On the morning of Thursday 9 May, the mayor of Pisa Michele Conti and the councilor for culture Filippo Bedini received a delegation from the Tai Ji Men Qigong Academy at Palazzo Gambacorti, led by his eighty-year-old master Dr. Hong Tao-Tze, a celebrity in all the Chinese-speaking world, at the helm of Tai Ji Men, one of the largest ‘menpai’ in Taiwan, institutions that profoundly impact traditional Chinese culture. Dr. Hong, after Pisa, will continue to Turin, where he will receive the International Peace Prize at the International Book Fair, and to Rome, where he will speak in the Senate and meet the Holy Father.
During the meeting, which saw performances of culture, singing and martial arts by the Taiwanese delegation, Conti and Bedini, after listening to the words of master Hong Tao-Tze, had the honor of playing the ‘Bell of Peace and Love’, an ancient Chinese bell that Dr. Hong proposes to ring for political, religious and cultural authorities around the world, symbolically expressing a wish for peace.
The ‘menpai’ are not strictly religious organizations, even if they have a clear rooting in Taoist and Buddhist traditions, but schools that jointly teach martial arts, singing, dance, qigong, meditation and moral principles. Martial arts are not the only activity of Tai Ji Men, but its young students have won several gold medals at the Wushu World Cup (the most used Chinese name for Kung Fu). Tai Ji Men performances have been included in the cultural program of major sporting events, including the Sydney Olympics and the Taiwan Universiade.
Large ‘menpai’ such as Tai Ji Men, which has over ten thousand members in Taiwan, have an international reach – Dr Hong has founded several centers in the United States – and typically create cultural and humanitarian institutions to promote a culture and education for peace founded on traditional Chinese values of harmony and respect for nature. Dr. Hong founded Fowpal, the Federation for World Peace and Love, in the United States, which has organized events in over one hundred countries and has become a familiar presence at the United Nations. Dr. Hong spent several years proposing to the United Nations the establishment of an International Day of Conscience, a core value in the tradition from which he comes.
In 2019 his efforts were successful with a vote by the United Nations General Assembly, and since then the International Day of Conscience has been celebrated annually on April 5. Those who rang the Bell included heads of state and Nobel Peace Prize winners, including the Dalai Lama and Costa Rican President Oscar Arías. It was also recently played in Istanbul by Patriarch Bartholomew of the Orthodox Church.
