Zibin Guo’s next chapter: Empowerment in motion from Chattanooga to Bangladesh

When Dr. Zibin Guo talks about movement, he’s not just talking about tai chi. He’s talking about “humanity in motion, the way strength, beauty and grace can exist even in moments of vulnerability.”

Guo, the UC Foundation Professor of Medical Anthropology at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, recently traveled to Dhaka, Bangladesh, at the invitation of UNESCO’s International Centre of Martial Arts for Youth Development and Engagement (UNESCO-ICM) to co-lead a five-day Wheelchair/Adaptive Tai Chi training program for health care providers and community advocates.

Accompanied by Dr. William “John” Johnson, a longtime collaborator from Chattanooga, the program took place Oct. 11-15.

For Guo, who has spent more than 20 years exploring how ancient cultural wisdom can address modern challenges, the experience felt like another chapter in a journey that continues to unfold.

“It was an inspiring experience to meet and work with this group,” he said. “They have so little in the material sense, but they demonstrated so much of a positive outlook in life.”

The training was held at the Centre for the Rehabilitation of the Paralysed, one of the largest rehabilitation facilities in Southeast Asia. Twenty-six participants from across Bangladesh—many of them living with ambulatory disabilities—spent six hours a day learning, moving and reflecting.

Some were medical professionals. Others were advocates and community leaders who wanted to bring new tools home to their villages.

Guo said the week was filled with energy and purpose.

“They don’t have a lot of equipment. Some don’t even have wheelchairs; they use crutches or small stools. But they have heart,” he said. “They have the desire to learn something that makes them feel capable again.”

Guo said the Bangladesh trip grew out of a memorandum of understanding between UTC and UNESCO-ICM, developed through the University’s Office of Research and Sponsored Programs. The organization’s mission—to empower women and children with disabilities through martial arts—aligned naturally with his work.

While most empowerment programs focus on replicating traditional martial arts forms such as punching, kicking and throwing, he said, his approach begins somewhere else.

“This program is not about developing something you don’t have,” Guo explained. “It’s about developing power based on what you already have. The wheelchair is not a symbol of disability—it’s a source of empowerment.”

His adaptive tai chi philosophy integrates gentle, circular motions with the natural rhythm of the wheelchair, blending body, breath and awareness.

“The idea is to make the disabled body flow together,” he said. “When the movement flows, the mind becomes calm. You redirect energy like water. That flow becomes a source of power.”

In Bangladesh, the concept of what Guo calls the “flow machine” became visible as participants began to see their own movement differently.

“They discovered that power isn’t about force. It’s about connection. It’s about flow,” he said.

Guo’s interest in movement as a metaphor for human resilience goes back decades. A member of the UTC faculty since 1998 and now head of the Department of Sociology, Anthropology and Geography, he has used tai chi to help redefine how societies perceive disability.

From 2016 to 2023, his Wheelchair/Adaptive Tai Chi program—funded through seven consecutive grants from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs—trained more than 1,500 health care providers and reached 80 VA medical centers nationwide.

October’s Bangladesh training, he said, felt both familiar and new. Among the participants was a young man who spoke some English—the only one in the group able to communicate with Guo without the aid of an interpreter.

“The young man told me that before his accident, he planned to study computer science overseas,” Guo recalled. “After his injury, he thought that dream was gone. At the end of the training, he said this gave him new hope—that he wanted to finish his degree. That moment touched me deeply.”

Guo said Johnson, who has been teaching tai chi for more than two decades, helped guide the lessons. A chiropractor and acupuncturist by training, Johnson brought a clinical understanding of movement that complemented Guo’s anthropological view of healing.

Their work with UNESCO-ICM has extended their collaboration to a global stage. According to Guo, the organization’s leaders saw in this approach a sustainable model for empowerment that doesn’t depend on expensive facilities or specialized equipment—an especially important factor in developing nations.

“This program is practical, powerful, accessible, economical,” he said. “It gives people a way to feel graceful, calm and strong using what is already part of them.”

Guo said that the week in Dhaka left him energized.

“I was reminded again that beauty and grace are universal desires,” he said. “When someone learns to move with flow, they rediscover their own dignity. They begin to see that life can be beautiful again.

“In modern life, we define power in material terms—money, youth, strength,” he said. “That makes it hard to face aging, disability or change. But traditions like tai chi remind us that the mind can redirect weakness into beauty, calmness and strength.”

The Bangladesh project isn’t expected to be the last, he said. Based on the success of the pilot training, UNESCO-ICM has expressed interest in expanding the partnership to other regions, with potential sites in Vietnam or India.

Guo said he hopes each new country will adapt the model to its own traditions and communities.

“I want them to make it their own,” he said. “Through working with these communities, I’m constantly inspired. Every time I see someone rediscover their power or their grace, it reminds me why I do this work.”

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