A last post about Nam Wah Pai

I’ve been writing far too much about NWP when you consider that I haven’t actually been a student of theirs since the end of 2003. On the other hand, I do plan to go back when time and cash flow allow, so I don’t want to lose touch.

I already knew that there had been some kind of internal dispute, because during my MBA I took private lessons from an ex-NWP instructor who had gone solo. As I mentioned in a recent post, I had also noticed that Desmond’s picture had been taken down. I didn’t know much about it all though. I started digging around because I was curious why the recent demo took place at Mohd. Sultan road, rather than the HQ in Geylang.

It turns out that there’s been a split between the brothers. This forum thread sheds some light on the current situation.

“That’s not a knife…”

“THAT’S a knife”.^*

Yes, I finally went back to the Malay Art Gallery, and bought the keris I reserved back in June. I had an interesting discussion with Syed about the history and culture of the kris, and why only one small island in the whole Malay peninsula traditionally adorns the scabbards of their kerises with images of horses. My just-invented theory is that some lost expedition of Mongols got wrecked there. Hey, we know that they got as far as Myanmar and Thailand!

While we spoke, Syed oiled the blade. The oil they use is based on sandalwood oil – but that, on its own, is too thick and sticky, so they blend it with thinner oils infused with floral essences. The problem with this is that the scent pervades my room, and is making my flatmate cast some very strange looks my way… I hope the smell fades soon!
^* Am I showing my age by assuming that a quote from Crocodile Dundee will automatically be recognised? Oh no! I’m getting old!

YouTube is my friend

Thanks to Alan’s comment, I started searching for clips that relate to what I practice – and there are quite a few interesting ones!

• Here is Sim Pooh Ho demonstrating the applications of his taiji gong. It includes the “knocking down 8 men at once” feat that I’ve seen his brother doing several times…
• … and here he is performing the small-frame Yang taiji set. I saw him doing this at the Nam Wah Pai centre in Geylang a couple of years ago.
• Here is his teacher, Wu Tu Nan, doing the same set, at a slower pace.
• The taiji form I’m studying at the moment is the one developed by Cheng Man Ching in the 1930s and refined while he was in Taiwan. Here is clip of him performing a truncated set, plus some examples of self-defence/push-hands application.

[Updated August 01 to correct the names; sorry for that slipup, and thanks to Pern Yiau for bringing it to my attention]

I’m shocked, shocked!

There’s an interesting piece in the Guardian today about the healing power of electricity. Apparently it’s quite an old idea, but had been overlooked until recently. Can the body’s electrical fields and currents be manipulated by the mind? How about by needles? The resonance with qigong, acupuncture, and other traditional Chinese medical practices is clear…

Train stops play

The North-east MRT line has apparently, been knocked out by a power failure. That meant that when I went to Outram Park station, I couldn’t get access to the East-West line either. I could either get to tonight’s taiji lesson in Toa Payoh by waiting for a shuttle bus to Dhoby Ghaut, or I could walk to Tanjong Pagar station and get the train from there. Either way would mean arriving quite late for class, and I have a thumping headache to boot, so no class for me tonight!

Another Nam Wah Pai demo

It seems that it was Nam Wah Pai who were saying that their master can project qi across a distance. It’s not the Master Sim I know (Sim Poh Huat), but his elder brother , Sim Pooh Ho, who lives and studies Taiji Gong at the Nam Wah Pai centre in Kunming, Yunnan Province, in China. There was an advert in Thursday’s Straits Times for an exhibition to be held today. Unfortunately, something work-related has come up at the last minute, and I don’t think I’ll be able to go. Here’s the text of the advertisment anyway:

In 1964, Master Sim Poo Ho founded Nam Wah Institute of Self-Defence, which was later known as “World Nam Wah Pai”. In 1978, he was accepted by the eminent Grandmaster Wu Tu Nam of China as one of his lineage-holder disciples. In 1986, he was awarded the highest honour of Gold-belt 10th dan by combined Singapore martial arts groups. In the same year, he was awarded P.B.M. by the President of Singapore.

Last Oct, in accordance with his philosophy that personal achienvements should be used for the benefit of all, he and his disciples in Singapore regrouped as the World Nam Wah Taiji Gong Association. Promoting exclusively the true and traditional art of Taijigong as passed down by Grandmaster Wu Tu Nam. This change of status to a non-profit Members Association is to manifest more effectively the belief that World Nam Wah was created to serve its members and ultimately society as a whole.

Under his 42 years of leadership, World Nam Wah extended its establishment to Malaysia, Taiwan, Japan, Germany, Australia, New Zealand, Chile, Argentina and Ecuador, bringing the Ancient Chinese Art of Health and Well-Being to hundreds of thousands of learners.

World Nam Wah Taiji Gong Association is currently the sole organization representing Master Sim Pooh Ho in Singapore.

In addition, only the instructors tested, graded and appointed by World Nam Wah Taiji Gong Association are authorized by Master Sim Pooh Ho to teach Wu Tu Nam Taijigong in Singapore.

This Sunday come and join us for a demonstration at 2pm, Lam Ann Association, Mohd. Sultan Road.

Master Sim Pooh Ho will be present to oversee the events and, if the response is favourable, he will demonstrate the Taijigong Ling Kong Jin – Self-defence without physical contact. We welcome any questions on Health, Taiji, and Qigong.

$9.50 and 3 hours of my life…

… wasted on the latest Pirates of the Caribbean. I was saying to a friend just the other day that I was afraid to go and see it. I loved the first one, and I was really afraid that they would do a Matrix on it – ie, ruin one good film with bloated, overlong, self-indulgent sequels.

Well, they have. What a piece of tripe. What a waste of money. It’s so… oh well, it’s just rubbish. If you haven’t seen it yet, spare yourself, and don’t let your fond memories of the first one be soiled.

Practicing in public

Took a fairly big step today, if only in overcoming my self-consciousness!

I found I had a free evening, so I decided to do some exercise in Duxton Plain Park, over by the Tanjong Pagar Centre. There’s a ‘fitness point’ there, with benches for sit-ups, log lifts, etc, and it has deep sand all around it. It also has a point for pull-ups, with metal bars supported by three substantial posts, set in a triangle. The posts are about arms-width apart. It’s ideal for practising bagua!

I was there for about an hour, and attracted the attention of one of the regulars; he’s a man in his fifties, I think, and is there most nights with an assortment of poles, spears and swords. We’ve spoken on a number of occasions, as I often see him when I’m on the way back from the NTUC supermarket, or coming out of meditation class at the Odiyana Centre. He knows I’m interested in martial arts, but he was astonished to see me practising bagua – so I got quizzed on how long I had been learning, where, with whom etc. He complimented me on getting the stepping right, though he was being too polite, I think.

Anyway, I had a good workout, and did one set of taijiquan as well. I should go there to practice more often.

Oh, and see here for what bagua practice with poles should be like!

A visit to Nam Wah Pai

By coincidence, a couple of days after Master Chong was talking about Nam Wah Pai, I saw from an advert in the Straits Times that they would be giving demonstrations the next weekend. I decided to go along.

It followed exactly the format of the demonstration I first saw three years ago: various students citing the health benefits of qigong, followed by demonstrations of qigong’s effectiveness. A 73-year old man had poles broken over his belly and back, but even I’ve done that! Then he went one further, and had a couple of poles broken as they struch his throat, which I wouldn’t like to try myself… Next, a student lay on a bed of nails, and was thumped on the stomach a couple of times with a sledgehammer; then someone jumped onto his stomach from a stepladder. Another student bent a spear while the point rested against his throat… I’ve seen it all many times before!
Master Sim gave his trademark demonstration of knocking down eight guys simultaneously; one of his students (his nephew, if I recall correctly) also did it, which is the first time I’ve seen anyone other than Master Sim do it.

All of this was interspersed with Q&A sessions; in the end, I snuck out after two hours as I had to go on elsewhere. It was nice to see them all again. Master Sim and several of the senior students recognised me from when I was a member, and were asking what I’d been up to. The place hasn’t changed much. One thing I did notice: Desmond, who I mentioned in a previous post, used to have his picture on the wall next to Master Sim’s and the honorary president’s, as a benefactor of the school. The other two pictures are still there, but his has gone; I wonder what happened? (Not that I am too bothered; he was nice enough but I never knew him well).

So, on the whole, I am rather looking forward to when I’m able to go back there, and start learning their qigong methods again…

The path to enlightenment

I don’t have time to write about it in detail, but last night I attended the first class of a course at Kong Meng San Phor Kark See Monastery. It’s an intermediate course for those with a grounding in Buddhism, and who want to learn more. It will cover the fundamentals of both Theravada and Mahayana Buddhist traditions (not sure if it also goes into Vajrayana as well). It was well attended, with maybe sixty people there. Most were Chinese, obviously, but a couple of other Europeans, and at least one Sikh.