Have you heard about one of the latest online crazes? We have had the Flash Mobs, the Harlem Shake, the Ice Bucket Challenge, and others… Well, now there is the Mannequin Challenge. Participants basically stand as still as a mannequin as someone walks around filming them.
I always thought that people frozen still while practicing their Tai Chi forms would be one of the easier Mannequin Challenges to do, as they are moving so slow to begin with!
Below is a well done video of a the Mannequin Challenge with a Tai Chi Class! If you think you can do better, submit your video and we will share your version of the Tai Chi Mannequin Challenge!
Sad news of the passing of Grand-master Henry Look (1925-2016), who was 90 years old. He left this world on Tuesday morning, November 29th. He was an accomplished martial artist, who specialized in the arts of I-chuan (Yichuan) and the Guang Ping style of Tai Chi Chuan.
Grand-master Look was named to the Inside Kung-Fu Hall of Fame, “Instructor of the Year” in 1997, also named among the 100 “Who Made The Greatest Impact In Martial Arts in the 20th Century”. Recently named to the USA Wushu Kung Fu Federation, Hall of Fame, Lifetime Achievement Award, Inside Kung-Fu, Hall of Fame, and “Man of the Year” in 2004.
Below is a video of an old interview of Henry Look where he also performs the Guang Ping style of Tai Chi Chuan on a cable TV show.
Grand-master Henry Look will truly be missed by the world’s Tai Chi community. Our condolences go out to his family, friends, and his many students. A celebration of his life will be held sometime after the New Year.
Cheng Jin Cai (1953 – 2016) passed away on Sunday, November 6th after a three month battle with pancreatic cancer. He was a 19th generation master of the Chen style of Tai Chi Chuan. Cheng began learning the Chen style of Tai Chi Chuan in 1970 under the guidance of Wang Xian, and continued studying with him until 1973. In 1973 he then began training under the famous 18th generation Chen Family Grand Master Chen Zhao Kui (1928 – 1981). He trained with Chen Zhao Kui until his death in 1983.
In 1994, Cheng Jin Cai move to the United States to live in Houston, Texas. It was there that he founded the International Chen Style Tai Chi Development Center in the same year. Cheng Jin Cai then became the only successor of Grand Master Chen Zhaokui in the United States.
Please enjoy the video below of memories of Master Cheng Jin Cai, which was put together by his students.
Cheng Jin Cai was very heavily involved in the Tai Chi community in Houston, the United States, and across the globe. Cheng Jin Cai was President of The US Chen-Style Tai Chi Federation, President of the Southern US Henan Association, Advisor to the United States of America Wushu-Kungfu Federation and US Tai Chi Federation, Leader of the International Chen-style Tai Chi Promotion Center. He was also Honorary President of the Jiaozuo Tai Chi Research Association of Henan Province, China, and Vice President of Jiaozuo City Martial Arts Association.
Cheng Jin Cai was the publisher of a U.S. magazine called “World Kung Fu”, and produced numerous books and videos on the instruction of the Chen style of Tai Chi Chuan. He worked tirelessly to promote the Chen style of Tai Chi Chuan, and taught many students from around the world. He trained some of these students to become teachers to carry on the art that he had loved.
Cheng Jin Cai will truly be missed by the world’s Tai Chi community. Our condolences go out to his family, friends, and many students. The funeral service will be held at the Windford Funeral Home in Houston, Texas on Saturday November 12th, 2016 from 1:00pm to 4:00pm. All are invited.
Marvin Smalheiser, the founder, publisher, and editor of the popular T’AI CHI Magazine, passed away on October 21, 2016 from undisclosed causes. He was in his mid 80’s.
Marvin Smalheiser began learning Yang style Tai Chi Chuan in 1969 from Marshall Ho’o, who was a student of Tung Hu Ling. After learning from Marshall Ho’o, Smalheiser began learning from Tung Kai Ying, who was the son of Tung Hu Ling. In 1974, Smalheiser took over teaching Tung’s classes at his Tai Chi studio at the Silver Lake location because he was relocating to the West Side of Los Angeles
Smalheiser founded the T’AI CHI Magazine in 1977, at a time when information about Tai Chi Chuan could only be found in the odd book, or a rare article in Black Belt Magazine and Official Karate Magazine. Over the years, Marvin Smalheiser has provided an invaluable service to the practitioners of Tai Chi Chuan.
T’AI CHI Magazine featured interviews of notable Tai Chi masters from China, biographies of famous masters of the past, articles on Tai Chi styles, and training tips.
Our condolences go out to Marvin Smalheiser family, friends, students, and staff of the magazine.
This book is a compilation of Marvin Smalheiser’s own writings from his magazine “T’ai Chi” from its beginning in 1977 up to 2016 when he passed away.
The Professor: Tai Chi’s Journey West (First Run Features, 2016)
Collaboration. Tolerance. Innovation. Naturalism. Terms associated with the historically significant teachings of Cheng Man-Ching. Filmmaker Barry Stugartz has crafted a loving and respectful tribute.
“The Professor” as he was known, was the first major Tai Chi master from China to expose a generation of Americans to what until then had been shrouded in secret from Western culture. He felt the Eastern practice of internal arts like Tai Chi should be accessible to all. This was evident in the variety of students who were drawn to his classes in New York City in the mid-1960s. He pioneered teaching the art of Tai Chi as a healing practice, distinct from other martial arts, like Karate.
Cheng himself was a living example of Tai Chi’s healing energy and physical benefits, as he believed it improved his lung function. Likewise one of his students mentions in the documentary Tai Chi alleviated knee pain. Still another, with polio, found meditative release in the sword form. Two of my own sifu’s have similarly exorcised musculoskeletal demons through the assistance of Tai Chi and Qigong.
Director Barry Strugatz carefully builds a chronological journey of Cheng Man-Chin’s time in America, framed by chapters defining characteristics of the art of Tai Chi –naturalism (Daoism, or “the way”), relaxation and simplicity, healing, push hands, chi (energy) and philosophy. The number of former students who participated in the documentary is a testament to Cheng’s impact, years after his death. Strugatz, who also studied Tai Chi, is a writer and director. Both the Newport International Film Festival and Stony Brook Film Festival awarded his work on the short film Transformation in 2000. His screenplay lit up Jonathan Demme’s 1988 comedy Married To The Mob.
Cheng’s students interviewed on camera bring up the master’s other disciplines, including medicine, art, and especially calligraphy–itself a mirror of the art of Tai Chi.
“In Chinese calligraphy, a single dot requires as many as five distinct motions of the wrist and shoulder to be formed properly, and that same dot will be formed differently depending on which of the several tens of established styles you are studying. Once you are able to brush the dots, lines, hooks and circles, you must learn how to put them together into aesthetically balanced characters. After that, you learn to write the separate characters as if an invisible, unbroken line existed between them, to give them continuity and life.” [Mark Saltzman, Iron and Silk, 1987].
Please enjoy the official trailer of the documentary below:
Through Barry Strugatz and generations of Westerners influenced by the Cheng style of Tai Chi, a whole new audience is now able to appreciate the legacy of Cheng Man-Ching and the unbroken line of tradition for this non-verbal and peaceful communication.
If you are interested in viewing the documentary, you can find more information by clicking on the image below or following this link: The Professor: Tai Chi’s Journey West
Ma Jiang Bao (1941 -2016) passed away on October 12th, 2016. He was a well respected teacher of the traditional Wu style of Tai Chi Chuan. Ma Jiang Bao came from a long family history of the Wu Family Tai Chi Chuan. He is the third son of the well known Wu Ying Hua and Ma Yue Liang, who were the daughter and son-in-law of the famous Wu Chien Chuan.
Please enjoy the video below of Ma Jiang Bao teaching a Push Hands seminar in the summer of 2008.
Ma Jiang Bao worked hard in promoting and furthering the teachings of the traditional Wu Family style of Tai Chi Chuan which he had learned from his mother and father. In 1986 he went to Europe with his father, Ma Yue Liang to teach the family art. He eventually moved to Rotterdam, Netherlands, where he continued to teach the Wu style of Tai Chi. He traveled to countries such as Germany, Spain, Great Britain, and South Africa to teach seminars on the family’s art.
11,000 Tai Chi practitioners from all across the country gathered together in Handan, which is located in Hebei Province of northern China. On the ancient walls and on the streets of the city, even on the water, they performed a mass demonstration of Tai Chi together.
This type of mass demonstration of Tai Chi in China has been seen lately to promote the art of Tai Chi, one of the treasures of China.
Master Wei Lun Huang passed away at 11:25am on July 24, 2016. He was admitted to hospital on July 4th for a perforated colon. Unfortunately, it is reported that infection from the perforated colon spread leading to a kidney failure. Wei Lun Huang fell into a coma and never recovered.
Master Wei Lun Huang was well known and respected in the Tai Chi world. He started learning Chinese Internal Martial Arts when he was a child. Master Huang taught Yang style Tai Chi, Hsing Yi, Ba Gua, Liu He Ba Fa, and Chi Kung for over 35 years.
Below is a video of Wei Lun Huang performing the Yang style of Tai Chi Chuan at the “Taste of China” in 1988.
Grandmaster Yun Chung Chiang (1922 – 2016) passed away this last week. Y.C. Chiang was well known as a grandmaster of the Guang Ping style of Tai Chi Chuan. At the age of 28 he started training with the famous Guang Ping master Kuo Lien-Ying, where he learned the Gauang Ping style of Tai Chi Chuan, Hsingi, Bagua, and Shaolin Kung Fu.
Please enjoy watching Grandmaster Y.C. Chiang performing in this preview of his training DVD, which he made when he was 83-years-old.
Y.C. Chiang founded the Wen Wu School in Berkley, California in 1973. It was at this school that Chiang taught Chinese Martial Arts, Qigong, philosophy, and art. Y.C. Chiang was also a Doctor of Chinese Medicine, and operated a clinic out of the school.
Our condolences go out to Grandmaster Yun Chung Chiang’s family, as well as his many students.
Once again film maker Valdas Kotovas has produced another beautiful film capturing the events and people celebrating World Tai Chi and Qigong Day in Greenville, South Carolina on April 30th, 2016. The activities were held at the scenic Reedy River Falls Park. Communities like Greensville organize their local World Tai Chi and Qigong Day events to take place on the last Saturday of April at 10:00am local time around the globe.
The original video from this event is not available at this time. Please enjoy this video by Valdas Kotovas of the Greenville event held in 2015.
The 2016 World Tai Chi Day in Greenville included participants from various local schools of Tai Chi. Some of the schools which attended this this year, and are seen in the video, include Jimmy Dong and his Greenville Chen Style Tai Chi School; members of the Greensville Chinese Association; and George Gantt of the Equilibrium Zen Gym which teaches Yang 24, sword, and fan.
Valdas Kotovas filmed most of the shots using a BM micro cinema camera in Raw , and shots with a Gimbal using a Sony A7s. You can view some of his other wonderful films on his YouTube Channel. Music for the video is by the Desert Dwellers.
Cheng Jin Cai (1953 – 2016) passed away on Sunday, November 6th after a three month battle with pancreatic cancer. He was a 19th generation master of the Chen style of Tai Chi Chuan. Cheng began learning the Chen style of Tai Chi Chuan in 1970 under the guidance of Wang Xian, and continued studying with him until 1973. In 1973 he then began training under the famous 18th generation Chen Family Grand Master Chen Zhao Kui (1928 – 1981). He trained with Chen Zhao Kui until his death in 1983.
