On a visit to Beijing on April 29, 2005, Kuomintang Chairman Lien Chan presented Chinese Communist Party Secretary-General Hu Jintao several gifts, among them a painting of a Taiwan landscape by the painter Yang San-lang, and a sculpture entitled Taichi Arch from master sculptor Ju Ming's Taichi Series. The gifts were presented in hopes of serving as a bridge for both sides of the Taiwan Straits, and achieved its purpose of fulfilling a reciprocal mutual exchange. The two statesmen acknowledged the international renown of Ju Ming not only, of course, to express their own sincerity, but also to convey their deep understanding of the harmonious concepts of Yin and Yang in the practice of Taichi and to call for a mutually beneficial cross-strait peace.

Taichi Arch was originally born out of two people engaging in the Taichi exercise called "pushing hands" (Tui-shou). Regarding the piece, the artist remarks, "Before, with 'pushing hands', a distance remained between the two individuals practicing. But now I've connected their hands together - as soon as their hands met, the flow of Chi and the synchronous muscle movement of the two figures formed a mutual and dynamic bond, and combined into a single body that formed the shape of an arch."

Ju Ming's work represents the natural, graceful elegance of Taichi movement -- the space between the two figures and their fists symbolize Yin and Yang for China, with the pushing of hands forming the essence of Taichi. Ju Ming was naturally inspired by his own Taichi practice -- he began a close study of Taichi models after the 1970s, gradually releasing the first sculptures from the Taichi Series for which he gained international acclaim. Taichi Arch is considered to contain one of the more dynamic postures of the series.

After 20 years of work on the Taichi Series, Ju Ming concluded the creative process with Arch, which contains the ultimate embodiment of his ideas for the Taichi Series. Made in 1986, this version of "Taichi Arch" was one of Ju Ming's early bronze works, and was modeled after a wood sculpture. A total of six versions of this sculpture were produced. On the surface of the bronze sculpture, sharp lines show traces of the swift movement of an ax, while the lines of the wood sculpture evoke moving clouds and flowing water. The mold of the two figures contains harmony coupled with a sense of beauty. With sincerity and vigor, Ju Ming continues to pass down the essence of traditional culture while forging a new creative aesthetic.