Yoga course may provide fresh approach to Sino-Indian relations
Students practice yoga in Yunnan Minzu University
Twelve postgraduate students at China's first college dedicated to the activity are hoping to become cross-cultural ambassadors. Li Yingqing reports from Kunming, with Yang Zekun in Beijing.
Yoga is one of the most popular activities in China, especially among young white-collar workers, and almost every gym offers courses.
So it is fitting that the country is home to the only dedicated Yoga college in the world outside of India. The school aims to foster professional-level talent with sound practical and academic foundations.
The India-China Yoga College, in Kunming, capital of Yunnan province, was founded by Yunnan Minzu University and the Indian Council for Cultural Relations in June 2015.
In September 2017, the college, which is part of the university, enrolled its first group of 40 undergraduate students to study under the social sports guidance and management program.
A year later, 12 candidates for master's degrees were recruited for a program that offers tuition related to the traditional sports enjoyed by members of China's ethnic groups.
The students, who had to take the university's postgraduate entrance exam and pay 36,000 yuan ($5,388) for annual tuition, are the first master's candidates in China to major in yoga, though they also study traditional Chinese medicine and the history of martial arts.
Because they will spend two years studying in China and one year in India, they are learning English, Hindi and Sanskrit to facilitate their studies in the neighboring country.
Ping Ruijuan, one of the 12, already has a master's in translation. The 28-year-old started practicing yoga in 2016 to improve her health when she was studying for her first postgraduate degree.
After experiencing muscular pain after every session in the gym, she attended a number of professional classes to correct her movement. The classes quickly solved the problem, and Ping went on to become a qualified yoga instructor.
She said she is eager to gain deeper understanding of the human body and physiology through the systematic study of yoga. "I am not studying because I want the degree - what I want is the knowledge," she said.
'Tremendous changes'
Yu Songsong, from Zunyi, a city in the southwestern province of Guizhou, first encountered yoga in 2014, when illness forced him to take a 12-month break from his studies at the end of his first year in college.
During that time, his medical expenses exceeded his annual tuition and living costs, so to regain fitness as quickly as possible, Yu began practicing yoga by following instructional videos online.
He began a systematic study of yoga after attending a class and meeting a sympathetic instructor. His health gradually improved as a result of regular yoga practice, and he became much more outgoing. Since then, yoga has become a major part of his life.
"Thanks to yoga, I am no longer introverted and have become more confident and optimistic. My friends all say that I have undergone tremendous changes," the 24-year-old said.
He decided to apply for the master's in yoga after gaining a bachelor's in marketing last year. "Not everyone can study yoga here (because of the entry requirements). I am here because I love yoga," he said.
Wang Wan, a 36-year-old mother of two from Dali city in Yunnan, has also benefited from practicing yoga during the past 10 years.
After leaving college in 2005, she spent six years working as an interpreter in Africa. During that time, she met a yoga instructor from India and became his pupil.
She stopped practicing yoga when she was pregnant with her first child in 2014. However, after giving birth, Wang discovered that her health had deteriorated.
Although she tried a number of remedies, her health remained poor, so she decided to take up yoga again. "A miracle happened after about three months of yoga, and I could really feel the improvement," she said.
Wang had her second child in 2016, but as a result of her daily yoga exercises her weight and body shape have hardly changed during the past decade.
She applied for the postgraduate yoga course because she wanted to learn more about the discipline and explore her body's limits. When she was accepted, she moved her young family to Kunming.
Greater understanding
Ping used to think of yoga as a kind of physical and mental adjustment and training. Now, after six months of study, she has discovered that it is a huge system with high physical and academic requirements.
"I think yoga is a combination of theory and practice," she said.
In addition to sports physiology and anatomy, the science of training, and psychology, the curriculum includes traditional Chinese philosophy, which has many similarities with yogic thought.
"I want to be a teacher specializing in Sino-Indian culture, so I can work toward the harmonious development of the two cultures," Ping said.
Wang has also changed her opinion of yoga. "We don't just learn Indian culture, but a combination of wisdom from two ancient countries."
She pays great attention to how women adjust their yoga routines during pregnancy, and is hoping to extend her studies to devise exercises suitable for children, whose bodies are still developing.
"Yoga is about balance, and fortunately, what I've learned has enabled me to achieve a balance in my life, work and study. Studying at the college is part of my life experience, but we are not part of any experiment," she said, referring to the newness of the course.
After gaining greater understanding through the integration and exchange of the two countries' cultures, she hopes to make good use of her three years at college and reinforce the relationship between China and India through yoga culture.
The biggest positive for Yu is that he is less confused than when he entered the college six months ago. He has also benefited from comparative study, which has shown him that yoga and the culture of Chinese Taoism share many similarities.
"We need to imbibe traditional Chinese culture, and build cultural confidence after understanding the two countries' cultures," he said.
One of his main nonacademic challenges is paying the tuition fee. His other major concern is that no universities in China offer doctoral studies in yoga. That is because he wants to teach the discipline at a university in the future, but most of them require lecturers to have a doctorate.
Bright future
Weng Junyong, one of the postgraduates, runs a company that provides yoga-related services, such as classes and sports clothing.
"I just want to make a breakthrough, and identify the relationship between the academic system of yoga and market demand," he said.
In his view, China's yoga market is low-end and lacks systematic guidance. "It is caught in a vicious circle of low-prices and low-quality competition. The situation needs to be changed by someone," he said.
He dreams of becoming a leader in the nation's new yoga industry. He is considering the potential of a fusion of Chinese and Indian yoga styles, and hopes to apply academic thinking to the market through his efforts.
The 34-year-old, who has a bachelor's in landscape design, used to work as a teacher at a junior college. In 2013, he visited Rishikesh, a renowned center of yoga teaching in India, and studied there for a month. He founded his company in April 2017.
Although undergraduate and postgraduate yoga studies are in their initial stages in China, Weng believes the postgraduate students have a lot to do.
"There are many problems in China's yoga market, such as a shortage of teachers and the irregular nature of training courses. In this context, the importance of yoga professionals is self-evident," he said.
Having worked as a yoga instructor for a year, Ping echoed that view.
"Many yoga coaches in gyms and training organizations don't even know if what they have learned and understand is scientific and reasonable or not - they just pass it on to the students," she said.
Lang Gongxun, vice-dean of the India-China Yoga College, has high expectations for the 12 postgraduates. "China's rapidly developing yoga market has a great demand for professional talent," he said.
He stressed that the master's program connects China and India from a cultural perspective and emphasizes theories and practical combinations, which could solve problems such as the shortage of instructors.
The school's teaching team is composed of Chinese and Indian experts. The college hires the teachers, while the Indian Council for Cultural Relations sends two doctors of yoga to teach at the college every year.
Speaking about long-term goals, Lang said that as a pioneer, the college not only wants to foster top yoga coaches and scientific researchers, but also produce ambassadors for cultural exchanges between China and India.
"These students will drive the healthy development of the yoga industry," he said.
Photo from Yunnan Minzu University
Editor: John Li