When I came to Beijing last year, one of my main aims was to pick up my study of Bagua. I started learning when I first came here in 2004, before the start of of my MBA. On that occasion, I studied hard for three months, became reasonably good at a form derived from the Swimming Dragon style, and lost a lot of weight in the process!
When I went back to Singapore, I couldn’t find a teacher, and in any case the MBA didn’t allow much time for wushu. I studied Xingyi for a while, but had to give it up, and managed to keep my Taiji going with private instruction. I forgot most of my Bagua: I started to realize that I was forgetting things and making mistakes, and decided that practising incorrectly for a year and a half would get me set in bad habits, so I stopped until I came back to Beijing.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t to be: I did attend practice, but the school had expanded while I was in Singapore and, with more students, the teaching had become patchier and more erratic. Sometimes we started learning a form, would work on it for a few weeks, and then be told we wouldn’t carry on because the teacher wanted to work on something else. Politics started to raise its head in the school as well. Despite all this, I really enjoyed going, and had some good times there. Eventually, though the distance I had to travel to get there became too much of a problem; the final straw came when the job with the China Theatre Arts Academy fell through and I realised I needed to start economising until another job came up. So, I haven’t practised for a few months now.
If I had found a job in China, I would have started again, but of course that hasn’t worked out and so I’m going back to Singapore. I’ll be abe to do a lot of Taiji there – I’ll go back to Nam Wah Pai because their Taiji Gong is so good, and I hope I can start studying the Cheng Man Ching form with Rennie Chong – I’ve seen him teach, and I knew one of his students fairly well, so I know he’s good. Still, it seemed like I would have to give up on the Bagua for good, which was a real disappointment. Bagua – especially the Swimming Dragon form – is an incredible martial art, especially once you add in the qigong and philosophical elements.
There may be hope, however! I decided to do a new search on Google yesterday, and I think I’ve found a Bagua teacher in Singapore
Not just any old teacher, either, but one who teaches Swimming Dragon style, and is well-known and respected in China as well! It seems to good to be true…. Anyway, I’ll get in touch once I’m back in Singapore and see if I can start classes…
Update:
The best description of Baguazhang I’ve found yet is here, on the Sonshi site. Read it, and you’ll understand why I’m so enthusiastic about Bagua!
I wanna learn baguazhang in singapore too! Preferably Gao or Yin style, but i can’t find any teachers or centers…Tai chi seems to have a huge following here, but I’m not as enthuastic towards it
Well, there is a student who practices Yin style in Singapore at this blog.
http://peterysbsg.wordpress.com/category/yin-style-baguazhang/
As well as Ge Chun Yan’s classes ( which are pretty expensive ) and some practicing students at the top of Bras Barah Complex. ( their teacher had already returned to China and they are appear to focus more on the health aspects. )
For me, I grasp upon any chance of information on Bagua that I could find that felt suitably at reach at the moment. I would train with anyone who has knowledge of either internal aspects or applications or both if I could find them. ( Anyway, to think that I discovered this blog pretty late after recently getting an interest in Bagua … )