Last week UNESCO, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, named the Chinese martial art and exercise form tai chi chuan (taijiquan) as one of 35 new entries to its list of the "Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity."

China initially nominated tai chi in 2008 but the martial art was rejected at the time as China was considered to have too many national traditions entered for consideration. Since then the number of allowable entries from any country has been reduced to two and then just one. It was finally tai chi's turn for inclusion this year along with 35 other national traditions like Finnish sauna culture. It joins a handful of other martial arts, including silat and capoeira, that have already been named to the cultural heritage list.