Random Thoughts
Sifus Talking Smack
It is an unfortunate truth of the kungfu world that there is no necessary connection between how skilled someone is and the size of their ego. In general, my experience in the Chinese kungfu world Read more…
Random Thoughts
The Hollowing Out of CMA
The longer one stays involved in martial arts, the more obvious it becomes that certain arts / lines / groups have a serious case of “The Emperor’s New Clothes”. The phenomenon I’m referring to is Read more…
Random Thoughts
The Plateau Effect (or the Value of Aimless Practice)
I realize I have not updated my blog in a while – as usual, it has been a case of life getting in the way, and also not having many new insights to share! As Read more…
Random Thoughts
Wake-up call in the Chinese Jianghu
Several friends who have studied CMA in China have commented on the lack of a spirit of open sharing and exchange in the CMA world, particularly in China. Teachers from separate branches of the same Read more…
Yiquan
Reminiscences of Yao Zongxun – An Interview with Cui Ruibin, part 1
I have been interested in Yiquan (‘intention boxing’), also known as Dachengquan (Great Achievement Boxing), the chinese martial art famous for its focus on the practice of ‘zhan zhuang’ (stake standing) as a training method for Read more…
History
The Central Guoshu Institute (中央国术馆)
Ever since translating an article on the ‘1929 Hangzhou Leitai Tournament’, I have been interested in the role of the Central Guoshu Institute (‘CGI’) in the spread of traditional Chinese martial arts in the first Read more…
About Me
About Me
I am a British guy with Asian roots who has been interested in Chinese kungfu and specifically the so-called Internal Martial Arts (taijiquan, baguazhang and xingyiquan) for nigh on twenty years now. I did not Read more…
Baguazhang
Yin style Baguazhang of He Puren
The style of bagua created by Dong Haichuan’s top student, Yin Fu, has only recently started to be known about in the West, largely due to the efforts of the late Xie Peiqi and his Read more…
Xingyiquan
Song style Xingyi in Tianjin – Li Xuzhou
Song style xingyi, noted for its unique power generation and relatively ‘softer’ approached compared to Hebei variants of xingyi, is one of the rarest of the main xingyi styles, even in China. The vast majority Read more…
Taijiquan
The Zhaobao Taijiquan of Hou Chunxiu
Zhaobao taijiquan is an interesting major style of taijiquan which has produced many top level masters and seems to have preserved an extremely complete system including neigong, forms practice in different frames as well as Read more…