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November '99 Issue 72 |
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November '99 Issue 72 |
| CONTENTS
New Line Links East & West (Well, Almost)
Cat Lady Likes to Hiss
Imperial Exhibits Tell Grand Tales
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Cat Lady Likes to Hiss
My mind inevitably wanders as the body tries to keep up with the changing aerobic patterns being barked by the Beijing fitness icon. That's when Mahua's signature sound comes over the microphone above the high-impact disco music. It's like the hiss of a cat, a very large cat. Then you know you must keep going. The session lasts two hours, and afterwards she doesn't even look flushed. Mahua first introduced aerobics to Beijing in 1985. Today her followers at the Mahua Fitness Club in Beijing include countless numbers who watched her daily five-minute aerobics program on Central China Television (CCTV) and exercised along with her in their homes for six years. Born in Nanjing, Mahua says she was not a healthy little girl. She felt she was plain, did not have a good figure and, she says, was totally lacking in self-confidence. Aerobics, beauty care and bodybuilding supplied her a route not only out of poor health but also eventual TV fitness stardom. While she still produces a TV aerobics program, Mahua recently quit presenting and now concentrates on building up her Beijing-based business. The business has grown into a chain with clubs in Harbin of Heilongjiang Province, Zhengzhou in Henan and Kunming in Yunnan. Classes are packed. More than110 members crowd into her sessions at the Mahua Fitness Club, which opened last November in the basement of the Dongcheng Library building. The Beijing club has six instructors for the four aerobics classes daily. Classes last on average 90 minutes. The gymnasium is supervised by Jiang Yuan Lin, senior instructor for body-building and weightlifting, with three other instructors. Equipment is of the nautilis type and covers a range of exercise machines. Mahua's club is not just for the young. Life expectancy in China is up, with an average life span of 49.5 in 1972 now up to more than 63 years. "Today, people are richer and better off than before," she says. "Yet they are ill more often and too many people are too fat. Children especially are tending towards obesity with their fastfood diet and lack of exercise." Exercise is very important to quality of life, Mahua feels. Many Chinese people believe in her and have learned from her how to do aerobics. "Young and old are realizing they need pay more attention to their figure, their skin and their health, " Mahua says. Mastery of body and mind is the key to good health and happiness in today's world, she believes. The frenetic pace of modern life exposes people to continuous, unrelieved stress. It is very important to be healthy above all else, Mahua says. For as well as exercises for improving the skill of your body, Mahua brings to her classes the techniques that act on your mind and emotions to help provide a complete philosophy for living. She urges methodical efforts towards self-perfection through development of "latent potential on the physical, mental and spiritual levels." The Mahua Fitness Club combines aerobics, body-building and a beauty therapy salon. General Manager Mark Guo Mingjie has joined with Mahua in providing the business management and the beauty therapy. They promote products developed by Professor Tian Zhenhua in the United States and China. Mahua doesn't worry about her diet. "I mostly eat anything, but I pay attention to food nutrition science and keep to low-calorie meals." Address: Mahua Fitness Club, lower ground floor, Dongcheng Library Building, Beixinqiao Lu, west of Yonghegong Lu. Tel: 6405-1155 |
Cover Story
It's difficult for the inflexible or the
uncoordinated to keep up.