MY TAI CHI EXPERIENCE

Author:Wan Yueting

MY TEACHERS

XU TINGLAN, MY FIRST TEACHER
(Both Yang-Style & Chen Style Tai Chi)

I started to learn Tai Chi in 1984. My first teacher was Xu Tinglan, an old woman who was an officially appointed Wu Shu (Chinese Martial Arts) instructor. She was also a member of Wu Shu Association in Hefei, the capital city of Anhui Province in China. I learned Yang Style (88 standard series) from her.

In 1986, I organized a Tai Chi Class in the University of Science and Technology of China for Ms. Xu. There were around 120 students in the class. Chen Style Tai Chi was taught in the class. As one of her most favorite students, I learned the whole Series One of Chen Style Tai Chi from her.

Also I learned some other martial arts from Ms Xu, like Ba Gua Zhang (Palm based on the Eight Diagram), Feng Mo Gun (one of Club series, belong to Shao Lin Series) and Wu Dang Jian (Sword) (belong to Wu Dang Series).

LIU GENSHENG, MY SECOND TEACHER
(Yang Style, traditional)

In 1986, I was very lucky to meet Mr. Liu, who was also teaching Yang Style Tai Chi in Hefei. It was really accidental to learn from him. He was around 60 years old at that time and was very modest. But just after two weeks since I learned from him, I knew that he was a great teacher. Even now I still could not tell how high his level really is. He was widely respected by the Tai Chi players in Hefei.

It was after two years that I knew that Mr. Liu's teacher, whose name was Chen Yanling, was the author of Composite of Tai Chi Chuan (Fist), Dao (Broad Sword), Qiang (Spear), Jian (Sword) and Gan (Club), which was and still is one of the most classical books in Tai Chi Series.

I learned traditional Yang Style Series from Mr. Liu.

TENG JUPING, MY THIRD TEACHER
(Chen Style, Series One & Series Two)

In 1988, I started to learn Chen Style Tai Chi from Mr. Teng. Mr. Teng is also a great teacher. He had learned more than 50 Chinese Martial Arts Series before he started to study Chen Style Tai Chi from his teacher Lin Zhian, the No. 1 among Tai Chi masters in Nanjing which is a big and historical city in China. Lin Zhian had learned Chen Style Tai Chi from Chen Zhaokuai, a famous master in China. Also Chen Zhaokuai is the son of Chen Fake (See my another article, A Brief Introduction of Tai Chi Chuan)

Mr. Teng was a Champion of Spear in Zhenjiang, a medium city in Jiangsu province, obtained silver medal of Xingyi in another competition in Jiangsu. He also got silver medal (Chuan, Fist) and gold medal (Sword) in a Chen Style Tai Chi Competition which was held in Nanjing in 1994.

I totally learned around seven years from Mr. Teng and I am the only one whom he acknowledged as his formal Tai Chi Student.

MY TEACHING EXPERIENCE

IN CHINA

In 1988, I started to teach students Yang-Style Tai Chi. The first three were undergraduate students from Jiangsu University of Science and Technology (JUST), where I worked as a college teacher in physics. Their names were Hu, Shen and Q. Chen.
Q.Chen was from Sichuan province. He later became the vice-president of the Association of Chinese Martial Arts in JUST.
Shen was a friend of my brother. He had never told me that he was serious about the learning. So I did not teach him strictly. Though he was really interested in Tai Chi later, his level was not very good at that time.
Hu was one of my best students. I had even thought he could practice Yang-Style as well as myself before I had any chance to see my first video about my own performance, which was made by Cary (?) who was an American teacher in some school of martial arts in the US.

In 1989, I was invited and appointed as Advisor of the Association of Chinese Martial Arts in JUST. I started to teach Chen-Style Tai Chi to more than forty students from the association. Among them, the following students were really good then,
Tang, he was from Jiangsu province, the first president of the Association of Chinese Martial Arts in JUST. He had learned many other martial arts before he started Tai Chi. (I had taught him some series in Shao Lin before.) Those other martial arts had really influenced his Tai Chi studying. He could not practice Tai Chi very well until after he had learned it for three years.
Zhu, a young girl from Yunnan province, the first secretary and second president of the Association of Chinese Martial Arts in JUST. She was very vigorous. So she did not like Tai Chi very much at the beginning because she thought that Tai Chi movements were too slow. Not until she had studied Tai Chi for one year did she become really interested in it. She later obtained Championship in a Tai Chi competition held in Zhenjiang in 1992.
W. Chen, the vice-president of the Association of Chinese Martial Arts in JUST, he was from Zhejiang province. He also learned Yang-Style Tai Chi from me two years later. Now he works in a county in Zhejiang province. He has become a well-known guy in the Tai Chi Field in the county. Wow.

Ms. Ying who was not from the association also learned Yang-Style from me this year. The purpose she learned Tai Chi from me was quite obvious: health and a good shape before she went to US which was one year later.

In 1990, I started to teach some foreigners in JUST. The first three were from the US and England. Their names were Ann Stuart, Karen and Sarah. Ann Stuart and Karen were from the US while Sarah from England. I taught Ann Stuart and Karen Chen-Style and taught Sarah Yang-Style. Among them, Ann Stuart was really good and also very interested in Tai Chi. It was a great pity that I did not teach Ann Stuart and Karen very long for the lack of time. One of my friends taught them Chen-Style Tai Chi later. They did not learn it very well for some reasons.

In 1991, I started to teach Tai Chi to some old persons to help improve their health.
Prof. Zhuang, Director of Second Foreign Language Dept. in JUST was one of them. He had ever studied and worked in Germany. He was very grateful for my teaching him Tai Chi. He later helped me a lot with many other things.

I accepted another foreign students whose name was West, an education expert in MBA. He was the director of the related association of education assigned by the US government to China.

In 1992, I had another foreign student from England. His name was Roger, a young guy. I taught him Yang-Style. He chose Yang-Style by himself because he thought Tai Chi should be very slow and Yang-Style was slower than Chen-Style. Now he lives in Holland.

In 1993, I started to teach some of my friends in JUST. None of them except Mu, who learned from me again in 1995, were very good. The reason could be found from the letters to my students.

In 1994, I taught Zhou, a senior student in JUST Chen-Style. He learned from me for around half a year. He was really good. He had known me for some time and had thought my physics was really good. He just did not know my Tai Chi level was high until when he was in his last year in the JUST. What a pity!

In 1995, I taught Mu, a very good student. He learned Yang-Style from me for around one year.

IN THAILAND

In 1996, I taught around ten Chinese students in Asian Institute of Technology (AIT), Bangkok, Thailand. None of them has insisted on practicing because the class was free for them.

In 1997- 1998, The students were
Mrs. Yang, from Mainland China, the only purpose for her was to improve her health. Now she lives in Australia with her husband, Dr. Yang, who made the second video of my performance for me.
Ms. Tien, from Vietnam, a fan of many kinds of martial arts. She was a very good student. She helped me a lot in organizing all kinds of classes in AIT. She had learned Yang-Style from me for one year.
Heinz and Ellen, a couple from Germany, they had also learned Yang-Style Tai Chi from me for one year. They actually had learned Tai Chi in Germany before they met me. It seemed a challenge for me to teach them. J They were surely very good students.
Ms. A (or, Khun A in Thai), from Thailand, she had also learned Yang-Style from me for one year. She was really good. It's a pity that I could not fulfill her plan: she had planned to learn one more year from me. I came to the US.
Mr. Quang, from Vietnam, a really good student. He could learn Tai Chi as fast as a good Chinese student. Maybe because he had learned some other Chinese Martial Arts before he started to learn Tai Chi from me. He also learned Yang-Style from me.

I had also taught two Thai young guys Chen-Style Tai Chi, two Indian children (around ten years old) basic Chen-Style Tai Chi, five more Chinese students either Yang-Style or Chen-Style Tai Chi during the period.

IN USA

In 1999,the first Tai Chi Class in the US was held in Highland Street Church of Christ in March 1999. Total ten students attended the class at the beginning. The class is still going.


Copyright 1999 Wan Yueting