[Photo/CGTN]

Before starting, CGTN asked whether she could endure the hard work. She first said nothing and just nodded her head. Then she gave an affirmative answer.

"For a time I even forgot how to move my legs while walking, because tai chi requires footwork that is different from our everyday gait. I found the experience rather disorienting and wondered whether I should keep learning tai chi. But gradually I came to see tai chi's beauty. Getting rid of the physical inertia gave me a sense of liberation. I gained a new perspective on things," Ye said.

After graduating from a top sports academy in Shanghai, Ye Yongxiang worked as a tai chi instructor.

In 2014, she competed in the Hong Kong Wushu Championship. After earning gold medals in all three main tai chi events, Ye became China's youngest tai chi master.

Determined to share tai chi with a wider audience, she then went to study humanities at the Queen Mary University of London.

Ye Yongxiang said: "tai chi is more than a set of martial skills. It embodies a coherent code about how to live and how to conduct yourself. It's not merely about kicking and punching. It's a mental process."

For Ye Yongxiang, tai chi is a way to integrate the body and mind. In pursuing the wholeness of the self through tai chi, she has come to learn perseverance, forbearance, and focus.

Early in 2017, Ye Yongxiang set up her own tai chi studio in Shanghai.