On the Chinese spiritual tradition of qigong in Toronto as a site for negotiating identity

Through the individual experiences of Toronto-based practitioners and students, this thesis explores the use of sound in the approximately 5000 year old Chinese spiritual tradition of qigong, as a site for negotiating identity. Commentary obtained through personal interviews reveal that fear, power and control are mediated through sound qigong, deconstructing boundaries between the self and the other. Students grapple with the constrictions of identity in the performance practice of qigong, attempting to transcend the boundaries of the ego in order to more fully experience the oneness of the present: the resulting removal of personally experienced disjunctures is argued to offer a form of belonging. The differences in students' performance practices and the philosophies ascribed to qigong are juxtaposed, and explored in relation to the students' personally constructed meanings of sound. Moreover, the effect of various social collectivites on sound qigong performance practice is articulated. Finally, the difficulty in presenting an experiential and esoteric spiritual practice through literary discourse is problematized.