I had lunch today with Kong Cheng, Liu Jin Ru‘s disciple, and caught up on what’s happened over the summer. When we last met, we had arranged that round about now I would have started training bagua with him, although obviously circumstances have prevented that. He was of the opinion it’s a pity that the hospital put my wrist in a cast, where it’s fixed for a couple of months; apparently the TCM way (he’s a TCM doctor) would have been to splint it for a few days at a time, with massage and the application of herbs at intervals to help heal the soft tissue as well as the bone. To be honest, I totally agree – after the mess western-trained doctors made of dealing with my achilles tendon, I swore to avoid them whenever possible, and it was TCM massage that helped get that on the road to recovery (and taijiquan that took it to the end of the road!).

Kong Cheng is off to Europe again for a couple of months where he’ll be teaching baguazhang and TCM. He’s leaving after the National Day/mid-autumn festival, so we’ll meet before then so he can take a look at my x-rays, and then maybe introduce me to a doctor at a TCM hospital, so that I can get traditional treatment for my wrist after the cast comes off. Not sure if my insurance will cover that…

He’s also Vice-President of the Beijing Baguazhang Association. I mentioned that I wouldn’t mind interviewing him about that sometime for publication here, and he was quite happy with that idea. If you’ve got any questions, leave them in the comments…

He also had news of my old bagua teacher, Sun Ru Xian. Sun Lao Shi is apparently very well now that he’s retired. He’s also on a European teaching tour at the moment!

His name came up again later in the day. One of my colleagues, who’s just joined us this semester, knows some xingyi and is looking for a teacher; Sun Lao Shi is primarily a xingyi man, and co-authored a book on the subject with Liu Jing Ru. My students – until I learned to speak slower and enunciate more carefully – used to have terrible trouble with my Welsh accent, but this new guy is a true Dubliner, and has an accent so dense he could probably beat someone over the head with it…

Oh, I took a video of some xingyi on a bus the other day, but you’ll have to wait till I’ve got it on YouTube to learn more….

I’m astounded to read in this article from the Times that:

Research by Bupa suggests that 45 per cent of British adults suffered back pain in the past year, and that 25 per cent suffered knee pain.

The article’s talking about an expensive new course of treatment, involving purchase of far-from-cheap special shoes, that will solve these problems.

I used to have back and knee pain. Taijiquan and yiquan sorted them out, and gave many other benefits besides – at a much lower cost.

I guess if I can get to the point of becoming a teacher of taiji, there’s a huge market out there….

Corporate lawyer and poet “Mr Wang” writes an excellent blog on Singaporean topics. One recent post is about a topic of interest to this blog – the tang-kis, or Daoist spirit mediums, in Singapore. It’s a record of an article printed in the Straits Times, the island state’s official newspaper. I’ve written a few times about this, mostly on the older version of this blog. The article has an odd tone, to me; it gives the impression that Singapore’s officialdom has decided that the tang-kis are a bit too unregulated, but perhaps I’m just reading that into it. Update: here’s a more positive, and informative, article.

Singapore’s Paranormal Investigation Society have also put together a photo set about tang-kis. Very interesting.

This stuff fascinates me. It’s one of the issues that, in a way, contributes to the feeling that I can’t ever go back to live in the UK. Having experienced a way of life that demonstrates such richness and complexity in the way the universe works, even though I’m not a believer, it’s hard to return to a culture where such things are unheard of, and would be feared, denied, or suppressed if they were known…

The tang-kis are found in Taiwan, as well; Scott P. Phillips did some research on this during his recent study trip there. I gather that there’s a revival in the south of China as well, particularly in Fujian. Even in the north of China, my farmer friends in the north of Hebei province tell me that “tang-kis” sometimes visit the village, although many of them are charlatans. (Speaking of the village, I’ve been told that the reconstruction of the Dragon Temple has just been completed; I’ll look forward to visiting it on my next visit).

Just thought it’s worth mentioning that my yiquan teacher, Master Yao Chengrong called today; he was just checking up on how I’m doing, and how my arm etc are coming along. Second time he’s done that over the last couple of weeks. Like I posted previously on a couple of occasions, if I miss a few classes he’ll call to check everything is OK. It’s not every teacher that will take the trouble to do that.,

One I think is unimpressive, one I think is very interesting indeed, and one I think is superb. I leave it to you to judge which is which.

(h/t Eastpaw for this link):

How this man taught me to kill in four moves (The Independent)

Why Systema

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