by Wenting Yang, Instructor, Confucius Institute

The Confucius Institute at Miami University held its 7th Chinese Martial Art Duanwei Test on April 30th, 2020 via WebEx application. Students who were a part of the Tai Chi courses at Miami University gathered and participated in this activity.

Confucius Institute at Miami University director Chen Zhao said, "We had hosted Chinese Martial Art Duanwei Test for six consecutive semesters previously. But this session is very different. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the 7th Chinese Martial Art Duanwei Test is held on WebEx to maintain the social distance for protecting the health of all participating students, faculty, and staff."

Three martial art professionals were invited as judges:

• Mr. Wenxiang Bai, from Washington DC, was a coach in the Chinese National Martial Art Team and the head coach of the Malaysia National Martial Art Team.
• Mr. Sen Gao from the Martial Art School at Columbus, is a world martial art champion.
• Mr. Max Xing, martial art instructor at CIMU, taught Tai Chi to the students, who won the Championship in the 2018 Chinese College Martial Art Competition.

Dr. Helaine Alessio, chair of the Kinesiology and Health Department, also attended.

Judges and CIMU staff

Through videos, students demonstrated the skills that they learned this semester. The judges observed the Tai Chi movements of each student and provided a score for each of them.

Judges scoring students while watching the videos

The students’ hard work throughout the semester paid off as they all passed the test and earned official Chinese Duanwei level one certificates and pins. Over 30 students participated in this online test.

"This is a new experience for all of us. We cannot see each other face to face, but we all have tried our best to make this virtual Duanwei test happen by using technology. We hope this special virtual learning activity brought in fresh experience and fun to our classes at this challenging time,” said Chen Zhao.

A student takes the Chinese Martial Art Duanwei Test as others look on

Judges observe a student's performance

All students salute the judges at the end of the Duanwei test

Congratulations to all students for passing the Duanwei level one test. This is an excellent opportunity for them to show their achievements in practicing Tai Chi and also a good way of learning a different culture. We wish for all students to stay safe and be healthy in this challenging time!