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I just finished this book, read it in two days, “Red Dust”. I liekd it alot. It’s about this dissident painter, writer photagrapher and his travels through china in the early eighties. Even though it was translated from the chinese, it still has the flavor of chinese english, misuse of multisylabic words and mixed metaphors (has anybody heard the word “wangle” before, the only place I have seen it are in my Chinese made dictionary and then in this book).
But after a slow start the book really picks up, as the author almost kills himself searching out a Buddhist shrine in the desert, then has to trick some thrieves who stole his camera and later makes a spritual trip to Tibet. It really got me more intersted in travelling around China, (to bad about SARS…)
One thing he does is learn “Qigong,” which is a Daoist form of meditation where you focus the “qi” in your body in order to do cool shit. He learns who to makes his hands get hot and start to sweat from the qi.
I thought this was sounding like a good party trick, so I googled qigong and got this site, (Strangely enough based in Minnesota).
I did the little exercise they had posted, and when I got to the end where you are suppossed to move your hands together and feel the qi, I actually felt it.
Pretty rad,
I recommend trying it, it’s really easy and you feel really mystical and able to shot fireballs at people after you try it.