C O V E R S T O R Y
YOGItimes magazine for the modern yogi
My Journey as a Yoga Teacher in China
By Yoga Acharya V.V.R. Ganesh
photography by Parbathy Nayar
Despite such limitations, I was pleased to be invited to teach yoga in China, and vowed that I would do my best to expose Chinese students to yoga’s benefits. I will forever be grateful for what has been an amazing experience teaching Chinese students who are now very dear to my heart.
Although I had seen documentaries about China on television, no amount of TV can really prepare one for the direct experience of living in a foreign country. I mistakenly thought that China would be more rural, but arriving in Canton, I encountered modern conveniences at every turn. Canton – or Guangzhou in Chinese, meaning ‘wide land’ – is one of the largest cities in China, and would serve as my home for the next three years. I had been invited to China by Yoga Master Tan Laoshi, who is Director of the Guangzhou Yoga Association, and a great yogi. At 90 years old he is the oldest living yoga teacher in China, having learned yoga when he was 16 years old from a visiting Indian yogi. "Laoshi," a title of respect, means "Master Teacher" and meeting Master Tan was a great privilege for me because in India we are taught to respect the wisdom of elders. The Chinese share this value, and as I would soon discover, there are a great many common values between the Chinese and Indian cultures.
Master Tan is a true yogi – you can see this in his eyes, and he greatly reminded me of many gurus I have visited with in India. He talked with me for hours about yoga, his life in China, and his memories of eating Indian food with the Indian yogi who had taught him yoga as a teenager. There was a beautiful spark about Master Tan, and a love of life that was befitting of a yogi. I shared stories with him about swamis, spiritual teachers and yoga in India, and Master Tan told me that he has always yearned to visit India. I invited him to come to stay with my family, but because of his age I do not know if that will happen. I enjoyed these meetings with Master Tan very much, and as I settled into my life in Guangzhou I saw Master Tan often, since he came to observe me teach and to enjoy the students being exposed to yoga.
I was given an apartment on a beautiful island outside of Guangzhou called Ershadao – or ‘Two Sands Island.’ My yoga classes were originally scheduled for only a few times a week, but as word quickly spread, I soon found myself teaching every day. Many of the students had already practiced some yoga, for there are yoga schools – usually called ‘yoga clubs’ – now emerging in China, especially in larger cities like Shanghai and Beijing. Some students had studied under Master Tan, who had been teaching well into his 80s. However, it is interesting to note that most of the students knew only about the physical benefits of yoga, despite Master Tan’s attempts to convey yoga in its entirety. For in China, yoga is mainly considered as a set of cosmetic exercises that will increase your beauty! Although certainly true to some extent, I found this to be amusing, since the benefits of yoga are so much more vast.
My youngest student was 13, and my oldest was 70. At first the classes were small, but soon I was averaging 25 to 30 students every class. What I found particularly challenging was the language barrier, since many of the students only spoke Chinese. I taught my classes in English with the assistance of a translator, Ms. Cui Xian Hua. Ciu was actually a hotel executive who became a dedicated yogi, inspired by the yoga classes. My early classes were humorous to watch because as I gave the instructions in English, Ciu translated, and often the translation was not perfect. I would then have to carefully observe the students to see how they had interpreted the instructions. Usually I had to rephrase things several times until the translation conveyed the asana or pranayama correctly. This language challenge also proved beneficial, though, as it meant I had to use more of a hands-on approach, physically adjusting everyone into the poses.
Some classes were held indoors, but most of the time we practiced yoga outside, as I do in India. This gave me the opportunity to teach yoga as it is meant to be taught – without the confines of a building, out in Nature, with fresh air and the natural prana around us to help our yoga flow. As word of my classes grew, I also began teaching private sessions to diplomats, local business people, doctors, and other professionals. Sun Yat San University, one of China’s best-known universities, invited me to lecture on “Yoga and Yoga Therapy” to graduate students and professors. Following the lectures, I demonstrated asanas and pranayama techniques; the audience was intrigued, as few people had ever seen yoga demonstrated. Yoga was also the featured topic when Radio Guangdong interviewed me for an hour-long radio show about "Yoga and Health."
As word of the yoga classes spread rapidly throughout China, I also traveled and taught in Beijing and Shanghai. With my friend, German professor Katrin Ellwardt of Zhongsha University – who is also a yoga teacher – I taught advanced yoga seminars on the resort island of Macau. Although the Chinese seem to insist on not advertising or actively promoting yoga, I believe it will now be impossible to keep yoga low-key, because the time for yoga is now, everywhere in the world, and China is no exception. Even the Great Wall of China cannot keep yoga out!
One challenge I encountered was trying to avoid any spiritual references when teaching yoga. For instance, I explained meditation in simple terms by saying that everything can be a form of meditation. I told students that when they washed their face in the morning, they should concentrate on the soap, the feel of the water and the touch of the skin. If all tasks are approached with such reverence and focus, then life becomes a beautiful study in awareness. These answers satisfied the students and in such a way I avoided any spiritual overtones. At the end of classes when everyone laid in savasana, I led them in a guided relaxation exercise for peace and well-being. The students enjoyed this part of class very much, telling me they had never before experienced such feelings of inner calmness.
Another interesting aspect of teaching in China were the many similarities between my own Indian culture and the Chinese culture. The Chinese were very friendly, open to learning and most hospitable to me, treating me as kindly as we treat guests in India. Chinese students also have great respect for tradition due to the fact that their culture is so ancient, like Indian culture, and they told me they felt privileged to learn yoga from an Indian teacher. Whereas we have Ayurveda, the Chinese have traditional Chinese herbal medicine. Where we have yoga, they have tai chi and chi gong. Where we practice Yoga outside in India, they also practice tai chi and chi gong out in Nature. In fact it is quite common to see groups of people doing such exercises in parks in China. However, one distinction is that tai chi and chi gong are mostly done by the elderly in China, whereas in India, yoga is practiced by young and old alike. Nevertheless, the Chinese move the prana through tai chi and chi gong and Indians move the prana through Yoga.
I have continued traveling to China for the past three years as a visiting yoga professor and teacher, staying for 3-8 months at a time and sharing yoga with hundreds of students who are just beginning to discover yoga’s many benefits. I feel very happy and proud that I can be a part of the yoga movement in China, and I am grateful for the experience. One of the highlights has been working with my interpreter, Ciu, who became so adept at yoga that she is now changing her career and becoming a certified yoga teacher. My hope is that we will continue exposing more and more people to yoga. As China embraces yoga, yoga will continue to embrace China. In the truest sense of the word “yoga,” I see a beautiful union occurring among people of different backgrounds and cultures. I am honored to be a part of this divine play.
patanjaliyoga@earthlink.net or patanjaliyoga.com