After a year and a half of isolation, my long-time neighborhood weekend practice group has resumed its routine, and I am so glad.

At a nearby park, we start with about a half-hour of basics: baduanjin (the eight brocades qigong), 24, 42, 32-sword, and kungfu fan. What we do after that varies. Right now, we are learning a new fan form: 28-step fan.

The name of the form is 杨氏28式太极扇:Yáng shì 28-shì tàijíshàn (Yang-style 28-step Tai Chi Fan). We call it èr shì bā shàn (28 fan) for short. The form is relatively new, created in 2014, and is quite popular in China. It has many intricate and enjoyable movements, but it has no level-of-difficulty moves, so it is appropriate for people of all abilities. It makes a good ensemble piece too, for group practice or performance.

China Wushu is a great YouTube station with tutorials for many forms, including 28-fan. A very beautiful demonstration by Yang Li (pictured above) begins at 1:20 in the introduction to a series of teaching videos. The whole series:

• Introduction (Yang Li demonstration at 1:20)
• Part one (steps 1-5)
• Part two (steps 6-10)
• Part three (steps 11-15)
• Part four (steps 16-21)
• Part five (steps 22-28)

Or go to the full playlist here. Here is a list of the 28 movements: PDF.