Jesse Tsao

Born in Penglai in the Shandong Province of China 中国蓬莱, Dr. Jesse Tsao is an internationally known tai chi master, qigong therapist, alternative medicine and wellness consultant, and founder of Tai Chi Healthways. Penglai is known as the “Fairyland on Earth” where the legendary Eight Immortals are believed to have achieved immortality. Dr. Tsao was exposed to the rich Taoist culture in his hometown and chose to honor his heritage with the cover photo of Penglai. A tai chi practitioner and teacher for more than fifty years, Dr. Tsao moved to the United States and taught his first tai chi workshop in Tucson, Arizona, in 1987. He gave up his first career as an economist in 1995 to devote more time to tai chi research and teaching. He was the chief master of tai chi for Arizona State employee worksite wellness programs from 1996 to 2015. His creation, Tai Chi Bang: Eight-Immortal Flute, has been offered as a credit course by the Open College Network in the United Kingdom’s Somerset Skills & Learning. He specializes in the areas of self-healing, preventive therapies, stress management, and mind-body wellness. Beginning his training at age seven at the Taoist temple in Penglai, his fifty years of practice include ten years of intensive study with Grandmaster Li Deyin in Beijing, China. Dr. Tsao was a gold medalist in the Beijing Collegiate Wushu Competition in 1980. He is the twelfth generation direct-line lineage holder of Chen family tai chi. He has presented tai chi on a variety of national television programs and has made annual, international teaching tours since 2005. Dr. Tsao was recognized as an Ambassador for Peace and won the Hellenic Wushu Federation Honor Award in Greece in 2018. After his twenty-one-year career as a tai chi master and health education consultant for Cigna Healthcare, Arizona, Dr. Tsao moved to San Diego to train tai chi teachers through his rigorous instructor certification program. He has produced over eighty tai chi and health-related instructional DVDs. His books have been translated into Spanish and Hungarian. His PhD is in Traditional Chinese Martial Arts Education from the Shanghai University of Sport, Shanghai, China, 2013. Dr. Tsao’s tai chi knowledge is a combination of traditional hardship training and formal academic education. His lineage shifu is Grandmaster Chen Zhenglei (陈正雷), one of the ten-best martial artists in all of China, who taught him the hereditary Chen family tai chi and all weapons training. He gained his practical skills directly from hosting countless seminars and workshops for other grandmasters including Chen Xiaowang (陈小旺), Zhu Tiancai (朱天才), Li Deyin (李德印), Su Zhifang (苏自芳), and Xiao Puquan (萧普泉). His doctoral advisor, Professor Yu Dinghai (虞定海), is the top-ranked, double-ninth Duan in both Chinese wushu and qigong. Dr. Tsao increased his understanding of traditional Chinese martial arts from interviewing and taking lessons from many experts including Abraham Liu, Dan Lee (李凯); Zang Hongxian (臧洪先); Liu Wancang (刘晚苍); Chen Yu (陈瑜); Chen Sitan (陈思坦); Xie Yelei (謝业雷), the head coach of Shanghai Sport University; Liu Jishun (刘積顺), the lineage of Hao style tai chi; Liu Peijun (刘培俊), the lineage of the northern Wu style; and Wu Bin (吴斌), Jet Li’s coach of Beijing wushu team. To learn more, visit taichihealthways.com.