What a stiff(ness)!

Wow, it’s been a pretty intense week martial arts-wise!

At the Nam Wah Taijigong Association, we’re working on the Yang-24 sequence now; for me it’s much-needed revision, as I haven’t practiced this for a long time. My practice of the sequence has also gotten a bit mixed up, as Nam Wah’s sequence is small-frame, whereas in Beijing I learned the large-frame version. We’re moving very slowly through the new moves, holding each position for what feels like very long periods! It isn’t really for very long, but a lot of muscles and tendons aren’t used to even short pauses in these positions, and complain vociferously!

As I mentioned, I’m now also studying twice a week with Master Zhou. I think he feels that this will give us plenty of time to finish the form, so last night we tried something new. Next to where we practice, there’s a trio of heavy upright wooden poles, set in a triangle and supporting metal bars for pullups. When I first started studying with Madam Ge, I used these to try to work out the applications for the moves; I stopped that fairly soon, after I was reminded that I needed to work more on the basics first. (Looking back on that post with hindsight is pretty interesting; I now know that Mr Ng was taught bagua by Master Zhou’s twin brother!).

Anyway, last night, Master Zhou decided to focus solely on applications. Normally, although he shows me a lot of these, we don’t do much repetition, so I tend to forget them. This time, he showed me a sequence of moves, and I just did them again and again, circling one of the poles and using it as my target, to a chorus of “Hit the eyes! Hit the eyes! Hit the balls! Hit the chest!” Etc, etc…. Hehehe, my contribution was to teach Master Zhou the English word “balls”, which he’s very pleased to add to his vocabulary of what to hit and how to do it!

This, as you can imagine, gathered a lot of attention from passers-by! We were joined for a lot of the lesson by a very tall, striking woman from Dalian and her small son, about six years old I would guess, who was totally fascinated by this! (The son, I mean, the mother less so). Master Zhou’s very good with kids, and chatted away happily to them as I kept on circling and striking… Later, the Chin Woo Lion Dancers started drumming away nearby; the boy really wanted to see this, so off they went to watch… After class, as I went down to where I practice solo, I passed the drummers and they were still there, the mother talking to Chin Woo students, the little boy doing gymnastics… They wouldn’t have been there if they hadn’t stopped to watch my practice; I wonder whether something has been set in motion that will change that little boy’s life, however slightly? It would be nice to think so!

So, then it was time for solo practice. Most of this was working on the needles form, trying to drill it into muscle memory, and getting it into the circle walking. Thank goodness I took that video of Mi Lao Shi – there’s absolutely no way I would have remembered this. With repeat views of the video, though, I think I’m getting it, and was eventually finishing the form in the same spot that I’d started in. After that, I wound down with some sets of CMC-37 taijiquan, and xuan xuan dao, before going to meet some of the Chin Woo folks in a coffee shop on Keong Saik Road.

This morning…. oh my…. my ankles and leg tendons ache from holding the Yang-24 positions…. my back and shoulders ache from the whirling and twisting of the needles form… my palms, shoulders , back of my heel and sole of my foot ache from hitting and kicking those poles! Ouch! Ouch!

Surfing midnight with the ghosts

Last night was the final night of the Hungry Ghost Festival. The area where I live was aglow with the flare of joss sticks jammed into cracks in the pavement, or in the borders of gardens. Anywhere with some kind of significance had people burning big piles of Hell Money on the street, and in the housing estates the old oil drums had been brought out to act as furnaces.

I  met my friends from Chin Woo, and watched as they burned Hell Money as offerings to the spirits. As I’m not a member, I didn’t take part, but that didn’t stop a certain person from being rude. Well, it didn’t matter, and like I say, the overwhelming majority of Chin Woo people are really cool Quite a few people took photos, and I also took some shots at one fire where only my friends were present. One thing people like to do is to study the pictures to see whether the flames form observable shapes; quite a few seemed to show lions, dragons, and the like, as well as some human shapes. I got one shot  that seemed to show “snakes” (as one friend put it) looping around the bystanders…

Anyway, tonight I’m off to Wales. I was saying to one of my friends last night, it’s a good thing I’m not superstitious… the ghosts were out in force last night, and – let’s face it – today is a pretty ghost-ridden date to be flying. I take off late at night, and arrive in Europe early in the morning, so my flight is going to be close to the date line all the way… surfing midnight with the ghosts, yay!

How… peculiar…

Over the past year, I’ve gotten to know quite a few of the teachers and ordinary members of Chin Woo, and I’ve found them to be incredibly friendly and welcoming – really, really nice people.

Unfortunately, I can’t say the same of some of the people who don’t practice but hang around in the headquarters, who have consistently been the exact opposite. I didn’t blog about it at the time, but I had an unpleasant encounter with them a few weeks ago. I went along after their training had ended to meet friends who had gone back to the Association to get changed. When they came out, we chatted for a while and left. Later that evening I realized I had left my cap behind; it was a Tsinghua University cap which obviously can’t be replaced in Singapore, and which I’m quite attached to. Over the next few days, I went back a couple of times to try to get it back, and was met with an active lack of interest from the caretaker there who simply refused to help, and tried to even ignore my presence. He certainly wasn’t going to give me my cap back, even though it was in plain sight and I was clearly saying “that’s my hat, can I have it back?” in English, Mandarin, and gestures. The manager there was also rude when I tried to explain to him. In the end, I did get my cap back, but with no help whatsoever from either of them.

I mention this to give context to what happened this morning. I wrote a few weeks back that I planned to join the Association, as I’ve been encouraged to do many times over the last year by ordinary members. I asked one member to check out the prices for me. I was told that for foreigners it’s S$300/year; for Singaporeans and Permanent Residents it’s S$15/year, with a minimum of 3 years, so S$45. I’m a PR, so I would fall into the latter camp. I need to emphasize that the person who provided this information is a senior member of many years’ standing, who knew who the enquiry was for and what my status is, and who is unlikely to have got this wrong. That was two weeks ago.

Today, I popped in to finally join. In the office was the same manager who was rude to me before. I explained that I wanted to join, and was told $300. When I mentioned that I’m a PR, I was told, still $300. I pointed out I’d been told that PRs paid the same price as Singaporeans, and he said that the committee had passed a resolution that PRs should pay the same as foreigners. If that’s the case, it’s happened in the last two weeks. I wonder what the motivation for that was. Anyhow, I said that it’s a big difference, and maybe I wouldn’t join right now, he just gave a dismissive wave, and said “That’s your choice, I leave it to you, lah”.

So I didn’t join. I could afford it, even though it’s a big difference, but to be honest I just don’t feel like it any more. Why pay to join something when you’re not welcome? It doesn’t affect my lessons with Master Zhou at all, as those are on a private basis. I just feel it’s a real pity, as the ordinary members are such nice people, and Chin Woo has such an illustrious history it would be nice to be a small part of it. Well, never mind.

Wuji 101

Last night I headed on down to Duxton Park for my first lesson with Master Zhou. I’m still digesting it, so I won’t say too much yet. He made it clear that he teaches bagua to be used; he also knows the “pretty” baguazhang used in the “national forms” for performance, but that’s not what he teaches.

We spent most of the lesson trying to get me to do the single palm change at least tolerably well: naturally, it’s different from what I’ve studied before. I have a lot, and I mean A LOT, of work ahead of me just to on this: getting the palm positions right, waist flexibility, gua strength and expansion, weight sinking, chin position, and so on… He’s really detailed in his explanations, talking about exactly where the strength and ‘li’ should be in the hands, very hands on about which muscles should be tense or slack, and so on.

Just from the single palm change, he hit me at least thirty different ways. It got to the point where I could only laugh at my own helplessness. When he says he teaches the use of bagua, he isn’t joking! My oh my…

There’s a scene in the Matrix that goes like this:

Tank: We’re supposed to start with these operation programs first. That’s major boring shit. Let’s do something a little more fun. How about… combat training.
Neo: Ju jitsu? I’m gonna learn Ju jitsu.
[Tank winks and loads the program]
Neo: Holy shit!
Tank: Hey Mikey, I think he likes it. How about some more?
Neo: Hell, yes. Hell yeah.

I kind of feel like Neo did. Hell yeah, let’s have some more of this… Master Zhou originally suggested that we meet on both Wednesdays and Fridays; I counter-suggested just Fridays, in order to keep Wednesday free for other training. After last night, frankly I would be happy to move to twice a week. Even so, I think it may be better to stay once-a-week for a while, simply because these are early days, we don’t really know each other yet, and it may be best to go slow. My reason for saying this is a familiar one: my poor level of Chinese. It’s difficult for both of us, but at least I’m used to it! It was pretty clear that Master Zhou found it frustrating to not be unable to convey everything he wanted to. Luckily, there were a lot of Chin Woo people around, and some were able to help translate, but it’s not something to rely on. So one part of me says, take it slow, get the basics first before increasing the lesson frequency. (The other part says, to hell with that start learning fast!). Hehehe.

Some of his other bagua students, from the group I met before, were also around, and I chatted a bit to them. They invited me to come along to their group revision sessions, but unfortunately I’m not free when they meet up.

After our lesson finished, I went back to my normal training spot, a bit further down the park from Chin Woo, and revised what I’d learned on my own. After that, a cycle through my other forms, and a bit of xingyi revision. The xingyi forms haven’t really gotten into muscle memory yet, so I’m still fairly unsure with them. I need to spend a bit of time reviewing the videos and mimicking the movments, I think.

Finally, later in the evening, back up to where Chin Woo were packing up, to chat to some of the guys there. I’m getting to know some more of them now, and they’re really welcoming. I need to revise to my attitude to aging, I think – some of the most dramatically acrobatic members of the lion dance troupe are guys in their late 40s or 50s!

Wuji is go

Got a phone call just now: it was Master Zhou’s landlady, acting as his interpreter! Basically, the upshot is that I am now going to start studying wuji baguazhang with him, every Friday night. He did suggest Wednesday night as well, but I have to keep some time free to keep on practicing the other styles I’m learning! So… this should be interesting; I don’t know much about wuji style, but I do know that it’s unlike any of the Cheng-style sets I’ve studied so far…

This is the only thing that comes up when I search for a video of the wuji form:

and this, from the same guy:

Guess I do have to join Chin Woo now!

The down side is that I had to make a choice between this, and learning Drunken Sword with some of my classmates (and friends) from Madam Ge’s class. Tough choice… but I don’t know, I think my path is the Chinese internal styles, and Drunken Sword may be a distraction, as capoeira was last year… not that I wouldn’t like to learn them, but I can’t do everything just now!

Meeting Master Zhou

I’ve got a cold again; well, more of an itchy cough that’s migrating down to my chest and is probably going to get worse over the next few days. Last time I went out to practice with a cold, it just made things worse and I was sick for a week, so I decided to skip my usual Friday night practice session.

I didn’t want to stay at home though, so I headed up to Orchard Road in the hope of catching Summer Palace, a new Chinese film set in the Beijing of 1989. That was on my mind anyway, because I’d been discussing a video of the Tiananmen massacre earlier that day, and was feeling a bit melancholy about it all. In the event, when I got to the cinema the film was sold out. Here’s a trailer for it from when it was shown at Cannes last year (warning: mature content):

I hope to catch it some other time; if not, I’m sure I’ll get to see it in Beijing when I go in June. Even watching the trailer makes me feel a bit old, and bittersweet about looking back to 1989 which in so many ways was such an idealistic time. A few weeks after the Tiananmen massacre, I took a solo train journey across Europe, arriving in Poland days after the first Solidarity government captured power from the Communists, and missing my only chance to see the Berlin wall, which fell shortly afterwards… Even more, it makes me miss Beijing’s energy and that mix of arty bohemianism and intellectual buzz… sigh…

Anyway, having missed the film, I headed back towards home. On the way, I realized that the Chin Woo people would be finishing their training about that time, so I popped in to say hi to my friend there. Most people had actually already left, but Master Zhou happened to be there. Apparently (I’m told) he is now here long-term to teach with Chin Woo. This was the first opportunity I’ve had to talk to him, so I asked him about the Wuji baguazhang. He is teaching it, and has a slot available to give me classes… As per usual with my martial arts teachers, he doesn’t speak English, and his Mandarin accent is quite different from the Beijing and Singapore versions that I’m used to! So, we chatted for a while; I asked him if wuji was in fact a Yinfu derivative – but, in truth, I couldn’t follow his answer! Anyway, there are still a lot of things I need to clarify – but the opportunity is certainly there to start learning this style… Heheh, he mentioned that I’m certainly going to have to improve my Chinese, but he doesn’t think my low level is necessarily going to be too much of a problem. Nevertheless, it’s probably just as well I’m already talking to a couple of private tutors about Mandarin lessons…

Fu style bagua form and applications

Convergence again…

Here’s a very interesting clip that I found late last night, posted by Cyberkwoon – whose martial arts forum I think I first joined in 2001/02 – before I moved to Singapore, anyway!

It’s Fu style bagua, discussed and demonstrated by a master from Chin Woo in Hong Kong. I’ve discussed Fu style a lot here, since I first saw it demonstrated at Chin Woo Singapore’s anniversary show (by a different master from the Hong Kong branch). This form is different to the Dragon form I linked to before, and is much closer to what I was shown by the guys I met last Friday.

Unfortunately, I don’t speak Cantonese at all, so I don’t understand anything that’s said in this clip. The applications speak for themselves, though – before seeing this, I confess I had wondered how Fu style moves would be applied. Now I now…

Convergence

Ever get the feeling that fate is pushing you in a certain direction? I’m starting to get that. Lots of interesting martial arts things happened over the last couple of days…

Last night, out to practice as usual. For the first time in a week or two, I was able to practice with a pretty clear mind, so the taijiquan flowed smoothly; that felt good. Then several sets of the ba mu zhang, followed by long xing baguazhang, rounded up by the sword set, with a couple more sets of taijiquan to wind down.

All good, though I’m having a bit of difficulty still in sinking my weight fully, and my mud-stepping is really messy at the moment. However, the real interest of the night was in people…

First of all, when I arrived, Mr Ng was there doing his warm-up qigong. This is common: he starts off there, and then goes to practice his routine at the other end of the park, near the exercise equipment. Last night he came across to ask me whether I would be interested in teaming up to start a class studying xingyiquan with Chin Woo’s Master Zhao. I’ve spoken to Master Zhao before, and seen him teaching students in a couple of other forms. On that occasion, I got the impression that he was only visiting for a short period, but it seems that he’s actually been here for a couple of years, so I think perhaps he’s here for a long stay. A number of people have told me that he’s very good, and suggested that I study with him.

Well, Mr Ng’s suggestion came at an interesting time: only the night before, I’d started xingyiquan classes with Madam Ge – which will last for 5 months. I’m pretty new to xingyiquan, so I don’t know how much I’ll like it. I think it will be good, though. Going off on a tangent, I mentioned before that most of what I knew of xingyi concerned its directness and focussed mentality. However, I’ve been reading up on it, and I’ve been struck by how many masters say that xingyi remoulds the body, and that if you are sick when you start, xingyi will remake you (in particular, I’ve been reading Jess O’Brien’s Nei Jia Quan). And in fact, I really felt something in tha first lesson, of tendons being stretched and postural defects being highlighted quickly; this is going to be an interesting experience….

Anyway, so I had to say that although I was interested in learning xingyi, he was asking just a bit too late! (Anyway, I like Madam Ge’s training style).

Later on, as I was working on the long xing set, a group of about ten guys passed along and stopped to watch. I’ve never seen them before, so I was a little startled, but it turns out that they also all belong to Chin Woo; they also study with Master Zhao, but in their case, they’re learning baguazhang! I gave them a quick demo of the Long Xing form (or at least, the first six palms, which is all I can do at the moment), and one of them gave a demonstration of what they’re learning. It looked very similar to what Master Ku demonstrated – which is to say, in my really very limited experience of all the different bagua lineages, looked closer to Fu style than anything else I’ve seen. I asked them what it was; it’s also a dragon form, and comes from “Wujimen” (?) baguazhang, which they say is only really taught in Shanghai. They couldn’t tell me more than that. What was really impressive is that the guy who demonstrated has only been learning for two months, but they’ve been doing it 3 times a week and already know the full set; it was also clear from his movements that they’ve been paying attention to the details of the movement. Very interesting… They suggested I join their Sunday night class, which is actually a night when I’m free.

Shortly after, along came the taiji instructor from Chin Woo after class, who also stopped to say hi. After I’d finished my training, I went with a friend to a coffeeshop nearby for a beer – and on the next table were a couple more Chin Woo instructors, one of Hung Gar, the other of a ‘quan’ form whose full name I didn’t catch. We chatted for a while.

So. People have been inviting me for a long time to join Chin Woo; I’ve always said no because I really want to study baguazhang as my main art, and was under the impression that they didn’t teach it. For certain, I’m going to keep studying with Madam Ge, because I like her style. But I’m increasingly tempted now. I seem to be getting to know a lot of people there, and it’s cheap – apparently only S$15 pa, which gives access to all the classes (that’s the price for Singaporeans, someone else tells me that it’s a bit more expensive for foreigners). I suppose I’m also tempted by the Association’s heritage. And that bagua form looks really interesting… plus, I have to say: my first meeting with Chin Woo, and my going to their anniversary demonstration, actually set in chain a series of major changes in my life (I’ll spare you the story, but believe me – significant changes for the better). So perhaps it’s just fated that I should join…

Practising in public, redux once more

Well…

So, last night I was out in Duxton Plain Park again. I’d left work late, so didn’t start practising until after 8, which is later than I prefer. Anyway, same routine: one set of Yang-24, one set of CMC-37. Half-way through the latter, I noticed a oldish guy who was walking past stop, and then settle down on one of the benches next to my practice area. He watched me as I went through the Xuan Xuan broadsword set, then the bagua ba mu zhang that Madam Ge’s teaching, then through the basic bagua set that I learned in Beijing (not Zhang style Dragon Form, a different one).

When I stopped to take a break, he came over to chat, and started by telling me off for drinking water between sets (which, I suppose, is what all of my teachers have told me, but my goodness, in Singapore’s climate if I don’t drink water, I’ll pass out!). His name is Mister Ku, a short, white-haired gentleman, and he knows nanquan, wing chun, and southern baguazhang. He gave me a demonstration of a long set of wing chun, which he says is a different style to that commonly practiced in Singapore. As usual, communication was hampered by my dire Mandarin, but we were able to understand each other to an extent. He also gave a brief demonstration of his bagua, which looks quite different to what I know.

I may be wrong – and perhaps someone reading this will be able to enlighten me – but I think “southern baguazhang” means Fu style. I did some research on this before, because I saw a Master from Hong Kong (one of Fu’s disciples fled China to Hong Kong) performing it at the Singapore Chin Woo Association’s 85th birthday celebration. Apparently, Fu style has four palm sets. This clip shows the Fu Style Dragon Form, which isn’t the style Mr Ku showed me, but has some similarities):

After we’d talked for some time, he went on his way, and I did some sets of thesword form. I’m doing something wrong, because last night I kept on ending up some way to the left of where I started, I’m not sure why. While I was doing this, two men appeared on the rise above me, and lit a large number of big joss sticks, which burned brightly, sending thick clouds of aromatic smoke drifting down towards me.

After I’d finished, I met some friends from Chin Woo at a coffeeshop nearby. As I was tucking into my roti prata (and, hem hem, a Tiger beer), I felt a tugging at my sleeve – and at the next table was Mr Ku! He was with a group of older men, one of whom spoke good English. This was Mr Sum, who apparently also studies Wing Chun, and had seen me working on my sword form on Monday night. We talked for some time; they’re all members of the Cantonese clan house I wrote about almost exactly a year ago (and which we were sitting outside at the time; the drums were beating last night, as well). They offered me a tour of the clan house, which I’ll definitely take them up on when I get some free time. One the Chin Woo members knew them as well; they have an anniversary show of their own coming up, and we may get some tickets.

The caretaker of the clan house passed by; he had a small plastic bag full of marbles and ball-bearings. These are from occupants of the apartments on the other side of the road, who apparently get fed up of the drumming from the Lion Dance practice, and use catapults try to smash windows in the clan house. The drummers are acting legally, and obey the 10pm curfew set by law, so they’ve brought the police in to check the projectiles for fingerprints, and to try to track down the culprits – after all, these things could easily kill someone.

So there we are, another amazing night in the world of Singaporean martial arts culture. Fantastic. And I am simply astonished at how many people here seem to know baguazhang, once you scratch the surface!

Sacrifice, and attachment

Up at 6 this morning, and off to Duxton Plain Park to practise bagua. Got a good hour or so in, and actually managed to rise before the dawn chorus. Early morning practice has been an aim of mine for a few months now, but has always yielded to just a bit longer in bed. Recently, though, life is getting busy, and if I don’t get up in the morning to practice, I’ll get nothing done at all.

When I got to the spot where I normally work out, I found something interesting: a pile of smouldering paper, though whether it was ‘hell money‘ or something else, I couldn’t tell. Next to the pyre were a number of polystyrene cartons containing cakes, a number of glasses containing a yellowish liquid (beer? tea?) and a lot of burned-out joss sticks. I have no idea what this was for; I think ghost month is over, although on Sunday night I was practising in the same spot and there was a wayang performance in the next street. The Jing Wun Men lads were out as well this morning, going through their routines; lots of poles, halberds and swords in evidence.

This evening, it was off to dharma class for me; Wangchog, the Welsh monk, is back from his trip to New York. He’s a very funny talker; I laughed out loud a number of times during the dharma talk. His theme for the evening was “Why we lack confidence”; in essence, because we are too attached, and emotionally involved in, the environment we live in – but we can’t control it. He’s been told by his spiritual teacher that it’s time for him to learn Chinese if he wants to be a proper dharma teacher in Chinese Asia. He runs a course on Buddhist teachings on Saturday afternoons, which I never go to; the class times are the same as my new Chinese class, though, which is held nearby. I suggested that I call in on my way to the MRT station (before going to bagua class), and we can spend a while going over our Mandarin together. Could be interesting!