Australian Taoist Cultural Festival
The recent Australian Taoist Cultural Festival was an amazing, surreal and exhausting experience. Many worked hard behind the scenes to make this happen, and it was really a testament to the spirit of the international Daoist community. I would like to thank Meixi Yan Huizhang and everyone else who’s hard work made this event a possibility. For most of my adult life I’ve had to travel to and live in China to experience these facets of Chinese culture. It was simultaneously strange and heartening for me to see these people dedicated to Daoist faith and practice in the same suburbs I grew up and worked in for many years, something I never expected to see on the streets of Sydney.
There were some truly fantastic musical performances, personal highlights being the guqin and pipa with such advanced level performance not often being seen in Australia. Equally, some very interesting lectures were given including on medical practices in Daoist communities involving demonstrations of palm diagnosis. I was grateful to have the chance to participate, giving a lecture and free medical consultations in the Sydney Town Hall, a place I probably hadn’t been inside since my high school graduation ceremony. I’m even more grateful to have met fellow 道友 from around the globe, China, Italy, Slovenia, Malaysia and Singapore to mention a few, and given the opportunity to forge meaningful connections with them. These friendships and chances at future international cooperation is a testament to the success of the event.
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