Chi Kung or Qi Gong? The answer first.
There is only one way to write Qi Gong (气功) correctly, and it’s the way we just typed it: Qi – Gong. The pronunciation doesn’t change (although it’s never a “KunG”, it’s more a “gon….” (last G is mute).
Why not Chi Kung?
- First: “Kung” produces a sound that has nothing to do with the Chinese character 功 “gong” . “Kung” has been forced in dictionaries as being the closest sound to “gong” for most of the English-based countries, but it’s not the correct sound. Same issues applies to Tai Ji Quan and Gong Fu.
- Second: the words “Qi Gong” belong to Pinyin, the official and worldwide recognized Romanization system for Standard Chinese in mainland China , and it should be the only method to maintain the correct spell of Chinese words, along with avoiding any confusion.
