Hehehe, I was on the MRT last night, on my way to the lesson with Master Zhou, and I noticed a guy wearing a t-shirt from the Hong Kong chain Baleno. On the front of the shirt? “Jianghu”, in hanyu pinyin and Chinese calligraphy!
Baleno has branches here in Singapore; I reckon that come the weekend, I’ll get to one of them and see if they have any left in stock!
This is rather an embarrassing thing to admit, but I think I might be beginning to understand wuji long xing baguazhang, ie the form Master Zhou is trying to teach me.
I say “embarrassing” because, after all, I’ve been working on this form for months now, and I really haven’t got anywhere. This is entirely my own fault. I certainly don’t blame Master Zhou, who is really a great teacher. It’s more that I’ve had a mental block of some kind; I’m not sure why. I know it’s a great form, I know that Master Zhou can teach me not just how to do it but also how to apply it, and I know I really like the form AND enjoy the lessons (that’s why I keep going back, after all). But… I’ve never really got it, if you know what I mean. That’s to say, I guess I’ve never seen where it’s going, or where what I’m learning fits in.
The result has been that after every class, when I go to practice solo, I’ve worked on Ge Chun Yan’s bagua form; I’ve worked on Zhang Sheng Li’s bagua form; I’ve worked on bagua sword and bagua pen; I’ve worked on CMC-37, Nam Wah Pai’s Yang-24 form, Xuan Xuan taiji sabre… hell, I’ve even worked on a bit of capoeira on occasion. But, I haven’t worked much on wuji long xing bagua. I just haven’t been able to do it, even immediately after class.
At long last, I’ve had a breakthrough. Last week I filmed Master Zhou doing the whole set, converted it to mp4 format, and loaded it onto my iPod. I’ve been watching it a lot. Now, at least, I feel that I get it. After class tonight, I spent 90 minutes just working on this one form, and I finally have confidence that I can learn it.
Watch this space…
We tend to associate fighting monks with the Chinese Shaolin tradition, or with certain Japanese sects. Today’s Straits Times features a Thai boxer with a law degree, who became a monk at age 29 after a long and successful career in the ring.
Sadly, he still needs his skills. He’s taken the Dharma to the hill tribes, where he encourages the villagers to grow food crops instead of drugs. He also takes in and educates children orphaned in turf wars between drug gangs. Sadly, these activities have made him a target, and he’s had to use his combat skills on several occasions to defend his life against assassins sent by the drug lords. A courageous man…
Read the story here.
I need a holiday to recover, how am I going to face work tomorrow…?
As I mentioned, the Piper guys were passing through town for a few days; I managed to catch up with them on Thursday night at a seminar they gave at a local school, and then again on Friday night - after my class with Master Zhou - as they explored Chinatown. Very, very nice guys. More on that in a later post.
Yesterday was taken up with a small part of the seemingly endless preparations for my move to Beijing, followed in the evening by Ch’an meditation. Our sifu instructed us in the different kinds of meditation, and their purposes. I am still hung up on the koan of “What is a butterfly?“. Katz!
Today was the second in my interview series as I sat down over lunch with Madam Ge, and asked her about the Beijing wushu team, life in the movies , and the future of Chinese wushu. Many, many thanks to her for her time - and even more to my gongfu brother Jono, for translating.
A bonus was meeting up with a visiting Taiwanese master, Mr Liu Pang Yao. We had much difficulty understanding each other, but it turns out he’s expert in at least Cheng Man Ching taijiquan and Cheng-style bagua (and probably much else besides). He gave a few demonstrations of applications, which were very, very cool - and which I will appreciate a lot more once my back and shoulder return to normal 
Very, very, effective, let’s put it that way! He gave me a few flyers for the World Cup Tai Chi Chuan Championship, to be held in Taipei in October this year. Email tccass at ms35 dot hinet dot com for more info.
Now, it’s home again, and settling back into paperwork before work tomorrow…
In life, we must make the best preparations, and be ready for the worst.
Zen Master Sheng Yen
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