purely emphasize health are popular in hospitals, clinics, community centers and senior centers. Tai chi's low-stress training method for seniors has become better known. Clinical studies exploring tai chi's effect on specific diseases and health conditions exist, though there are insufficient studies with consistent approaches to generate

5994-447: The Wu (Hao) founders had no financial need to promote their art, their contributions to the "tai chi classics" were not distributed widely for many years. The first public association between taiji and the art was a poem by Imperial Court scholar Weng Tonghe describing a tai chi performance by Yang Luchan . It is not clear whether Weng was making a new connection or whether the new name

6105-543: The ability to rebuild in their old Chinatown quarters was the first significant victory for the Chinese community in Chinatown. Even when the Subcommittee was bringing its relocation attempt to an end, the Chinese were already rebuilding, albeit with temporary wooden buildings which did not require permits. By June 10, 1906, twelve Chinese businesses were opened in Chinatown, including a couple of cafes. The actual reconstruction did not begin until October 1, 1906, when

6216-477: The air they breathe) scarcely one degree above those under which the rats of our water-front and other vermin live, breathe and have their being. And this order of things seems inseparable from the very nature of the race, and probably must be accepted and borne with—must be endured, if it cannot be cured—restricted and looked after, so far as possible, with unceasing vigilance, so that, whatever of benefit, "of degree," even, that may be derived from such modification of

6327-403: The area gratified Western fascination with and perception of a stereotyped Chinese identity. Opportunistic individuals from within the Chinese community and from outside the Chinese community made entrepreneurial gains from this "ethnic tourism" as it emerged in the early 1900s and boosted local business. In November 1907, an article extolling the virtues of the "new Chinatown of San Francisco"

6438-479: The body, particularly Taoist neidan (internal alchemy) teachings on qi (vital energy) and on the three dantian . Cheng Man-ch'ing emphasizes the Taoist background of tai chi and states that it "enables us to reach the stage of undifferentiated pure yang, which is exactly the same as Laozi 's 'concentrating the qi and developing softness'". As such, tai chi considers itself an "internal" ( neijia ) martial art focused on developing qi . In China, tai chi

6549-636: The building of the first transcontinental railroad , and settling in Chinatown for refuge from the hostilities in the West. The main dialect spoken in Chinatown then was Hoisan-wa (aka Hoisanese; Toisanese in Cantonese and Taishanese in Mandarin), native to the emigrants from Hoisan (aka Toisan in Cantonese and Taishan in Mandarin), Sze Yup , in the Pearl River Delta. Surviving the ravages of

6660-479: The city's subway network to the neighborhood via the new Central Subway . Unlike in most Chinatowns in the United States , ethnic Chinese refugees from Vietnam have not established businesses in San Francisco's Chinatown district, due to high property values and rents. Instead, many Chinese-Vietnamese – as opposed to ethnic Vietnamese who tended to congregate in larger numbers in San Jose – have established

6771-522: The conditions researched, including Parkinson's disease , diabetes , cancer and arthritis . A 2015 systematic review found that tai chi could be performed by those with chronic medical conditions such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease , heart failure , and osteoarthritis without negative effects, and found favorable effects on functional exercise capacity. In 2015 the Australian Government's Department of Health published

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6882-776: The country, which meant that many Chinese and Chinese Americans could not have families in America, because their wives and children were prohibited to immigrate. Simultaneously, the public discourse began to accuse Chinese prostitutes of transmitting venereal diseases. Dr. Hugh Huger Toland , a member of the San Francisco Board of Health, reported that white boys and men contracted diseases when they visited "Chinese houses of prostitution" in Chinatown, in order to warn white citizens to stay away; Toland asserted that nine-tenths of his patients had patronized Chinese prostitutes. "When these persons come to me I ask them where they got

6993-461: The directive of rebuilding Chinatown into an attractive district along orientalized and stereotyped conceptions still gained traction. A group of Chinese merchants, including Mendocino -born Look Tin Eli , hired American architects to design in a Chinese-motif " Oriental " style in order to promote tourism in the rebuilt Chinatown. The results of this design strategy were the pagoda-topped buildings of

7104-556: The disease, and they generally tell me that they have been with Chinawomen."     All great cities have their slums and localities where filth, disease, crime and misery abound; but in the very best aspect which "Chinatown" can be made to present, it must stand apart, conspicuous and beyond them all in the extreme degree of all these horrible attributes, the rankest outgrowth of human degradation that can be found upon this continent. Here it may truly be said that human beings exist under conditions (as regards their mode of life and

7215-416: The earliest reference indicating a connection between Zhang Sanfeng and martial arts is actually a 17th-century piece called Epitaph for Wang Zhengnan (1669), composed by Huang Zongxi (1610–1695). Aside from this single source, the other claims of connections between tai chi and Zhang Sanfeng appeared no earlier than the 19th century. According to Douglas Wile, "there is no record of a Zhang Sanfeng in

7326-434: The earliest sources for the practice of tai chi. Some traditionalists claim that tai chi is a purely Chinese art that comes from ancient Taoism and Confucianism . These schools believe that tai chi theory and practice were formulated by Taoist monk Zhang Sanfeng in the 12th century. These stories are often filled with legendary and hagiographical content and lack historical support. Modern historians point out that

7437-658: The early 1800s. Yang Luchan (1799–1872), the founder of the popular Yang style , trained with the Chen family for 18 years before he started to teach in Beijing , which strongly suggests that his work was heavily influenced by the Chen family art . Martial arts historian Xu Zhen claimed that the tai chi of Chen Village was influenced by the Taizu changquan style practiced at nearby Shaolin Monastery , while Tang Hao thought it

7548-461: The early 20th century promoted the art for its health benefits. Tai chi was included in the UNESCO List of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2020. The name "tai chi", the most common English spelling, is not a standard romanization of the Chinese name for the art (simplified Chinese: 太极拳 ; traditional Chinese: 太極拳 ; lit. ' Taiji boxing'). The Chinese name

7659-440: The east, Broadway in the north, Powell in the west, and Bush Street in the south. Owing to a combination of multifactorial issues, some more generally tied to socioeconomic difficulties afflicting downtown San Francisco itself, while other factors are more specific to this neighborhood, San Francisco's Chinatown faces a struggle for survival and is shrinking. Within Chinatown there are two major north–south thoroughfares . One

7770-747: The eastern United States until other teachers immigrated in larger numbers in the 1990s. He taught until his death in 1975. Moy Lin-shin arrived in Toronto, Canada , from China in 1970, where he started teaching tai chi and related internal arts. Norwegian Pytt Geddes was the first European to teach tai chi in Britain, holding classes at The Place in London in the early 1960s. She had first encountered tai chi in Shanghai in 1948, and studied with Choy Hok Pang and his son Choy Kam Man (who both also taught in

7881-559: The elegant new "parlour house" of madame Belle Cora, and the cottage of Fanny Perrier, mistress of Judge Edward (Ned) McGowan. In 1857, Ah Toy returned to China a wealthy woman to live the rest of her days in comfort, but came back to California in 1859. From 1868 until her death in 1928, she lived a largely quiet life in Santa Clara County , returning to public attention only upon dying at age 98 in San Jose , three months short of her ninety ninth birthday. Relations between

7992-620: The evil of their presence among us, may at least be attained, not daring to hope that there can be any radical remedy for the great, overshadowing evil which Chinese immigration has inflicted upon this people. The Report of the Special Committee of the Board of Supervisors of San Francisco, on the Condition of the Chinese Quarter of that City (1885) By the end of the 19th century, Chinatown's assumed reputation as

8103-535: The few open spaces in Chinatown and sits above a large underground parking lot, Portsmouth Square is used by people such as tai chi practitioners and old men playing Chinese chess . A replica of the Goddess of Democracy used in the Tiananmen Square protest was built in 1999 by Thomas Marsh and stands in the square. It is made of bronze and weighs approximately 600 lb (270 kg). According to

8214-448: The hard and strong." Conversely, when in possession of leverage, one may want to use hardness to force the opponent to become soft. Traditionally, tai chi uses both soft and hard. Yin is said to be the mother of Yang, using soft power to create hard power. Traditional schools also emphasize that one is expected to show wude ("martial virtue/heroism"), to protect the defenseless, and to show mercy to one's opponents. In December 2020,

8325-621: The immigration of unskilled laborers. Anti-immigrant sentiment became federal law once the United States Government passed the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882: the first immigration restriction law aimed at a single ethnic group. This law, along with other immigration restriction laws such as the Geary Act , greatly reduced the numbers of Chinese allowed into the country and the city, and in theory limited Chinese immigration to single males only. Exceptions were in fact granted to

8436-710: The intent of sending money home to support their families; coupled with the high cost of repaying their loans for travel, they often had to take any work that was available. Fears began to arise among non-Chinese workers that they could be replaced, and resentment towards Chinese immigrants rose. With extensive nationwide unemployment in the wake of the Panic of 1873 , racial tensions in the city boiled over into full blown race riots. The two-day San Francisco riot of 1877 raged through Chinatown in July; four were killed and US$ 100,000 (equivalent to $ 2,860,000 in 2023) in property damage

8547-504: The interest of bolstering municipal revenue, calling the police department "so apathetic in putting down the horrible system of slavery existing in Chinatown as to justify your committee in believing it criminally negligent." Phelan and Sullivan testified it would take between 180 and 400 policemen to enforce the laws against gambling and prostitution, which was contradicted by the ex-Chief of Police William J. Biggy , who said 30 "earnestly directed" policemen would suffice. Chinatown, as it

8658-527: The international community. Other important styles are Zhaobao tai chi , a close cousin of Chen style, which is recognized by Western practitioners; Fu style, created by Fu Zhensong , which evolved from Chen, Sun and Yang styles, and incorporates movements from baguazhang ; and Cheng Man-ch'ing style, which simplifies Yang style. Around the world in the 20th and 21st centuries, some Chinese emigrants who had learned tai chi in China continued to practice it together in their new communities. Choy Hok Pang ,

8769-517: The largest Chinese enclaves outside Asia . It is also the oldest and largest of the four notable Chinese enclaves within San Francisco . Since its establishment in the early 1850s, it has been important and influential in the history and culture of ethnic Chinese immigrants in North America. Chinatown is an enclave that has retained its own customs, languages , places of worship , social clubs , and identity. The Chinatown district

8880-417: The mid-nineteenth century, the art began to be associated with the philosophy of taiji (see Conceptual background ). This association may have originated in the writings of the founders of Wu (Hao)-style tai chi , perhaps inspired by a tai chi classic attributed to the semi-mythical Wang Zongyue that begins with the words " Taiji is born from Wuji ; it is the mother of Yin and Yang ". However, as

8991-521: The neighborhood to an all-time low in the 1920s. Many early Chinese immigrants to San Francisco and beyond were processed at Angel Island , in the San Francisco Bay , which is now a state park. Unlike Ellis Island on the east coast where prospective European immigrants might be held for up to a week, Angel Island typically detained Chinese immigrants for months while they were interrogated closely to validate their papers. The detention facility

9102-407: The original Chen, Yang, Wu, and Sun styles. Other competitive forms were designed to be completed within a six-minute time limit. In the late 1980s, CSC standardized more competition forms for the four major styles as well as combined forms. These five sets of forms were created by different teams, and later approved by a committee of wushu coaches in China. These forms were named after their style:

9213-444: The pool of cheap labor with them. On July 8, 1906, after 25 committee meetings and considering various alternative sites in the city, the subcommittee submitted a final report stating their inability to drive the Chinese from their old Chinatown quarters. Ironically, plans to relocate Chinatown failed in the end because restrictive housing covenants in other areas of the city prohibited Chinese from settling elsewhere. In any event,

9324-608: The quake. Tai chi Many forms of tai chi are practiced, both traditional and modern. While the precise origins are not known, the earliest documented practice is from Chen Village and Zhabao Village in Henan , which are located a few hundred miles from the Shaolin Monastery on Song Mountain. Most modern styles trace their development to the five traditional schools: Chen , Yang , Wu (Hao) , Wu , and Sun . Practitioners such as Yang Chengfu and Sun Lutang in

9435-456: The reenactments. Such reenactments exacerbated the perceptions of Chinatown as a problematic, vice-ridden location among San Francisco visitors and San Franciscans. The emphasis on the danger and depravity of the community ignored deeper issues of poverty, racial discrimination, and problems of overcrowding with overtaxed infrastructure. Ah Toy (18 May 1829 – 1 February 1928) was a Cantonese prostitute and madam in San Francisco during

9546-501: The remainder elsewhere. The area was the one geographical region deeded by the city government and private property owners which allowed Chinese persons to inherit and inhabit dwellings within the city. The majority of these Chinese shopkeepers, restaurant owners, and hired workers in San Francisco Chinatown were predominantly Hoisanese and male. For example, in 1851, the reported Chinese population in California

9657-421: The removal of which many a scheme has been devised, is but a memory." Oakland Tribune, April 1906. Plans to relocate Chinatown predated the earthquake several years. At the 1901 Chinese Exclusion Convention held in San Francisco, A. Sbarboro called Chinatown "synonymous with disease, dirt and unlawful deeds" that "give[s] us nothing but evil habits and noxious stenches". With Chinatown completely demolished by

9768-625: The replacement in Chinatown of the Hoisanese dialect by the standard Cantonese dialect. Due to such overcrowding and poverty, other Chinese areas have been established within the city of San Francisco proper, including one in its Richmond and three more in its Sunset districts, as well as a recently established one in the Visitacion Valley neighborhood. These outer neighborhoods have been settled largely by Chinese from Southeast Asia. There are also many suburban Chinese communities in

9879-543: The residents in the neighborhood were Asian. Many of the Chinese immigrants who managed to accumulate wealth while living in Chinatown move to the Richmond District , the Sunset District , or the suburbs. In the 1850s, Chinese pioneers, mainly from villages in the Pearl River Delta in Guangdong , began immigrating in large numbers to San Francisco, initially drawn by the California Gold Rush and

9990-449: The results of a review of alternative therapies that sought to identify any that were suitable for coverage by health insurance . Tai chi was one of 17 therapies evaluated. The study concluded that low-quality evidence suggests that tai chi may have some beneficial health effects when compared to control in a limited number of populations for a limited number of outcomes. A 2020 review of 13 studies found that tai chi had positive effect on

10101-475: The settlement grew in the early 1850s, Chinese shops opened on Sacramento St, which the Guangdong pioneers called " Tang people street" ( 唐人街 ); and the settlement became known as " Tang people town" ( 唐人埠 ), which in Cantonese is Tong Yun Fow . By the 1870s, the economic center of Chinatown moved from Sacramento St to Dupont St; e.g., in 1878, out of 423 Chinese firms in Chinatown, 121 were located on Dupont St, 60 on Sacramento St, 60 on Jackson St, and

10212-702: The site of the Chinese consulate was the property of Imperial China, it could not be reassigned by the city. On May 10, 1906, the subcommittee met with representatives from the Chinese community, the Chinese Six Companies , who said that they would either rebuild in their old Chinatown quarters or move across the bay to Oakland, where most of the Chinatown refugees had fled. Other community leaders pointed out that displaced residents may not stop to resettle in Hunters Point, moving further to other West Coast cities like Seattle or Los Angeles, taking

10323-641: The six district associations (commonly called the Chinese Six Companies, even though the number of member associations varied through the years) banded together to resolve inter-district disputes. This was made formal in 1882 and incorporated in 1901 as the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association (on Stockton Street) to look after the general interest of the Chinese people living in a hostile western world. Founded purportedly in roughly 1852 or 1853,

10434-681: The solo routine is said to retrain posture, encourage circulation throughout students' bodies, maintain flexibility, and familiarize students with the martial sequences implied by the forms. Usually performed standing, solo forms have also been adapted for seated practice. Tai chi practices involving weapons also exist. Weapons training and fencing applications often employ: More exotic weapons include: Tai chi's formative influences came from practices undertaken in Taoist and Buddhist monasteries, such as Wudang , Shaolin , and The Thousand Year Temple in Henan . The early development of tai chi proper

10545-555: The temple reopened in 1975, due to a resurgence of interest from a new immigrant population following the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 . Another Mazu temple, known as Ma-Tsu Temple was established in 1986 by Taiwanese American community and affiliated to Chaotian Temple in Taiwan. The Chinese Presbyterian Church on Stockton Street can trace its roots to October 1852, when Cantonese-speaking Rev. William Speer ,

10656-489: The three most popular: Yang , Wu , and Chen ) have secondary, faster-paced forms. Some traditional schools teach martial applications of the postures of different forms ( taolu ). Taolu (solo "forms") are choreographed sets of movements practiced alone or in unison as a group. Tai chi is often characterized by slow movements in Taolu practice, and one of the reasons is to develop body awareness. Accurate, repeated practice of

10767-609: The time she arrived in San Francisco in the 1840s, Toy had a fair bit of money. Noticing the looks she drew from the men in her new town, she figured they would pay for a closer look. Her peep shows became quite successful, and she eventually became a high-priced prostitute. In 1850, Toy opened a chain of brothels at 34 and 36 Waverly Place (then called Pike Street), importing girls from China in their teens, 20s and 30s, as well as some as young as eleven years old, to work in them. Her neighbors on Pike Street—conveniently linked to San Francisco's business district by Commercial Street—included

10878-410: The titles of some of the tai chi classics. It then appeared in a book by a Chen family member, Chen Xin, published after he died in 1929. Chinese philosophy , particularly Taoist and Confucian thought , forms the conceptual background to tai chi. Early tai chi texts include embedded quotations from early Chinese classics like the I Ching , Great Learning , Book of Documents , Records of

10989-475: The wives and minor children of wealthy merchants; immigrants would purchase or partner in businesses to declare themselves merchants in order to bring their families to America. Alternatively, prospective immigrants could become " paper sons " by purchasing the identity of Americans whose citizenship had been established by birthright. However, the Exclusion Act was credited with reducing the population of

11100-578: Was about 12,000 men and fewer than ten women. Some of the early immigrants worked as mine workers or independent prospectors hoping to strike it rich during the 1849 Gold Rush . Many Chinese found jobs working for large companies seeking a source of labor, most famously as part of the Central Pacific on the Transcontinental Railroad , from 1865 to 1869. The west side of the Pearl River Delta of Guangdong, where most of

11211-499: Was already in use. Written evidence for the Yang family's adoption of the name taiji first appeared in a later text, possibly completed in 1875 by Yang Luchan's son, Yang Banhou , or no later than the first decade of the twentieth century by one or more of Yang Banhou's disciples. By the second decade of the twentieth century, Yang Chengfu 's disciples and Sun Lutang were using the term taijiquan in their publications, including in

11322-633: Was also opposed, and soon after the earthquake, Tsi Chi Chow, the first secretary of the Chinese legation in Washington, DC, arrived in San Francisco, conveying to California governor George Pardee the opposition of China's Empress Dowager Cixi to the plan. The representatives, "acting unofficially", stated "the only way to remove the Chinese from the old Chinatown would be to give them a place elsewhere that would be acceptable for their purpose, when they might be willing to move." The San Francisco Call reported it as "a vigorous protest" and noted that as

11433-466: Was cultured and educated in American ways, and thus was able to transcribe Yang's dictation into a written manuscript that became the de facto manual for Yang style. Cheng felt Yang's traditional 108-movement form was unnecessarily long and repetitive, which makes it difficult to learn. He thus created a shortened 37-movement version that he taught in his schools. Cheng's form became the dominant form in

11544-554: Was derived from a treatise by Ming dynasty general Qi Jiguang , Jixiao Xinshu ("New Treatise on Military Efficiency"), which discussed several martial arts styles including Taizu changquan . In 1956, the Chinese government sponsored the Chinese Sports Committee (CSC), which brought together four wushu teachers to truncate the Yang family hand form to 24 postures . This was an attempt to standardize tai chi for wushu tournaments as they wanted to create

11655-409: Was done to Chinese-owned businesses. In response to the violence, the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association , also known as the Chinese Six Companies , which evolved out of the labor recruiting organizations for different areas of Guangdong, was created to provide the community with a unified voice. The heads of these companies advocated for the Chinese community to the wider business community as

11766-540: Was first commonly written in English using the Wade–Giles system as " tʻai chi chʻüan ". But English speakers abbreviated it to " tʻai chi " and dropped the mark of aspiration. Since the late twentieth century, pinyin has been officially adopted in China and replaced Wade–Giles as the most popular system for romanizing Chinese. In pinyin, tai chi is spelled taijiquan ( tàijíquán ). In English, tai chi

11877-400: Was lifted but the burning and fumigating continued. A federal court ruled that public health officials could not close off Chinatown without any proof that Chinese Americans were anymore susceptible to plague than Anglo Americans. The Chinatown neighborhood was completely destroyed in the 1906 earthquake and fire that leveled most of the city. "The fire had full sway, and Chinatown, for

11988-506: Was quarantined, with policemen preventing "Asiatics" (people of Asian heritage) from either entering or leaving. The San Francisco Board of Health began looking for more cases of plague and began burning personal property and sanitizing buildings, streets and sewers within Chinatown. Chinese Americans protested and the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association threatened lawsuits. The quarantine

12099-436: Was renovated in 2005 and 2006 under a federal grant. As in much of San Francisco, a period of criminality existed during the late 19th century; many tongs arose, trafficking in smuggling, gambling, and prostitution. From the mid-1870s, turf battles sprang up over competing criminal enterprises. By the early 1880s, the term tong war was being popularly used to describe these periods of violence in Chinatown. At their height in

12210-440: Was to first conduct English language classes and Sunday schools. In these decades, the only English classes available to Chinese immigrants were those offered by these Christian missions. Some added rescue homes (e.g., from prostitution), and social services for the sick and protection from racial discrimination. With such tactics, the early Christian missions and churches in Chinatown gained widespread respect and new converts. In

12321-409: Was written, praising the new "substantial, modern, fireproof buildings of brick and stone ... following the Oriental style of architecture" and declaring "[n]o more picturesque squalor, no more gambling dens, opium joints or public haunts of vice" would be tolerated, at the command of the Chinese Six Companies. By then, 5,000 residents had returned, of the estimated 30,000 that lived in Chinatown prior to

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