Ken Cohen

Ken Cohen, also known by his Chinese name Gao Han, has studied and taught qigong and tai chi since the early 1970s. He trained in New York under William C.C. Chen, later learned Chen-style tai chi and Hunyuan qigong from Madame Gao Fu, and was the sole apprentice of the Taoist abbot Huang Gengshi. He reads Chinese, studied classical Chinese thought with university scholars, and was ordained as an interfaith minister. His book The Way of Qigong, first published in 1997, is still one of the standard English introductions to the subject.

From a mountain studio near Nederland, Colorado, he runs the Qigong Research and Practice Center, which he set up in 1981. There he gives private lessons in qigong, Yang and Chen tai chi, the other internal martial arts, meditation and Chinese tea culture, in person or over Zoom, and awards certificates in individual styles. He also travels to teach week-long programmes at retreat centres such as Esalen and Omega, where he shares a qigong weekend with Robert Peng and Michael Gelb. His classes pair slow, precise movement with breath, imagery and a good deal of Taoist philosophy and cultural history.