In early June I sat down for a fun conversation centering on Song style xingyiquan in Beijing with Raphael Smith (dialling in via Zoom), ably hosted by xingyiquan lover Byron Jacobs, who is an accomplished Read more…
In lieu of my May training update, I’d instead like to share a fun interview between myself and Robbie Coons, a long-time practitioner of the 3 internal arts (taiji, bagua and xingyi) and also a Read more…
The next teacher in our Xingyi Roots series was Tang Shengjun, whose great-grandfather, Tang Weilu, was another prominent disciple of Li Cunyi. After being forgotten for most of the 20th century, Tang was again catapulted Read more…
PART 7 Jarek’s Tongbei studies Jarek: Heyi Tongbei is originally a style from Tianjin. It was brought to the Shanghai area by Ren Heshan, who originally studied with Liu Yuchun. Due to his MA skills, Read more…
PART 6 Beijing Years Continued Jarek: I actually made two trips to Wudang in 1991. In the summer of 1991, I went back to Poland for the summer break, but didn’t have enough money to Read more…
PART 5 Jon: One phenomenon which we see in the MA world is that of people making a ‘combined’ art based on the arts they have studied. What are your thoughts of this issue of Read more…
PART 4 Jarek: And so it came to the end of my first year in China (1991) and the summer holidays. I intended to take full advantage of the summer holidays to go around China Read more…
PART 3 Jarek: So, as we discussed last time, it was my first year in Beijing and I was training at least 4-5 hours per day. This was not unusual for me, I was used Read more…
PART 2 Jarek: Actually there were a lot of twists and turns in me getting to China, there were at least two occasions which could have derailed my plans to study in China entirely. The Read more…
Jarek Szymanski, apart from being a linguist and professional translator, is a martial arts researcher who has been living in China for over 20 years. In addition to practicing several styles of traditional Chinese Martial Read more…