| China 2004 Travelogue |
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Page 4 of 4 | ||||||
| The ceremony went over 2 days with the first day being taken up by speeches, stories and demonstrations. The second day was the more formal ceremony where the Hong family and their head disciples gave Master Chen Zhonghua the status of International Standard Bearer. While waiting for the ceremony many old friends, students and disciples came to visit. In the photo below Master Chen visits with Master Meng who was Grandmaster Hongs teaching assistant for many years and Master Chow, a disciple of Grandmaster Hong. | |||
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| Visiting with old friends | Lots of stories to tell | ||
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| While waiting Ronnie Yee entertains with magic tricks | |||
| During the first days activities we met many of Grandmaster Hongs disciples that we had only previously heard of. They and their students spoke about Chen style taiji and Grandmaster Hongs teaching in particular. A few of the masters got up to demonstrate the points they were making and at one point a large area in the room was cleared so that demonstrations could proceed. It was really great to see all our taiji brothers performing their sets and to realize that we all belonged to the same taiji family. The performances of Yi Lu, Ar Lu, sword, broadsword and applications were wonderful if only to confirm that what we in the West were doing was the same as our Chinese brothers. The performances of course were also very well done. Several of the people in our group were asked to push with some of Li Enjiu's students. We didn't know if this was to be competitive or a demonstration but soon found out when we ended up on our butts. These gentlemen train very hard at competitive push hands and are very smooth in their delivery. Maybe we'll have better luck next time. The first day of the award ceremony ended shortly after and we went back to our hotel to train, eat and rest. Tomorrow would be the day that Master Chen Zhonghua would receive his formal award. | |||
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| Head table | Master Chen Zhonghua and Master Lee An Jou | Grandmaster Hongs sons | |
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| The Hong family presents Master Chen his award | |||
| This part of the ceremony took place in a different building on another hot, sunny and humid day. At the head table were Grandmaster Hongs sons, some of the higher placed disciples and Li Enjiu and Chen Zhonghua. A Master Chow, from Heze city, was there and you can see the typical relaxed style of the Chinese in that he has his granddaughter sitting with him. Speeches were made honoring Grandmaster Hong, his teaching, his disciples and Master Chen Zhonghua. Most of this was in Chinese and although we had interpreters in the group at lot of it was lost on us unfortunately. Then came the moment we had been waiting when both of Grandmaster Hongs sons presented Master Chen Zhonghua with the award giving him the status of International Standard Bearer. It was very thrilling to be present at such a prestigious gathering and to see your own teacher given such a high honor. A slight shadow was to be cast on the events shortly however. Or so I thought at the time. The final outcome was not what I expected at all. Two men came in to issue a challenge to the Hong family. This was a serious challenge and was treated as such. An agreement was made with the two men that they would be satisfied but they would have to adhere to national push hands rules, that they would respect one takedown as a win and that when it was over they would shake hands and remain friends no matter what the outcome. Once again the center of the room was cleared and the fight began. The first person to fight from Hongs side was a student of Li Enjiu's and I believe one of the national push hands champions. While he and the first challenger were fighting the challenger had his shoe blown apart as a result of a foot sweep. Li Enjiu's man was substituted out and a younger, less experienced fighter was put in his place. This was Han Yue, who travelled with us for a lot of our trip. A real gentleman and a fierce competitor. He took the first challenger down after some pretty intense fighting. The challengers friend then got up and said that he had to avenge his friends loss. Han Yue took him on also and also defeated him. Fast and furious and a good look at how the Chinese system works. Challenges are apparently quite common. I managed to find only one photograph of this so far. I still hope to find a few better ones.  If you enlarge this photo you can see Han Yue standing over one of the defeated challengers. The final outcome of all this was that the two challengers attended the banquet that night with us and the men they fought. They all had their pictures taken together and seemed to have a very nice friendly time with each other. I liked that. | |||
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Gordon Muirs book Yang Style Traditional Long Form T'ai Chi Ch'uan: As Taught by Master T. T. Liang is now available for purchase online and through your local bookstore. |
