The smell of books

The second-hand bookshop where I go so often must burn a lot of incense in their storerooms. Every turn of a fresh page releases a wave of exotic scents; every breath of wind stops my eyes in their tracks as my nose kicks into superuser mode and takes control of my sensorium. Is there a hierarchy of senses?

A good read

Alvin has posted a reference on his blog to The Cook and the Assassin, a wuxia blog-novel. It’s well-written and entertaining, so I mention it here to help its googlejuice!

Alex Kozma – baguazhang in Singapore

So: I’ve signed up for a weekend masterclass run by Alex Kozma, to run in September. The class will be on the application of bagua techniques in combat, with some qigong techniques. Sounds very interesting. There’s a short video of him on YouTube; I guess this is the kind of thing we’ll be doing…

Getting those videos

I lost my blogging mojo for a while…. Still going to all the bagua and capoeira classes; Master Chong is away, so no taiji for a while.

One thing I wanted to mention  – as you can, see, YouTube is a great source for martial arts material. Sometimes, though, people take down a clip I really like – rarely, but it’s really annoying when it happens. Also, of course, we can never be sure how long a site like YouTube will be around. Perhaps one day we will wake up, and all of those great capoeira and bagua clips will have vanished. Oh no!

Well, there’s an answer, which I found via a Slashdot discussion about something else. If you use Firefox, you can download an extension that lets you save video from YouTube and other sites to your computer. Very useful. I’ve triedit out, and it works for me.

You’ve got to move fast

After Friday’s capoeira class, a few of us were talking in the kopitiam. I mentioned seeing in the Straits Times that Saint Jack, which was unbanned recently, would be having a couple of showings in the Arts House.

This film was famously filmed surreptitiously on location in Singapore, with the Film Board having been given a totally different working title and plot synopsis by the film makers. On release, when the authorities here saw what the film really was, they immediately banned it.

I would love to see it. Since it was filmed on location, it’s pretty much the only way to see the old Singapore, the entrepot port city before  development kicked in and destroyed so many old communities and ways of life; the Singapore that Conrad would probably still have recognized.

So, yesterday I went to buy a ticket.It was completely sold out. I should have run there as soon as I saw the announcement in the paper, I guess. You gotta be fast in this town…

Back to the park, & new contacts

Sunday night, I headed back to the park, with the aim of more bagua practice. I put my bag down on the bench next to the pull-up tripod, and started walking circles, a little stiffly because recently I haven’t been exercising as much as I should.

Mr Ng was there as usual, and came over to watch, and asking questions. Why was I practising on the sand? Well, I figured that since the sand is uneven, it would help my balance, and strengthen my ankles, to walk there. Why use the tripod? Well, two reasons: first, because it gives me a circle to walk around, and second, I wanted to use the poles as punchbags, to study the applications as I practised.

Mr Ng wasn’t impressed. I should practise on the level ground and get good there, and only then try the sand. Anyway, Bagua is an internal art: the power comes from the qi. If my qi isn’t strong, and I can’t direct it, I would just hurt myself. My qi isn’t strong, and I can’t direct it. I showed him the open-finger gloves I bought last week for just this purpose. He didn’t need to say anything; his expression conveyed clearly what a silly idea that was. I suspect I will never use those gloves now; I’d be too embarrassed.

As for a circle, Mr Ng produced some chalk and, using one of his poles to guide us, we marked out a circle about 2m across on the pavement. Now, he said, show me your bagua walk. So I did. And it was rubbish – my muscles were out of shape, I couldn’t sink my qi, and my old ankle injury keeps twisting one foot out of line. I felt very small. Also – in mitigation – the pavement there is much more ’sticky’ than the car park where I have lessons, or than the sand, so I guess it’s less forgiving of bad technique.

Mr Ng gave me some good advice, which actually made an immediate improvement. He said that when he learned bagua, ihs teacher had made him practice for an hour and a half, three times a week, for three months – just on the walking, before beginning any of the palm changes. That’s real old-school!

It turns out that he was taught by a master who came over from Shanghai, and he had one fellow student, a Spaniard. He knows the dragon and horse forms, and showed me onepalm change I’ve never seen before. Cool.

Anyway, later that night, I re-established contact with Alvin, who’s just found this blog (hi Alvin!). Way back at the beginning of my MBA, I attended xingyiquan classes for a while with Alvin’s teacher, Victor Chong. Alvin gives a great introduction on his own blog. What with my workload, and the travelling time from NTU, I had to give it up. Without any disrespect, xingyi isn’t really my thing anyway. I appreciate its power, for sure, but I want to work on the three I’m already studying. Still, if Master Chong (Victor, not Rennie – dammit, why so many Master Chongs?) were to start a bagua class, I would definitely be interested (hint, hint).

Happy Birthday, Singapore!

Today is Singapore’s national day, celebrating the separation from Malaysia in 1965. Happy Birthday, little red dot.

Baguazhang becomes social

I managed to tear myself away from a work-heavy Saturday to get to bagua class on Saturday night. The preparations for National Day seemed to have been completed, so no helicopters buzzed us this time. Class was interesting enough, as usual, and we started covering the fifth palm. After class, I was chatting to some of the other students, and one mentioned that a group have started meeting on Sundays to revise what they have learned so far. I was invited to come along as well.

So, the next evening, as I’d finished all my meetings for the day, I met them at the agreed place, opposite the Pearl Centre in Chinatown. There were seven, including me: skeletal but sprightly Uncle Chong (who used to be in army logistics), Uncle Wong (I think) who writes notes on every move in a little notebook, and two aunties whose names I haven’t caught (one is the old lady who has real trouble remembering moves who I mentioned before; she’s very quiet, and doesn’t say much. The other auntie is much more lively – she’s the life of the party, always chattering, and has studied taijiquan a lot). There were also two younger guys – Jono, the baby-faced personal banker, and a Chinese lad who’s come from Fujien Province to work in an air-conditioner factory here. A very diverse group!

The lively auntie said she knew a good place to practice, so we followed her… to Duxton Plain Park, where I normally practice! There was a lot of talk about Chin Woo, but I couldn’t really follow it. We practised for about an hour and a half, going through the sequence that we’ve learned so far. Everyone took turns to be the leader, giving the group directions on when to turn and in which direction, etc. It’s a good idea, because that way everyone has to think through the moves, and can’t skip over bits they’re not sure of!

While we were practising, the Chin Woo member I always see there came by, carrying his poles and swords; he watched for a while, and then left without comment.

Afterwards, we all went to a nearby foodcourt, and the lively auntie treated us to dinner! It was a very nice get-together, and I’m happy that something social is emerging from class.

Last night, I was heading home with my shopping from NTUC, and saw the Chin Woo guy practising in the park. I stopped to chat, and he said he hadn’t stopped on Sunday because he had nothing much to say to beginners – we need to work and improve before we have things to talk about. I asked his name; he’s Mr Ng, and he’s been studying martial arts for over twenty years.

Another public practice session

Back to Duxton Plain Park again tonight. I was feeling a bit stressed about one thing and another, and had a free evening, so I figured it would be a good time for some exercise. I really didn’t feel like making the effort, and went out rather later than I had planned, but I’m really glad I did.

I managed two repetitions of the taiji form, a little bit of capoeira, and quite a lot of bagua, once again at the triple poles. Because I don’t practice anywhere nearly enough outside class, it took me a while to get up to speed, but eventually I was able to go through the first four changes of the lao ba zhang reasonably quickly and fluidly. I also practised changing directions with the millstone-pushing palm quite a lot.

In itself, it was good practice; I’ve improved my balance and style somewhat, and helped to commit the moves to muscle memory. The added value, however, came – as always – from the people who were watching. There was a basketball game going on in the courts adjacent to where I was practising, and a couple of kids were pretending to watch that, but whenever I changed direction quickly I could see that they were watching the bagua. The old guy who practices there almost every night opened up a bit, and revealed that he knows bagua as well; he learned in Shanghai, and used to practice regularly, but stopped in the early 90s. He mentioned (if I understood his mix of Mandarin and English correctly) that he would teach me bagua sometime. Cool. Also: he says he is a member of Ching Woo (I’d been wondering; some of the people I know there knew his face, but weren’t even sure themselves if he was a member!).

Then, when I turned around to leave, I noticed that another man, a guy in (I think) his late 30s/early 40s who had also been watching me practice, was himself doing a bit of bagua. I went to chat to him, and he was a bit alarmed, apologizing in Chinese for not speaking English. I tried out my mangled Mandarin, which was enough to establish that he knows Yinfu style bagua (I only know Cheng style), and that he’s a mainlander working as a senior chef in a Beijing-style restaurant very close to where I live. He gave me his name card, and I will definitely contact him. I love the way Singapore keeps throwing up these martial arts surprises: there are definitely more layers here than just ‘the air-conditioned nation‘.

Taiji fighting

As I’ve mentioned several times before, Master Chongteaches taijiquan as a practical martial art. Since I go to the smaller Saturday class, when he focusses on this, I’ve seen him give fa jin demonstrations. Last night, the advanced class at Toa Payoh (myself included) got a fresh example. One of Master Chong’s fellow students under Huang Sheng-hsien paid us a visit. A short, laughing man, with a barrel chest and biceps, forearms and belly to match, he gave us instruction, and many demonstrations of the fighting applications of taijiquan, including fa jin, joint locks, throws, and strikes – as well as the use of song (softness) to avoid injiry from the same.I didn’t catch his name and, unfortunately for me, he only really spoke Mandarin. The demonstrations spoke for themselves, though. Amazing.