Well, to start weaving --------- Pan Cheng Miouw is the head of probably the oldest kung fu family in Yong Chun. Yong Chun is a small ( ish ) town in Fu Jian in China where I came 10 years ago to study kung fu. It turns out now on my return that I do have some sort of foundation although the foundation is all wrong. Anyway….so I don’t forget…..
( Kai Ba has returned )
Caught the plane from Mallorca to London. Then from London to Beijing where after a 6 hour sleep ( went out drinking last night in London just to make sure my body clock was completely fucked before leaving – and then stayed up on the plane and watched Tom Cruise’s ‘Last Samurie’ ) got on a plane to Xia Men on the South coast of China. Arrived there 11:00 and caught taxi in to town in a bid to find a cheap hotel. It would have been a lot quicker if I had remembered that the exchange rate as 15 instead of 1.5. This meant that I was chastising the taxi driver for the prices of hotels in china until eventually I was dropped off outside the town centre and assured me that he really really really could not find a cheaper hotel. In fact I only realised after I had payed that the hotel price was £11 and not the £110 that I had previously calculated. So on a wave of euphoria I explored the building to discover that right below my room was what I took for a brothel, but in fact turned out to be a Karioke bar. This explained the many businessmen in the building as well as the many beautifully dressed and made up young Chinese girls. Undeterred I headed into the night, found an outside restaurant where I ate and drank for 80 RNB ( 60 pence ) and felt generally at home with ( ahhhhh --- hot tea splashed lovingly by Mrs Pan desperately near my laptop… ) the cheap and dirty feel to it all. Now a little bit tipsy, I found a DVD/VCD shop where upon investigation I discovered that the DVDs were 15RNB ( er….£1 ) so purchased Kill Bill 1 and 2 as well as some other ( probably ) rubbish. The combined effect of being jet lagged, tea hyped and slightly pissed was enough to make me consider going into the Karioke bar and seeing what happened, but I was a good boy and watched Kill Bill 2 in my hotel room instead on this trusty laptop. I didn’t intend to watch it , just a couple of scenes, but once I got scene swapping I just couldn’t stop so I think I have pretty much covered most of the film, albeit not in the right order.
Slept like a log, and up bright and early the next day to find the bus station. However, the taxi drive offered to take me directly to Yong Chun for the princely sum of 300RNB ( £25 ) which I thought given the time constraints was a good idea. So – off we toddled – except once I accepted the fee was raised to 400RNB as his boss then told him where is was. He had little idea. About every 10 Km we had to ask people the way – no mean feat when you are travelling on a new Toll Highway. It was apparent also that he had never been on the highway before as he had no concept of the fast and slow lane, so we trundled happily along in the outside lane with our indicator going the whole way. To give you some idea of the amount of direction asking we did – from Xia Men to Yong Chun is about 150Km. By the time we got here we had driven 190 Km, and a 2 hour journey had taken 3 hours. Still – we got here and I opted for the biggest new hotel in town which was a very plush business hotel with rooms for 200RNB ( £15 ) per night – air con satalite tv – the lot, trundled upstairs after grabbing a bite to eat and phoning Pan Chan An’s house to let him know I was there and fell asleep on the bed in about 3 seconds.
I was awoken by my room bell to find a slight middle aged and quite dapper young man who turned out to be Pan Chang An himself. I was so exited that this was all working out or at least looked like it might. He instantly called his top student over to dance for me a little in the hotel room. Totally brilliant stuff. And then about ½ hour later Pan Cheng Miouw turned up as well to welcome me. This is the stuff of strangeness indeed. I lived with him 10 years ago for about 6 weeks studying, and have not seen, heard or spoken with him since. Then here he is in my hotel room. I was surprised how happy I was. I actually just sat there gobsmacked staring at him and grinning like a mad monkey for about 2 minutes taking in the changes in his fact – bit more grey hair sprouting from the centre of his head, and more gold teeth in his mouth. He is now 65 years old but it is difficult to see him that way in the same way it is difficult to see your parents grow older. Here they retire at 60, so he has nothing to do except sit in his lovely house, so I think is looking forwards to doing some work together. After grinning longer than was meant to happen between 2 grown men Pan Chang An left and I went home with Pan Cheng Miouw to the old house – but not before stopping at his son’s shop to drink tea. This was the potentially the beginning of a repeat of the mistake of my first visit 10 years ago. When you go to a Chinese house you are invited to drink tea ( he cha ). The cups are small, but inevitably you drink about 6 of them. Yong Chun is famous for its tea. It is green, aromatic and fully charged with caffine. This means in the course of the first evening when I visited, the son, Pans, Huangs, the students and also a random group of young teachers who had never seen and English man before I had consumed about 4 pints of wakey wakey liquid. What had I learnt from doing this the first time and not being able to sleep all night? Well with the correct ratio of 1 pint of tea to 1 litre of beer you can just about maintain the potential of sleep at the end of the evening.
Visiting old Huang’s house was the best. He passed away a few years ago. His wife who is like a female yoda was still here. Everyone came out in the gloom and sat around in the main room whilst Pan guided my terrible etiquette – standing before the huge picture of him in the main room, and giving a red present ( envelope with some money ) to the family. In all the old kung fu houses there are flags and photographs of people who have trained, but I was very surprised to find an old picture of me there on the wall in my favourite green jacket at the time.
I go now to practice upstairs a little. ( Lian Gong )
8th August 2004
It is now 4:00 am – the second and third day of jet lag are the worst here. A most excellent, confusing, sometimes depressing day. I was awoken by my trusty practice partner at 7:00 at the hotel, payed the bill ( 180 RNB - £12 ) got dressed and then onto his weaving motorbike up to his place for a cup of tea. Then over here to Pans for more breakfast a bit of practice and lunch. Lots of things transpired and there is no real order to telling them so I will just write them down.
Firstly, regarding the 2002 White Crane expo. There are 4 main schools in Yong Chun. Each of the schools gave demos at the expo. You can tell them apart because they each wore different colors. Pan Chen Miouw was in Blue, Su Yin Han in white, ??? in red and ??? in Yellow. In addition, all of the school heads gave demo dances simultaneously. I think this was to ensure that you saw so much you could not possibly remember it. There were people from all over, hong kong, Singapore etc etc . There was also Dennis Ngo’s lot from London. It is inconceivable that Dennis Ngo could not have know who Pan Cheng Miow ( PCM )was so I am not sure why he did not help me when I contacted him to get back into contact with Pan Shr Fu. Secondly PCM is the most directly senior teacher in Yong Chun. This is why at the Expo, when all the people from Yong Chun come out he is at the front. Therefore when Dennis wants me to explain who PCM is it will be very easy ‘ you know – he is the dude at the head of the Yong Chun demonstration delegation…..’. – sorry to bang on but this makes me a bit pissed off! – so much for the crane family. – actually to be reasonable I have always referred to PCM as Pang not Pan so may be if I had got his name right it would have helped.
Looking at the delegation, there are quite a few masters from Singapore. They are all quite big. I.e. in the Singapore crane I get the feeling being big helps. Other systems demo-ing also had big men, but not so consistently.
PCM has written a book on crane himself. In it he details 24 sets (some with weapons). It is not possible to learn a set from the book – they are partly written as descriptions, partly as movement names ( e.g. ‘White Crane Drinks from Water’ in San Jan ). He said he will give me a copy.
I showed him Helen’s vcd of Dong Yu Ma which he watched with great interest. His opinion was it was most likely Ming He. In the video there is quite an extended 2 man form. These 2 man forms are called Duie Dian ( against striking? ). There is lots of this in Crane, but they only take the form of short movements not extended sets. Of Helen’s forms he said ‘ Ke Neng Huai ‘ ( it is possible she can do it – i.e. she is quite good ). Also whilst watching the video the video he was doing some of the moved in mirror i.e. ‘Ahh that is one of these and that is one of those’. However, he said that it is not possible to critique other systems. Of the people in the white crane expo he did keep tutting and saying ‘ too fast ‘ or ‘ too wide ‘. No doubt this is the stuff of long and beer induced conversation long into the night between the players.
Most of Su Yin Hans stuff is from the family Pan. Of the other 3 main players here his is the most similar. May be this is why there is a bit of if not bad then at least not so good blood between the schools. I think the old thing about writing that book still grates a little.
Regarding old Mr Huang. I saw his wife again in the street outside our house. She was very thankful for the Hong Bau and cried. It was all very sweet. Huang’s title was Shr Fu as well, which is why in all the pictures of the current and passing away generation of masters he is in them. It is also why, when I first came here 10 years ago, the people in the town told me the best person to study with was Mr Huang. At that time he was one of the most senior white crane people in Yong Chun. PCM said his 3 pronged spear work was particularly good.
Regarding San Zhan – Oh my god I have changed it sooooo much!! – here are some preliminary notes:
San Jan is the shortest dance. Oh shit.
During the day, it became apparent that there were some quite important questions to discuss where my Chinese just kept failing. In fact I think it fails all the time, but I just blunder on, however for these issues I wanted to be clear. So I gave Kevin the teacher with whose friends I got drunk last night a bell, and he came over to translate. The issue is one of students. At the moment, most students only stay for a few years, then they go off to earn money. This means that it is currently not possible to teach this system fully to anyone. Of the 24 sets in PCMs book, no other students have learnt them all. In addition, there are no students here who do Duai Dian properly. PCM explained this is the way with the arts, it goes through highs and lows. He thinks we are going into a low. When people disperse with part of the system, they develop the part they know. This is how it changes. It is indeed more difficult to find a good student than to find a good teacher. He is quite open with all material and would like to video lots of stuff ( I think – will have to see ) and get it all on the internet. It seems to me that he is in a position where he is not yet old, but knows in another 10 years he may be. He has repeatedly asked me to teach students and spread the system even though he knows even better than me how crap I am. Then it will be possible for people to travel here to learn more properly. He would like to write the history of Yong Chun so I can translate it and put it on the internet. The main thing from all this which suprises me is that his enthusiasm to keep this alive is so strong, and he understands that this will not be possible from 1 inheriting student who has studied all his life. I also get the feeling that now he is retired he has too much time on his hands.
Lyall was here with Pan Chan An for 1 week. He studied San Jan and Shr San Tai Bau.
The award for the days most depressing moment came when Kevin was helping us discuss the big problem. We were talking about Shr San Tai Bau, when PCM said ‘Ahhh – but I did not teach you Shr San Tai Bau – I can if you like’. I thought initially that this meant that emphasis on the moves were wrong, but on watching the Crane Expo VCD I see the real dance is much longer. The problem here is that you have 4 masters performing sets at the same time and the camera’s switch between all of them.
However, the award for the most gratifying moment came doing arm conditioning when it turned out my arms are currently quite well conditioned. ( revenge on my old sparring partner was indeed sweet and funny !).
The outward hand grab and push is actually a pull ( the claw thing in Shr San Tai Bau ). Yes there is lots of Chi Na in Yong Chun Bai He although I will probably get around to learning very little. The best way to learn is slowly.
At one point he said we did Zhong He, but then he said we just do Yong Chun Bai He and that all other systems including Wing Chun are derivatives.
It occurs to me that now with the world opening up the flavours will mix in a new way. There will be many people who will close the circle. Homogenisation will be an impossibility as there is simply too much to learn and the contradictions will keep it all fresh.
These are the things I remember from today. I am now going to watch a bit of crap DVD now – or may be I will try to do that sleep thing that people do…I can hear song birds..
09 August 2004-08-09
First my notes:
San Zhan:
Shr San Tai Bau
Shiow Chian
That will have to do for now – I WILL write my things tomorrow morning…..
10 August 2004-08-10
Notes from this morning:
Shr San Tai Bau:
Shiow Chian
·
Finger sets and stikes are all open no curled fingers
( although set to position 2 is curled. )
· With the finger and claw over the top, lower the left hand as we go over the top then re-set to the original position
· With the low stance leg sweep the forward hand is higher and more open – ie this is not a symmetrical position
· With the turning combinations, after the 3rd move we are drawing up the energy ready for that downward strike. This is in terms both of the right shoulder being slightly higher and the tan tien being more focussed.
· On the turn, right foot across, left step, and then right re-set to the correct position.
Now for the increasing madness of the last 2 days. I will start with yesterday morning. We went to see Pan Chan An, and did the photo thing. There have been quite a few articles written by him in various magazines. Also read lots of very nice letters from Lyall, and saw lots of photos of him. A Swiss man has also been who teaches in the Phillapeans. He also has lots and lots of information about people who are abroad studying and I will get their address information. I think I will buy a USB scanner and then do that tomorrow morning, together with the old Pan photos. The boss of the overseas association then invited us to lunch so I was Bai Jiou toasted by everyone and then came home and fell asleep.
All in all not a very productive day, and yet these connections are the things of grown up kung fu – it seems San Jan is not enough!!
Yesterday we got up at 4:00 in the morning and went off into the night to try to make it to Nan An to a session which is run by one of Pan’s students. The exceedingly colourful Mr Chen Zau Lu! – after waiting a long time for a bus, and then a dawn ride we eventually got to Nan An at about 6:45. They practice in front of the main meeting hall which is quite a developed place. Many people doing Tai Chi and other exercises. Also playing a sort of beach tenniss but catching the ball and then doing little turns and spins with it on the bat before sweeping it back to the partner. Mr Ju has about 30 children in yellow uniforms doing crane forms. They have been doing it for 1 month. They have already leant 5 open hand forms, and 1 stick form. They practice 2 hours in the morning and 2 hours in the afternoon as there is no school at the moment. ( before I forget, and for Evert and Eric – the stick form had 2 or 3 no shadow kicks ).
After drinking tea, we all went outside, and Mr Chen did San Jan for me to see / film, and I did Shr San Tai Bau for him to see ( although can you believe I got lost in the middle..oops ). One of his students did a form from Shiouw Hu ( small tiger ) which was exceedingly beautiful and taught by him as well, and then all the students together danced through the routines. We then headed back to his place where we looked at his photos. He has taught literally thousands of students at schools and these morning sessions, and does a mixture of stuff although mostly Crane. He also has a computer and is all together quite forward thinking. Most importantly, he apropos of nothing got out his 2 stringed Er Ru and whilst we watched TV played away in the corner. It turns out he used to play in the theatre group. When I got out my camera he wanted us to go into next room, where he played just THE most beautiful 5 minute piece which I recorded. The instrument is tuned to D and A, and the bow sits in between the two strings, i.e. when the bow and instrument is strung up, you cannot remove the bow. The music as well is completely different from our 5 line stuff – more like guitar positions. A bit later one of his students turned up and she practiced in the room the rest of the morning whilst we were talking. His method of teaching was pretty much to show her something and then let her alone for about 20 min whilst she practices, and then go back and play with her following him. This is to say she did not use music. She had only been learning for about 10 days but it seemed to work quite well.
Following that – lunch and a Ze Chuan restaurant. The food was fantasic, and it soon descended into a drunken affair, with them playing drinking games. Mr Zhen has a great and fiery spirit – he is extremely animated and enthusiastic about life, the arts and music. This is lovely contrast to the otherwise knowledgeable / shy / taciturn / secretive / insecure traits which characterise many of the players here – I do not use these terms in a bad way, just the contrast is so great. He is definitely an altogether more urbanised beast. He is currently 55 years old, and has been doing crane since he was a boy.
We returned home but not before the lovely episode of Mr Li.
Mr Li is a doctor. He is about 52 years old and has been doing crane since he was a boy. He is a great contract to the energetic Mr Chen. He is quite squat and quiet. So we go into his house the front of which is a shop on a dual carriage way. In the main room which is all quite open plan in the middle is what looks like a big stone iron ( about 50 cm long ) and a dumbbell which has huge stones on it. These are quite rough and hand made. He also later got out 2 round stone balls just small enough to hold in each hand. The quite and mild mannered doctor likes to lian gong the traditional way with weights. Pan Cheng Miouw has just sat down to watch me type although he understands nothing , so I will stop and go to the Wu Shu Guan with him.( we laughed as I explained to him )……
….later. So he throws some balls around for a bit and then I have to bench press the stones for them. A bit later 2 students come around and I Lian Gong ( do the arm bashing thing ) with them. The second one was quite strong and I probably got up to about 80% power and then I remembered when this happened in Singapore ( neither of us wanting to give up and that it just fucked my arm up ) so I said ‘hau hau’ (Ok – I give in ) and stopped. My arm was red all over but just about right level for conditioning but he had some really nasty bruises from it. So glad I did not keep going. Anyway Li then comes out with the magic potion to be rubbed on my arm and sticks a whole load in a bottle for me to take home. Apparently it never goes off. We headed back into town ( the guy with the bruises was also there to give us a lift in his car ) and then I went back into town to 1) pick up my glasses 2) have a meeting with Su Yin Han. (SYH)
The glasses lady took me to his flat. His ensembled family saw me roving outside. I was hastily invited in and Su Yin Han put some clothes on to drink tea. The ensuing conversation took about 2 hours, and involved him asking one of his old students who could speak English over. His main initial point was that there was some bad blood between us. I explained that the newspaper incident did still annoy me, but that no, if there was bad blood I would not have come to drink tea with him.
( fade out to the distant past…. )
I am here studying kung fu with PCM. SYH invites me over for a cup of tea. A man takes a photograph. A picture of Su Yin Han with an article about me appears in the local paper. It sort of implies ,but does not say, that SYH is my teacher. All arranged by him. I am pissed off.
( …fade back to the current time ).
His main thing was a letter which I may have written to Mayor here stating that PCM was my teacher not Su Yin Han. I say may because I can’t remember doing it, but it is quite possible I did do it. So this letter in some way he thinks held him back from doing things. Anyway his involvement with PCM has ended, and to some extent he is a little ostracised from the Older White Crane community here. Here are some of the facts and problems facing the Cranes in Yong Chun:-
PCM is the official lineage head of the system.
His students are all old (er ).
Students here rarely study more than 3 years and then they leave to go and make some money.
No body here knows all the system.
SYH has many students - but he too does not have a senior student.
PCM has 2 sons. Neither of them are interested in training.
SYH has a son who is so in 1 generations time, there will be no lineage connection except through Pan Chang An who is Pan Chen Miouws brother’s grandson. Now ( and listen very carefully ) generations are very important in this sort of thing – no just in terms of family lineage – but also in terms of who taught you. For example, if I study with PCM I am 2 steps closer to the system founder than if I studied with Pan Chen An. It would not be possible for me to study with anyone closer to the lineage either in terms of filial connection or in terms of generations removed from the source of the system.
Take another thing, both PCM and SYH were taught through Pan’s father’s line. This means that their styles are very very similar – the difference almost is a question of physique and taste. The other 2 main teachers have quite different styles – and actually call completely different Wu Shu Guans home - so that all seems cool. In addition there is the question of the book that SYH wrote about white crane. My impression is that was not his to write and that he made quite a bit of money from it – however at this level my Chinese fails and I can’t understand exactly what went on.
SYH is the most promoted White Crane teacher in the west due to Dennis Ngo’s lot in London. SYH is writing more books. He is an intelligent, educated man and knows how to market a system. In comparison PCM is relatively poorly educated, a bit older and trying keep up with the current changes in China. So you have a situation where most of the foreign ( Indonesia / Singapore / Hong Kong ) Yong Chun Crane practitioners are PCM lineage, but if there is a conference on the style it will be SYH who is invited. When the Japanese come to the Wu Shu Guan next year to pray it will be with PCM.
So PCM does indeed want my help to even the playing field so to speak – not that he said in as many words. Oh – then we come to the temple / photos. In kung fu photos it is very important who sits where etc. Most photos are taken in front of either the main temple practice hall ( Wu Shu Guan ) or in front of something that looks like it in peoples houses. The two big photos at the front of the temple are PCM’s father and PCM’s uncle. You simply cannot go to any place of historical importance in the system history without seeing the family name all over. So PCM gets to use the temple as a base. So, for example, next year when 60 Japanese karate practitioners come over to pray at the Wu Shu Guan as the researched source of their system it is with PCM as head of the style.
Other complications are health – i.e. who can teach / demo the longest. PCM has a bad leg / hip and so cannot do the low stances or kicks. There are 2 other main teachers in Yong Chun and I have not even considered them!!!
After all that I did some practice.
2004-08-10
My shadow ( more about him later ) is here now so I will have to go because he is standing on my shoulder……
2004 – 08 – 10
Just had lunch. Seems impossible to avoid beer and cigarettes for me no matter what my resolve early in the morning. What started off as a drunken muse about ‘why do I bother’ with reference to the arm conditioning in the modern age, ended up with a very animated discussion along the lines of ‘come at me with that knife’ – you see once again all you need to do is just grab that leading hand and then……..
However the grab is quite important – have to straddle the wrist from where inside there is a pressure point. Have to admit is quite painful ( often they seem more theraputic than anything to me ). Flowed nicely into the story about how someone once attacked PCM with a stick. Anyway on with the story starting with yesterday.
We went to the Wu Shu Guan at about 10:00 to take some photos. By luck it was the 50th anniversary of something or other ( damn my Chinese!! ) so as well as the people we were expecting to see, there were a few of the really old ones as well. Incense was lit, and paper money was burnt. Chatted with the bald, the bold and the old which was fantastic with PCM translating from FoKien to Pu Tong Hua – so from a language I don’t understand to a language I hardly understand. Then they all did some dancing for me to film and we took a load of photos. If anyone had told me that was possible to arrange I would not have believed them. The oldest one was 88 years old – I had met him before at Huang’s house one time. ( he was a relatively sprightly 78 at the time ). We all then went off for a good nosh up at the local kitchen and returned home. ( oh – the Shiow Chian I do, and have seen everyone do, is a cut down version of the original, which the 88 year old’s grandson did ).
Then I got in a fight ( which I won ) with PCM’s wife as I wanted to take her into town to get her eyes tested. She has been using PCM’s glasses in the past. So we hopped on the bicycles and off we toddled. Difficult thing – you see I know she loved the idea of glasses to help her see, but it was impossible for her to let me buy them. In the end I got PCM to tell her to go with me otherwise I don’t think it could have been achieved. She works all the time. Hmmmm. I will pick them up in a bit. Also called Clare and got a bit of an earful for not having been in contact for a week. I think she may have a point – but I am so focussed here at the moment it is like being in a role in a film and the story is just playing itself out for me. On the way home I bumped into Pan Chan ‘An and he invited me to come and see him teach in the evening. So I went home and invited PCM to come as well. Kind of strange for both of them as PCM has never seen him teach, but PCM is in kung fu terms way way his senior. Anyway I thought it was a class, but it turned out to be the student I met on my first day here. He has studied lots of northern and southern stuff and did some fantastic kicks. We probably spent half the time comparing stories - he particularly liked my Indonesian leg sweeps the more complex one of which he had not seen before while I just loved all his stuff – except don’t you just hate it when a bloke can do a butterfly kick with a 360 tucked in. He is very educated and young and energetic but controlled. I hope I will keep in touch – we will practice together again next Thursday. His technique is far far superior to mine, but he does not do much of the conditioning work.
In the evening back home, and then some of the people from the day came round to watch the video footage I had shot.
Today I have called a time out so I can do some work on the web site. PCM has been helping lineage and information etc. Then he came down with the original books from the system. These are now old and faded manuals which he is now transcribing by hand into a new book. Unfortunately this is quite possible the greatest example of pearls before swine that I have every encountered. I only chatted about them for a short time, but my impression is they have things like basic requirements ( strength, speed, accuracy etc ), each basic step, internal work ( Tan Tien related diagrams ) , internal organ diagrams, history and much much more that I did not understand. Oh yes – the basic step he demo’d while talking was a step drag with both feet with both hands held in front vertically – almost exactly Canton Yong Chun Chuen basics. Now there was something I learnt this morning – what was it……
Shoiuw Chian
12 August
Had enough of work. Went in to town to develop the photos for everyone. 100 RNB worth of photos ( about the same cost as in England ) and to pick up Mrs Pans glasses. They are fantastic and I thought for a minute that she was going to cry when she put them on. It turns out the reason she fell down the stairs a couple of months ago was that she cannot see them properly.
Then went off for a walk down the road. Soon you get into countryside. Paddy fields with smooth concrete cycle paths weaving through them which makes the whole thing rather like a well layed out exhibition. The houses , which were always probably quite big , have just been extended vertically and then tiled as the family gets bigger and has more money. Everyone seems much happier and more open than 10 years ago. When I got home there was a young man ( 24 ) waiting outside to say hello. I have forgotten, but when I was here before I used to teach local kids English in the evening for free. They have all grown up now and gone their separate ways. Chen Wei Bin ( Edward )is just about to finish his degree in engineering and automation at shanghai university. He was back for a short visit with his girlfriend. They both spoke excellent English. I invited them out for the evening for a drink, but in fact later his father came over and invited us over for dinner. This was a lovely evening. Their mother does not drink beer, only brandy, so I actually had dinner with 2 ladies at the same table ( a rare thing I think here ). The beer indeed flowed. It turned out that Edwards father was also a student of PCM’s dad and that he makes swords for a hobby ( I think he is a welder ). So I asked him to show me his swords which are on the 3rd floor outside on a big balcony / veranda. They are a pair of short swords. He seems to be quite proficient in using them. His arms are exceedingly well conditioned and he says that he does not use any hitting practice only air based work. Yet another flavour of the crane. When we returned to the table he chastised Pan a little for not teaching me how to use the swords. So…..this morning out they came and I am now learning the Yong Chun White Crane short sword form. I am not sure how many there are. Using the swords is like being a beginner again – I can’t even do the salute properly. But there are a lot of moves which are exact translations from the other forms, so I have hope to be able to finish it. This means I probably won’t have time to learn the full version of Shr San Tai Bau , and also means that with a new set of barely learnt skills the next time I come is really when I will learn how to use the swords so not ideal – but I have already learnt and seen so much more than I expected to. I now have 2 sets in my room.
Later last night I hurtled off into the night in an abortive attempt to phone Ru again but was unsuccessful. Later dude – I am off to pick up those photos.
15th August 04
The men from Macau arrived on the 13th. This has produced a time of immense entertainment and very little practice. The men from Macau are a Mr Huang and a Mr Huang. Given that I am also a Mr Huang we are three colors yellow. The older Huang is the teacher of the younger Huang. The older Huang has not been back home for 40 years but has lived in Taiwan, Singapore and Macau. It is not clear to me what they do, but the money and living standards are much more like Hong Kong in Macau than in the rurally confused Yong Chun. I have so far spent the best part of 3 days and evenings with them and not been able to pay for a single thing. The first full day we had with them they did the praying at the Wu Shu Guan in the morning and every since then it has been an endless cycle of tea, large meals and beer. The first was with the very Mafioso appearing boss of a large umbrella company. It was in the private suite of the most expensive hotel in town. The food was fantastic ( every meal just seems to get better and better ). Shortly more people joined, and we were 12 including the local police chief. Both the local police chief and the business man had rolex watches on. The Bai Jiouw was brought out ( white spirit ) and I had the traditional honoured role of being toasted by everyone round the table. Now that I know that PCM has had a liver ( or kidney ) removed, I have to do a bit of his drinking for him. In this sorry state in this hotel suite, those who were inclined ( or as in my case instructed to ) had to do their forms with the video cameras rolling. In addition, the younger man from macau ( who is as tall as me and of much bigger build ) wanted to do arm pounding. This quickly descended into a game of who could take the most pain so at last those low profile tires on my balcony which I use for conditioning paid off. At least with Huang he had the sense to say enough – still the next day his arms were a bit of a mess.
Still he had his revenge by demonstrating several self defence applications each of which threatened to send me clear through the hotel wall into the room next door. So all in all a wonderful friendship making evening! I believe that the older Huang was a student on PCMs father. I say older and younger, but the younger Huang is 55 years old. Here that just about puts you coming up to your prime in Kung Fu terms.
The next day ( yesterday I think ) we set off in the morning for Niuw Mu Lin, which is a national park about 100 Km away. They have laid roads here which are cast as a succession of concrete slabs. Whilst this works well for the cycle paths, for the mountain roads which have a lot of heavy traffic the concrete breaks up into a succession of paving stones which then disintegrate making the going very slow. ( if I sound a bit dry here it is because I have had more social contact over the last 3 days than I would normally submit myself to in 1 month – sleep has of course proved to be inversely proportional ). So I am losing the plot a bit….add a screaming 4 year old because I won’t let him into the room to swing his butterfly knives around on my bed whilst I am typing and dry turns to arid. So what was the point on Niew Mu Lin? Beats the hell out of me!! But it took all day to go there and come back. An illustration of the PCM name – in spite of the fact we were about 100 km away from home, once the man at the next table heard who he was he wanted to come over and shake hands. The effect is indeed in some places so strong that they don’t even see the blonde European man.
The Huangs were staying at a lovely temple hotel by a very famous temple and we all ended up staying there bit them picking up the tab yet again. The thing that made me say yes to this was the prospect of actually doing some practice in the evening, and that we had been carrying PCM’s white silks and swords around so he could do the sword form and we could film it. In fact I was not allowed to practice in the evening, and we spent most of it with Dr Yu sitting in an air conditioned room watching Olympic basketball on TV. This is cultural difference. The plan was then to get up at 5:30 am, and go up the temple and do a work out. This was partially excecuted – we did indeed get up at 5:30 and go up the temple, but I was the only one doing the work out. In additional I had to were a silk costume so that the men from Macau could film PCM teaching me. I also had to do Shiouw Chian in front of the temple for them to film. I have little idea why I was asked to do it when the three people around me had cumulative more than 100 years of practice – but stranger things happen at sea.
I am told.
PCM did do San Jan though which was lovely, but he did not do the knife form as due to his operation he cannot jump at the moment, and there are several jumps in it. The Huangs did not want to film it unless it was correct. They have already filmed quite a lot of the system for their own use done by PCM including the stick, the 3 pronged spear and the knife form and several empty hand sets during PCM’s last visit to Macau.
So this morning I have insisted on returning home where life is more simple and I have only let them force me to toast one guest with a small glass of beer, as this is all doing my head in a bit.
Oh – one beautiful bit of yesterday was that although it was me that was meant to be practicing, Dr Yun came to the hotel, and then it became like a fight for the only pair of knives that we had so they could compare technique or have a go for themselves. Probably more knowledge than you can shake a stick at, but mosly in Hokkien so once again pearls before swine.
The crazyness of China. On the way home we went via the younger Huang’s house which he still keeps here in spite of the fact that he lives in Macau. At some point he used to teach art, and during the restoration of the big temple, he painted a series of wall paintings for one particular area. He also had in his house a staff from some special wood which he had made for PCM. Dr Yu’s son was giving us a lift back home. He is also a doctor , but now doing medicine imports. So he was driving a brand new Honda with all the trimmings – leather self adjusting seats and multiple CD deck, whilst in the back we were sitting carrying a stick home which was just as important. The money thing here is so skewed – we think we have a rich / poor divide – but the difference between the rich driving a Merc 500 SL and the poor who are sharing the same road with a buffalo drawn hoe to get the rice in is absolutely huge in comparison.
I seem to have picked up a stomach bug as a result of all this intense eating / drinking and so now am not going to eat for the rest of the day in the hope that clears it. Couple that with the Olympic first round womans basketball qualification and you have a bear with a very sore head indeed.
Notes:
16 Aug 2004
Back home tomorrow at last hooray!! – had enough of this malarkey for a while now. Up today and practiced more swan dao. Just finished it this evening in fact. – I knew this would happen – learn all the new stuff in 3 days at the end of a two week visit – and go home with it all looking crap. Tomorrow I practice it for 1 ½ hours in the morning and then I film it ( have already done a rough filming session in case I cannot for some bizarre reason do it tomorrow ). I don’t know if this is a ploy, or just the result of the men from Macau taking up the last 3 days with entertainment ( could have finished the form days ago if they were not here.) But on the whole good to meet with them – no doubt they will take me over at some time in the future.
Today was an effort to get the most out of my remaining money – the full shopping list:
In summary – the buying power of RNB makes about everything about 1/10th the price except clothing which is about ¼ the price and things you can’t get in England like green tea and jade which still come out a bit expensive. In particular, tea can go from 20RNB (£1.20) to 400RNB ( £30 ) per KG. I would in particular note that hotels and food are currently 1/10th the price of English ones.
In addition today I scooted around taking photos of things. Buying the tea was fantastic as I went with PCM’s son to a place he knows. There were ladies in the front of the shop plucking the leaves of dried tea twigs. After a session where we all tasted different sorts of tea, they measured the tea out and I thought they were going to just put it all in a plastic bag, but instead, at the back of the shop they had a vacuum wrapping machine, so each 25g or 100g or tea ( depending on the price of the tea I had brought ) was individually packed into vacuum sealed bags. The expensive tea was then further put into 8 boxes, each containing 8 or nine bags. All in all the tea buying thing ( which I thought would take no time at all ) took over 1 hour and every minute of it was well spent.
The man from Japan, who has already studied San Jan and Shr San Tai Bau , was very interested in seeing my internet site, and now wants to study Ba Fen Jung. That is , I suppose , our role. Tomorrow I will ask him to dance for us. I feel may be I am now more interested in the family and the whole Chinese thing than the kung fu. I have photocopied lots of bits and bobs of history so that I can put the whole thing together for them when I get back to England. Until then I might just scan it and put it on as pictures.
The Japanese are coming in mass next year on the 10th of June. May be interesting to be here if I can learn enough Chinese in advance. My Chinese learning has not gone as planned at all. In fact the whole thing has not gone as planned. When I came I did not know what I wanted to study. It took 1 week to go through 3 of the forms that I know 1 move at a time and put them together right. By that time I wanted to learn the extended Shr San Tai Bau, but there was so much entertaining going on that I almost thought I was not going to learn anything new and then as a result of a drunken night, and one of PCM’s students chastising him for not teaching me the Swan Dao form I have ended up learning that instead. So all in all a massive success on all fronts, as I have the makings of an excellent web site for people to see, learnt the Swan Dao, and made lots of friends from different countries as well as been introduced to most of PCM’s still practicing senior students and teachers. That my friend is Kung Fu ( or at least that is what I understood PCM to be saying ).
I have also had a glimse of the paradoxically shallowness and depth of the system. On the one hand we are on weights , San Jan and conditioning, on the other hand on meaning within meaning, secret ancient books and system thingies which I am not allowed to write down. – and not only because I don’t know them! The Chi Na that I have seen is no more mysterious than others that I have seen, the pushing hands is more furious, there is no standing still – or needle in the thread.
I have been able to work with quite a few teachers here
together with PCM. It would seem that some ( in particular PCM’s son who has
not practised for many years ) can explain to me much more clearly than PCM
what is going on, but they all look back to PCM as the current best reference
point themselves. Yesterday looking at Shiouw Chian they spent about 5 minutes
taking 1 move apart properly. There are about 50 moves in Shiouw Chian ( the
short version ) so you could do this all day if you wanted. What else? The
special meaning of numbers ( 007 and 76 ) – now that , my friend , is a secret.
Chiow Chiow for now.