Hmm. I’ve just discovered that Zhou Yue Wen has a website - or, rather, that one of his students has created it on his behalf.

I studied baguazhang with Master Zhou, but he also knows many other styles; his specialty is xingyiquan.

Master Zhou is the real deal. If you’re studying martial arts and are in, or can get to, Singapore, I wholeheartedly recommend him.

I’ve just been going through my hard drive, trying to find some pictures I took of the Piper guys when they visited Singapore in January 2008. I mis-filed the photos, and I’ve been trying to locate them for ages… Finally, I’ve located them. I particularly like this one…

Lloyd, Corey, and Nigel…

I’ve just realized that I never blogged about their visit; it was during my final days in Singapore before the move to Beijing, and I guess I was just too busy. It was extremely cool, though. I didn’t have time to train with them, but I saw a public demo, and hung out with them a couple of times. I was very impressed by seeing Piper in action; it’s fast, vicious, and extremely effective. The guys are really sound, I enjoyed their company. Hehehe, we exchanged some insights, and I think I made Lloyd’s eyes bulge at one point with a technique I learned from Master Zhou Yue Wen

Master Sun Ru Xian is out of town, so I didn’t have class with him today. I did plan to get up early as normal, and just practice solo, but I woke up feeling lousy and decided to stay in bed. The headache’s lasted all day, I hope I’m not coming down with something.

There’s building work going on just outside the university walls. Typically, no-one warned us that the water supply would be affected. The block where the staff laundry is located has had no water for three days now. My block is OK, so my bathroom still has water, but there are some staff living in the laundry block, and they’re suffering. For me the worst of it is that I’m handwashing all my clothes in my bathroom. It’s not my forte, no matter how much I visualise Once Upon a Time in China II….

I did get out to practice this evening. After 20 minutes of zhan zhuang, the CMC-37 set must have been one of the best I’ve done so far. Today, the standing practice didn’t hurt at all, instead just striking the right balance of resilient softness… I’ve had a bit of a breakthrough on Snake Creeps Down, and have made adjustments so that it doesn’t pressure my knees so much. I followed that with a set of the xuan xuan broadsword, but my mental blank with that is still around. No worries, it will pass eventually - I’m confident it’s all still there in muscle memory, I just need to empty my mind enough to tap into it.

I spent most of the next hour working on Master Zhou’s wuji set, and I think I’m making good progress there; it’s coming back reasonably quickly, although many details remain fuzzy. I finished off with a bit of work on the ba da zhang, topped off with pan guan bi.

I attracted the attention of a moth again. What is it that they want? Do they like the salt in perspiration, or something?

By this time, it was past 9pm, and I was feeling pretty low on energy. My favourite dumpling shop outside the west gate stops taking orders at 9:30, so I hopped on my bike and went straight there - no time to go home and change, as I normally do. My arrival with broadsword slung over my shoulder, then laid on the table, caused a bit of a stir - more than I’d anticipated. The younger waiters all wanted to play with it. I really hadn’t expected it to be so strange for them - perhaps I’ve been spoiled by my experiences in Singapore! No matter what else I might say, it was a wonderful thing to live in a really old-school part of “Old Singapore”, full of wuguans (is that right?), temples, and so on, where the sight of people wandering around with swords and spears didn’t raise an eyebrow. I rather suspect that by the time I get back in August (for a visit only, my plans have changed…) a lot of that will already have gone. Singapore is losing its roots, sigh….

I spent some time this afternoon revisiting Tabby Cat’s older blog, the one describing his intensive yiquan course last year. This is the same that I hope to take a year after him - August 2008, compared to August 2007 for him. I’ve learned a lot since I originally read this, and have met Master Yao, so I am seeing different things this time round. Like Tabby (or should that be TC? No, then I only see childhood cartoon characters… Top Cat… heh…) I’m a firm believer in soft over hard; the CMC-37 set was the first taiji style I learned, and it’s still my favourite… I’ve seen for myself that the atmosphere in the Yiquan Academy can be pretty macho; not really my preferred environment… and yet I really think there’s something there that I can use to improve my taiji and bagua, as well as the inestimable value of the yiquan itself… I hope it all works out - fingers are crossed…

Oddly, I can now get to this blog’s control panel in order to write, but I can’t view the blog itself.

Anyway, not much to report as regards this blog’s topics. I’ve been completely overwhelmed by the new job, and am low on spare time and energy. I’ve only been here a little over a week, and already it seems like half a lifetime! Having said that, I can see that my time here will very easily slip away if I’m not careful, so I need to get active. I’m also gradually finding my feet job-wise, so I hope to be able to balance things out a bit more soon, and do more martial-arty things.

However… spare time is scarce, and looks to stay that way, so I need to choose carefully. I think I will be getting in touch with Professor Huang Zhen Huan - his university is just down the road from mine, which may mean early morning training could be possible. Master Sun should be really accessible, as the new subway line 5 has a station near his home, and is fairly accessible at my end. Liu Jingru is just too far away, I think, as are some of the names Ed mentioned.

Anyway, in the absence of any real content, here are some pictures of the Singapore Chin Woo Lion Dance team on the last day of the Chinese New Year celebrations (the day before I flew).

I thought I ought to post a few pictures of where I’ve been practicing over the last two years… who knows when the next time will be!

Duxton Plain Park follows the path of an old railway line; it runs from near the port up into Chinatown, running parallel to Keong Saik Road. It’s split in the middle by Neil Road; an underpass connects the two parts of the park. These pictures were taken from the road.

This first picture shows the part where I’ve gone to practice solo. The concrete court at the centre of the photo is ‘my’ spot. The cats like it at night because the concrete retains warmth, which is why I often have to step over prostrate kittehs while I’m doing my taiji!

On the other side of the bridge is the area where Chin Woo practice. They have a sign on the bridge:

This last photo shows that side of the park. The area nearest the camera is the Chin Woo training ground; no-one else is allowed to practice martial arts there, including me! They’ve paid to have floodlights installed here, which are turned on when they are training (they’re not on in this shot). I have my baguazhang lessons with Master Zhou on this side as well, but right at the other end, outside the Chin Woo ‘zone’. The white ‘wall’ on the right is temporary, hiding a construction site where new public housing apartments are being built. By the time I get back from Beijing, they’ll probably be completed and occupied - and I expect the new residents will be complaining about Chin Woo’s drumming

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