Dr. Zibin Guo receives the Washington Association of Professional Anthropologists 2025 Praxis Award certificate from St. Mary’s College of Maryland Professor of Anthropology Bill Roberts, left, and George Washington University Milken Institute School of Public Health Center Director Mark Edberg. Photo courtesy of Dr. Bill Roberts.
When Dr. Zibin Guo began adapting tai chi for people with ambulatory challenges, he saw it as an extension of his life’s work—bridging cultural wisdom and contemporary need.
Now, that work has earned national recognition.
Guo, UC Foundation Professor of Medical Anthropology and head of the Department of Sociology, Anthropology and Geography at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, has received the 2025 Praxis Award from the Washington Association of Professional Anthropologists. He was presented the award on March 19 during the annual meeting of the Society for Applied Anthropology in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Established in 1981, the Praxis Award recognizes outstanding achievement in translating anthropological knowledge into action through a single project. Guo was honored for his project, “Developing and Implementing an Inclusive Tai Chi Chuan Program Throughout the U.S. VA HealthCare System Through Developing Community Partnerships,” which expanded his Wheelchair/Adaptive Tai Chi program across the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs health care system.
Dr. Zibin Guo
“It’s incredible,” Guo said of being recognized by his peers. “Every scholar wants to know that their work is worthwhile and contributing to the discipline, not just because they think so, but because it is recognized by their peers—especially by a prestigious organization whose role is to select projects that represent the field.”
The Washington Association of Professional Anthropologists, founded in 1976, is the nation’s longest-running local professional organization for anthropologists. The Praxis Award, presented biennially, historically has recognized practitioners working outside academia—consultants, nonprofit leaders and government professionals who apply anthropological insight to practical problems.
Dr. Bill Roberts, 2025 Praxis Award chair and professor of anthropology at St. Mary’s College of Maryland, said Guo’s work distinguished itself for both its scope and its impact.
“There are a couple of things that stood out to me,” Roberts said. “One thing is just Zibin’s background as somebody who grew up in China studying martial arts himself, including Tai Chi Chuan, and then came to the United States to study medical anthropology. He really is a bridge figure between this healing art that’s long established in Chinese culture and adapting it to a community that has to deal with the day-to-day challenges of disabilities.”
Roberts pointed to the program’s reach. Adapted from Guo’s original work in China and later adopted by the Paralympic community, the wheelchair Tai Chi Chuan program was implemented across nearly 1,500 health care providers in 80 VA medical centers in 46 states and Puerto Rico.
“The adoption rate, the value that so many organizations—national and international—have seen in taking this up has been remarkable,” Roberts said. “It’s clearly something he is very passionate about.”
Guo traces that bridge between tradition and application to his own childhood. He began studying martial arts “at age 7 or 8, initially drawn—as many children are—to fighting and physical ability.” Over time, he said, he came to understand that the art “was not about force but about discipline, continuity and the cultivation of the mind.”
“It’s not really about fighting,” Guo said. “It’s about the kind of spirit, the kind of discipline, the kind of appreciation, the kind of continuation regardless of what kind of challenges you have.”
He said his shift in understanding became central to his anthropological work. As a medical anthropologist, Guo studies human conditions from what he describes as an “emic” perspective—seeking to understand people’s lives from their own perspective. In working with veterans and others with ambulatory challenges, he listened first.
Through those conversations, he said, he recognized a universal desire to be seen as capable, powerful and beautiful.
“When I worked with people with disabilities in wheelchairs and saw them say, ‘This makes me feel like I’m a bird. It makes me feel like I can fly. It makes me feel empowered. It makes me feel beautiful,’” Guo said, “that was a moment I realized this is something much bigger.”
An early turning point came when he shared a video of wheelchair tai chi with officials connected to the Paralympic movement in China. He quickly received word that viewers were moved to tears.
From there, the program grew. Between 2016 and 2023, seven consecutive grants from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs supported training that reached health care providers nationwide. More recently, Guo has partnered with UNESCO’s International Centre of Martial Arts for Youth Development and Engagement to expand adaptive tai chi training in South and Southeast Asia.
For Guo, the wheelchair is both a practical tool and a metaphor.
“Everybody is vulnerable,” he said. “You are vulnerable. I am vulnerable. We all have vulnerabilities. The wheelchair Tai Chi program is not only for people with ambulatory challenges. It is also a metaphor. How do we see our vulnerabilities as sources of inspiration?”
Tai chi, he said, offers a form of cultural wisdom developed over centuries—wisdom about using “a little to accomplish a lot,” about allowing the mind and body to move in flow rather than force. In contemporary life, he added, where mental stress and social stratification weigh heavily, those lessons remain relevant.
“The whole idea is how to transform your vulnerability into strength,” Guo said. “That’s why it becomes popular.”
Roberts said the Praxis Award reflects the role universities can play in supporting applied scholarship.
“Zibin was very clear about the amount of support the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga has provided for him,” Roberts said. “The support from the institution and student interest clearly takes this beyond academia and into the world where there’s a real need for this. Anthropology can be applied to contemporary issues and problems.”
Receiving the Praxis Award, Guo said, affirms that anthropology’s core commitment—to understand people on their own terms and to translate that understanding into meaningful intervention—matters.
“It means a great deal to me,” Guo said. “This work is both my personal and professional interest. I’m very happy that this work is being recognized.”
Learn more
UTC Sociology, Anthropology and Geography
With ‘Adaptive Tai Chi,’ UTC’s Zibin Guo shares 20 years of wisdom in motion
Participants in a 2025 Bangladesh seminar practice adaptive tai chi from their wheelchairs during a martial arts training program supported by Dr. Zibin Guo. The program promotes empowerment and inclusion for people with disabilities. Photo courtesy of Dr. Zibin Guo.
