Wednesday, November 29, 2006

Objective Stretching

Objective Stretching
By Shi Yan Ming and Allan David Ondash

Should I warm up before I Stretch? Absolutely. By performing external Chi Kung...

Click here for full Article: http://www.usashaolintemple.org/press/objective-stretching/

Tuesday, September 05, 2006

National Tai Chi Chuan Association / Taiwan R.O.C. **NEW** English Website

National Tai Chi Chuan Association / Taiwan R.O.C. now has an English website with downloadable English registration forms for their events! How convenient!

World Cup

Tai Chi Chuan Championship

The World Cup will replace the Chung Hua Cup, so, this is the largest competition of the year for Taiwan and one of the largest International Tai Chi Chuan Competitions in the World.


There is new interview of G
RAND MASTER HSU YEE CHUNG (Head of Cheng Man-Ching 37 style Shr Jung Tai Chi Chuan School)

Friday, August 18, 2006

Taichung, Taiwan: Chen Old Style Classes

Chen2 Shi4 Old Style Tai4 Ji2 Quan2 in Taichung, Taiwan. Monday through Friday, 6:30 - 8:30 AM. Location: The corner of Ying1 Tsai3 (Cai3) Rd. and Min1 Chuan2 Rd. near the Science Museum. Thursday class Chen Style Sword is taught. Pao4 Cui3 Cannon Power Release is taught to advanced students.

Zhao1 Zhong1 Hai2 is the teacher. He has studied for decades and is passionate about sharing Tai Chi. His fighting ability is above most teachers and he shares this ability with interested students. He is an excellent teacher and expresses lessons very clearly in both word and body language. Master Zhao1 always reinforces foundational Gong Fu with challenging practices. Classes often include partner pushing hands and light sparring for advanced students. Master Zhao1 speaks English and is happy to teach diligent students. Most students offer quarterly red envelopes (Hong2 Bao1) stuffed with money as a token of appreciation (though it doesn't have to be a large sum) around major Chinese Holidays.

For more information about this class or any Internal martial arts classes in the Taichung area call David Chen (886) 919-442-436. (Picture of David and Precious)

Hualien, Taiwan: Chi (Qi) Gong Classes


Marcus Luo, a bilingual teacher, offers Chi Gong classes once a week in Hualien. Offering an introduction to Chi Gong breathing excercises and martial arts, Mr. Luo claims that the excercises create an environment where students "become concious of the current of nature [Chi] that is all around us." His system which he calls Thousand Mountain White Crane Chi Gong, draws on teachings from many disciplines. He supplements the core teachings of White Crane Chi Gong with aspects of Yoga and Tai Chi.

The class introduces the ideas and practices of Chi Gong. As one student put it, "If you had told me I'd be doing Chi Gong 'energy cultivation' everday six months ago I would have called you crazy. Now I can't imagine not doing it." The class, open to the public, meets every Friday at 7 am in Hua Gang Park and again at 12 noon under Lin Sen Rd. Bridge. E-mail: whitecranechigong@hotmail.com for more information. (Written by Matt Hopkins, cited from Highway 11 magazine, August 2006, Taiwan)

Monday, January 02, 2006

Student Teacher Loyalty in Chinese Culture

Today I attended my bi-monthly Tai Chi class in Taidong taught by a world renown master of the Cheng Man-Ching Style. As I was standing (zhan4 zhuang1) my team captain came over to me and gave me a talk about Chinese loyalty toward one's teacher.
The captain had heard that I was practicing with the local Tai Chi club recently. The local Tai Chi club has a different coach. A coach that was also a student of the grand master... until a recent falling out. When I first arrived in Taidong 2 years ago, the Grand Master encouraged my study with the local coach and praised his ability. After their recent falling out, the Grand Master now has nothing good to say about the local coach. And continuously disuades me from practicing or associating with them. Though the local coach still praises the Grand Master's ability, he wastes no time to gossip and stays focused on the practice of gong1 fu1.
The Grand Master had many reasons why I shouldn't practice with the local club. He said that later when my skill is recognized, the local teacher might try to claim it was his skillful teaching that developed me (I should hope I might be so famous one day as to have my teacher worrying about the fame I will bring him!).
The Grand Master said the local club might use me for publicity to attract attention for the local Tai Chi club (being the famous foreigner that I am in this small country town). Another reason is that the two teachers teach some points differently and I might confuse the teachings and become confused as to the "correct" way.
The team captain then suggested I practice with the Grand Master's students or by myself and disassociate myself from the local club completely. If I failed to do so, he said the Grand Master would not want to teach me further.

This reminds me of the words of Cheng Man-Ching, "Only a teacher with a small art is jealous of a student's instruction elsewhere. I welcome your sampling of other systems, for I know you will come to realize that you really have but one master in this art. The postures themselves..." (Tai Ch'i the "Supreme Ultimate"Excercise for Health, Sport, and Self Defense, Cheng Man-Ching and Robert W. Smith, page 103). In this quote, I'm not sure what Master Cheng means by, "you really have but one master in this art", but he doesn't seem to be refering to himself as that one master.
I prefer the philosophy of my local tai chi coach. He said Tai Chi is a great art... there's no harm in different practice methods... just practice. And then he said, "Let's push."