Chi Kung and the Chinese

Mao and Deng living it up.
I recommend " A Complete Guide to Chi-Kung " by Daniel Reid to anyone interested in learning the basics about chi-kung.
http://www.danreid.org/about-daniel-reid-writer-chinese-medicine-tcm-health-tao-taosim.htm Chi-kung is also written as chi-gung, and qi-gong. In this book he writes about the history of chi-kung in China. He has this to say about it's modern use among China's elite.


"More recently,after the communist takeover of China, and particularly during the Cultural Revolution, radical revolutionaries once again threatened a wholesale annihilation of everything associated with traditional Chinese culture, including medicine and chi-gung. However, like before, chi-gung was spared from oblivion due to the support of Chinese leaders themselves. Chairman Mao was quoted as saying that Chinese civilization's two greatest gifts to the world would prove to be Chinese food and Chinese medicine, a prediction that is certainly proving true. Western observers often comment on the remarkable longevity of Chinese leaders, particularly Deng Hsiao-ping, who despite a lifelong habit of chain-smoking cigarettes, lax attention to diet, and many past hardships in life, managed to live to the age of ninety-two. Others have survived even longer. The reason for their longevity is well known in China.: each leader is treated daily with emitted chi by master chi-gung therapists during their entire tenure of power, and this therapy continues throughout their retirement. While they also use herbal supplements and follow special dietary guidelines towards the end of their lives, the central factor in their amazing vitality and tenacious longevity is daily infusions of healing chi from recognized masters of this method. Indeed, one of the quickest ways to guarantee oneself a lifetime of security and comfort in China today is to demonstrate a gift for fa-chi, 'emitting chi', for such practitioners are in great demand among the wealthy and powerful elite in China.
Meanwhile, in society at large, chi-gung is being practiced with growing enthusiasm in China and elsewhere in the world, both as a form of preventive health and as a orthodox therapy in curative medicine. There are entire hospitals now in China where the only treatment provided is chi-gung, both in the form of self-practice and as emitted chi from master healers, without the supplementary use of Chinese herbs or Western drugs."

A Complete Guide to Chi-Gung ( Harnessing the Power of the Universe)
by Daniel Reid