{"id":461028,"date":"2025-12-20T23:31:25","date_gmt":"2025-12-20T23:31:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/461028\/"},"modified":"2025-12-20T23:31:25","modified_gmt":"2025-12-20T23:31:25","slug":"beloved-ballarat-tai-chi-teacher-granted-visa-after-community-push","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/461028\/","title":{"rendered":"Beloved Ballarat tai chi teacher granted visa after community push"},"content":{"rendered":"

On a December day at 4:30pm precisely, the prayers of a group of Ballarat residents were answered.<\/p>\n

Jack Yang, the western Victorian city’s beloved tai chi teacher, and his wife Shirley Jin were granted permanent residency visas.<\/p>\n

Mr Yang has been a fixture in the local park since 2018, leading free tai chi classes every morning.<\/p>\n

\"People<\/p>\n

Jack Yang offers free tai chi at Lake Wendouree every day without fail. (Supplied: Jack Yang)<\/p>\n

But he has been fighting for the past three years to stay in Australia, after his visa application was rejected in 2022.<\/p>\n

Mr Yang has been on temporary bridging visas ever since. \u00a0<\/p>\n

“You live in [Ballarat] in harmony, everything is so beautiful and you do not want to go,” he said.<\/p>\n

“The longer you stay, the harder it was to leave; not just the country, or the city, but the people here, the community.<\/p>\n

“They are so kind \u2014 they treat me like a brother, and my wife a sister.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"People<\/p>\n

Jack Yang had no idea he would get permanent residency and thought his visa was going to expire. (Supplied: Jack Yang)<\/p>\n

Mr Yang’s students banded together to create a committee solely tasked with keeping the tai chi master in Australia.<\/p>\n

“[Local federal member] Catherine King called me and said, ‘Tony Burke has approved your application for permanent residency,'” Mr Yang said, beaming ear to ear.<\/p>\n

“I was thrilled \u2026 I immediately stood up and danced.<\/p>\n

“My heart was beating fast and tears came streaming.”<\/p>\n

The community has recognised his efforts with several awards, including 2023 Informal Volunteer of the Year and the 2024 Victoria Multicultural Award and Ballarat Seniors Award.<\/p>\n

A community champion<\/p>\n

Tai chi is an ancient Chinese martial art that focuses on balance, strength and mindfulness.<\/p>\n

Mr Yang can be found at Lake Wendouree every morning offering free tai chi classes, rain, hail or shine.<\/p>\n

\"People<\/p>\n

The community banded together to advocate for Jack Yang to stay.\u00a0 (Supplied: Jack Yang)<\/p>\n

Jennie Daly attends Mr Yang’s classes nearly every day.<\/p>\n

“Just the thought of losing Jack \u2014 that early morning tai chi means so much to so many people,” she said.<\/p>\n

“A lot of people live on their own, and the tai chi group are the first humans they see for the day.<\/p>\n

“Jack is such a welcoming teacher, he knows everyone’s name and just the thought of not having that, we just couldn’t bear it.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The students formed a committee to advocate for Mr Yang and his wife’s visa to be extended.<\/p>\n

“Everyone seems to know him,” Ms Daly said.<\/p>\n

“He helps so many people, so many groups, so we wanted to see what we could do at a grassroots level because we just couldn’t bear to lose Jack.”<\/p>\n

An impossible dream<\/p>\n

For Mr Yang, getting a permanent residency was a far-off dream.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Jack Yang says getting a permanent visa was the best Christmas present he could have hoped for. (Supplied: Jack Yang)<\/p>\n

“When my visa was rejected [in 2022] I bought tickets to fly back to China, and they [his students] said, ‘Jack if you do not want to go we’ll help you stay,'” Mr Yang said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“I said, ‘How come, I have no visa’; they said, ‘We’ll find an \u2026 [immigration] lawyer to help you’.<\/p>\n

“My immigration lawyer said, ‘Oh, it’s impossible Jack, the chance is nearly zero, it’s too hard you cannot get it.”<\/p>\n

\"Man<\/p>\n

Jack Yang has won awards for his volunteering. (Supplied: Jack Yang)<\/p>\n

For the community of Ballarat, Mr Yang’s visa victory is something worth celebrating.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mr Yang has invited more than 400 guests to his celebration at Lake Wendouree.<\/p>\n

“I spent two hours sending out invites, including [for] Catherine King and the local mayor,” he said.<\/p>\n

Mr Yang said he would love to become an Australian citizen.<\/p>\n

“One day if I really become an Aussie, I will feel so proud from the bottom of my heart \u2014 I’d feel so good!”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On a December day at 4:30pm precisely, the prayers of a group of Ballarat residents were answered. Jack…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":461029,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4740,210422,10786,163315,718,210420,210421,50,77417,3163,46181,23509],"class_list":{"0":"post-461028","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-australia","9":"tag-australian-citizenship","10":"tag-ballarat","11":"tag-catherine-king","12":"tag-community","13":"tag-jack-yang","14":"tag-lake-wendouree","15":"tag-news","16":"tag-permanent-residency","17":"tag-tai-chi","18":"tag-tony-burke","19":"tag-visa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115754506381212260","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461028","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=461028"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461028\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/461029"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=461028"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=461028"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=461028"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}