{"id":72234,"date":"2025-11-19T08:38:14","date_gmt":"2025-11-19T13:38:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.utc.edu\/news\/?p=72234"},"modified":"2025-11-19T08:45:03","modified_gmt":"2025-11-19T13:45:03","slug":"zibin-guos-next-chapter-empowerment-in-motion-from-chattanooga-to-bangladesh","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.utc.edu\/news\/2025\/11\/zibin-guos-next-chapter-empowerment-in-motion-from-chattanooga-to-bangladesh\/","title":{"rendered":"Zibin Guo\u2019s next chapter: Empowerment in motion from Chattanooga to Bangladesh"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Participants in Bangladesh practice adaptive tai chi from their wheelchairs during a martial arts training program supported by University of Tennessee at Chattanooga researcher Dr. Zibin Guo. The program promotes empowerment and inclusion for people with disabilities. Photo courtesy of Dr. Zibin Guo.<\/p><\/div>\n

When Dr. Zibin Guo talks about movement, he\u2019s not just talking about tai chi. He\u2019s talking about \u201chumanity in motion, the way strength, beauty and grace can exist even in moments of vulnerability.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

Accompanied by Dr. William \u201cJohn\u201d Johnson, a longtime collaborator from Chattanooga, the program took place Oct. 11-15.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was an inspiring experience to meet and work with this group,\u201d he said. \u201cThey have so little in the material sense, but they demonstrated so much of a positive outlook in life.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u2014many of them living with ambulatory disabilities\u2014spent six hours a day learning, moving and reflecting.<\/p>\n

Some were medical professionals. Others were advocates and community leaders who wanted to bring new tools home to their villages.<\/p>\n

Guo said the week was filled with energy and purpose.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey don\u2019t have a lot of equipment. Some don\u2019t even have wheelchairs; they use crutches or small stools. But they have heart,\u201d he said. \u201cThey have the desire to learn something that makes them feel capable again.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Dr. William “John” Johnson and Dr. Zibin Guo<\/p><\/div>\n

Guo said the Bangladesh trip grew out of a memorandum of understanding between UTC and UNESCO-ICM, developed through the University\u2019s Office of Research and Sponsored Programs. The organization\u2019s mission\u2014to empower women and children with disabilities through martial arts\u2014aligned naturally with his work.<\/p>\n

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

\u201cThis program is not about developing something you don\u2019t have,\u201d Guo explained. \u201cIt\u2019s about developing power based on what you already have. The wheelchair is not a symbol of disability\u2014it\u2019s a source of empowerment.\u201d<\/p>\n

His adaptive tai chi philosophy integrates gentle, circular motions with the natural rhythm of the wheelchair, blending body, breath and awareness.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe idea is to make the disabled body flow together,\u201d he said. \u201cWhen the movement flows, the mind becomes calm. You redirect energy like water. That flow becomes a source of power.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Bangladesh, the concept of what Guo calls the \u201cflow machine\u201d became visible as participants began to see their own movement differently.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey discovered that power isn\u2019t about force. It\u2019s about connection. It\u2019s about flow,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Guo\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

From 2016 to 2023, his Wheelchair\/Adaptive Tai Chi program\u2014funded through seven consecutive grants from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs\u2014trained more than 1,500 health care providers and reached 80 VA medical centers nationwide.<\/p>\n

October\u2019s Bangladesh training, he said, felt both familiar and new. Among the participants was a young man who spoke some English\u2014the only one in the group able to communicate with Guo without the aid of an interpreter.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe young man told me that before his accident, he planned to study computer science overseas,\u201d Guo recalled. \u201cAfter his injury, he thought that dream was gone. At the end of the training, he said this gave him new hope\u2014that he wanted to finish his degree. That moment touched me deeply.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u2019s anthropological view of healing.<\/p>\n

Their work with UNESCO-ICM has extended their collaboration to a global stage. According to Guo, the organization\u2019s leaders saw in this approach a sustainable model for empowerment that doesn\u2019t depend on expensive facilities or specialized equipment\u2014an especially important factor in developing nations.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis program is practical, powerful, accessible, economical,\u201d he said. \u201cIt gives people a way to feel graceful, calm and strong using what is already part of them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Guo said that the week in Dhaka left him energized.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was reminded again that beauty and grace are universal desires,\u201d he said. \u201cWhen someone learns to move with flow, they rediscover their own dignity. They begin to see that life can be beautiful again.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn modern life, we define power in material terms\u2014money, youth, strength,\u201d he said. \u201cThat 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Bangladesh project isn\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n

Guo said he hopes each new country will adapt the model to its own traditions and communities.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want them to make it their own,\u201d he said. \u201cThrough working with these communities, I\u2019m constantly inspired. Every time I see someone rediscover their power or their grace, it reminds me why I do this work.\u201d<\/p>\n

Learn more<\/h4>\n

Visit UTC<\/a><\/p>\n

UTC Sociology, Anthropology and Geography<\/a><\/p>\n

With \u2018Adaptive Tai Chi,\u2019 UTC\u2019s Zibin Guo shares 20 years of wisdom in motion<\/a><\/p>\n

How to apply<\/a><\/p>\n