How a yoga pioneer helped introduce it to Hong Kong in the 1980s and his vision for the future
David Swenson stayed in Hong Kong for two years in the mid-1980s teaching Ashtanga yoga when no studios were in business. Today, he is one of the world’s most sought-after teachers in a thriving industry
It was the mid-1980s and there was no yoga scene to speak of in Hong Kong. So when David Swenson – one of the few yogis who had learned the entire Ashtanga system under the late Indian guru K. Pattabhi Jois – tried to promote the ancient practice here, no one was interested. Not even after he fronted a local TV segment teaching it.
“I can’t remember the name … it was some weird television show that had a spaceship [set] and I had a show teaching yoga,” recalls the 61-year-old American, who came to this city primarily to help set up a small Hare Krishna centre in Ho Man Tin.
“I also did some yoga demonstrations at Repulse Bay. But back then, no one was doing yoga, no one wanted to do it.”
Swenson was recently in town for this year’s Asia Yoga Conference (AYC) at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre in Wan Chai.
The Texan (who is no longer a Hare Krishna) stayed in the city for two years in the 1980s, during which time he maintained his regular Ashtanga practice. He says he knew of no yoga studio at the time and there were no yoga classes. “[But] the kind of system I do, once you know the sequence, you just practise. It’s like tai chi.”
Swenson returned to Hong Kong in 2007 to attend the first edition of AYC; by then, yoga had already taken off not only in his home country but also in Hong Kong. Today, Hong Kong has a huge number of yoga studios including one of the largest in the world.