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Video Clips: People & styles
Internal Martial Arts (IMA) is a fascinating realm, culturally
and intellectually, as well as physically.
Besides my formal teachers, I've been influenced by occasional
workshops with other teachers; by fellow students in those many classes and
workshops; by the martial arts media
and literature; and more recently by the Internet, which has opened up a new
world of diverse styles and innovative experimentation. Here are some clips that cover a few of my
interests in internal and/or transformative martial arts.
Click
on the pictures and text links below for the clips.
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Chung-Liang Al Huang
 Even
before I was able to join a tai chi club, the discovery of the book Embrace Tiger, Return to Mountain was
a revelation. It was basically just the
transcript of some of Al's workshops at Esalen
Institute, but it opened many doors of perception for me about what "the
internal" is. Al represents the
best of New Age tai chi—focused on personal and consciousness development,
teaching how to attune our bodies and minds to the flow of life. My only chance to experience him in person
was, while injured and on crutches, sitting in on a one-day workshop at
Vancouver's Cold Mountain Institute back in 1976, and attending his free-form
tai chi performance at the QE Theatre with flutist Paul Horn the next year. Some Tai Chi Chuan
traditionalists and martial types may turn up their noses at Al's 'essence
tai chi', but watching this clip verifies that he can reel silk with the best of
them. While by no means preoccupied
with self-defence, he does teach how to deal with conflict of all sorts—in
ways far more imaginative and effective than simply inflicting damage. His
artistic and philosophical distillation of Taoism also resonates with social and environmental changes we
need to make today in our communities and across the planet. Al is founder of the Living Tao Foundation.
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Robert Smith and Cheng
Man-Ching
 As
with so many North American internal martial artists, my introduction to
the IMAs in the seventies came via the books of Robert Smith, like Asian Fighting Arts, Chinese Boxing, and his books on Tai
Chi (taiji), Pa Kua (bagua) and Hsing-I (xingyi), the three main internal systems of kung-fu. A
recurring giant figure in Smith's writing was "The
Professor"—Master Cheng Man-Ching (Zheng Manqing), who was one of
the first Tai Chi masters to teach in North America. Not incidentally, he was also one of the
primary teachers of my teacher Tchoung Ta-Tchen when they were both in Taiwan. This fascinating
clip features both Smith and Cheng
Man-Ching in an excerpt from an interesting but
uneven A&E documentary on the martial arts.
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The Essence of Bagua
 Good
simple clips that convey the basic principles in clear ways are hard to
find. This one features
martial arts superstar Jet Li, excerpting segments from one of the only
movies that features Bagua, The One. It also integrates clips from The Avatar
animated series which modeled some characters on bagua. There's not much internal content here, and
the choreography combines gymnastic Wushu bagua with Hollywood Shaolin. But however exaggerated, it does convey the
spiral flows that Bagua works with—similar to, but
different from tai chi's circularity.
If tai chi is the bouncing ball, bagua is
the spinning ball. If tai chi is the
cloud, bagua is the tornado. If tai chi is based in its stillness of
stance, bagua expresses stillness in stepping.
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Dr. John Painter: Doing it from Inside
 Energetic
forms are great, but the 'swimming body' of traditional bagua
is known mainly for a more subtle grace and effortless power. Power in internal martial arts tends to be
expressed in waves and pulses—initiated in the mind, rippling through the
body, but tuned in to (and drawing energy from) flows in the surrounding environment. Visualization is a useful tool in
developing sensitivity to, and harmonization with, all these flows. Dr. Painter's workshops are packed with
hints on how to do amazing things without physical effort simply by combining
intention, attention, relaxation and alignment. Jiulong
Bagua focuses just as much on exercising the
mind—to create patterns in the brain and nervous system called 'engrams'—as training the body.
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Pride's Deadly Fury
 An icon of
the North American bagua subculture is the Chinese
chop-socky flick Pride's Deadly Fury (aka: The Honor of Dongfang Xu), mainly because it's one of
the only films to feature bagua. It has circulated in both dubbed and
subtitled versions, but few western bagua players
who have seen or heard about the film know much about its background or
cast. In China it was known as Wu Lin Zhi and was one of
the most  popular films of mid-80s China, receiving a
Chinese National Award for "Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading
Role" while being selected as the "Motion Picture of the Year"
by the Chinese Ministry of Culture in 1983.
It's male lead was Li Jun Feng (left), a
real-life teacher of the adolescent Jet Li.
Master Li was Head Coach of the famous Beijing Martial Arts Team and
then of China's National Martial Arts Team.
Many of China's most outstanding and influential martial artists also
had roles in the film. As with most
chop-socky movies, the fighting is hardly
realistic. But some of the
demonstrations and fight scenes do feature the coiling evasive bagua moves, and it's great fun to see dramatic
representation of some of bagua's training methods like circle-walking and post
training. The film’s nationalistic
plot was reprised in the later Jet Li film, Fearless.
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Ge
Chunyan
 One of
the outstanding martial artists in Pride's Deadly Fury (PDF) was Ge Chun Yan,
who has been referred to as the female Jet Li.  Like Jet
(then Li Lianjie), she trained with the Beijing Wushu Team, and along with Jet, represented China as part
of the wushu squad that made cultural and diplomatic
history by visiting the US in 1974.
The Chinese Wushu team's tour of four US
cities was a followup to the 'ping-pong diplomacy'
that broke the long (mainly) Cold War between China and the US. Chunyan
eventually became a multiple national women's wushu
and bagua champion, eventually becoming Coach of
the national team. She now teaches in
Singapore. Here's another clip from Prides
Deadly Fury with Ge Chunyan
in the grey jacket. Also click
on the pictures above.
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Morihei Ueshiba
The writings and teachings
of Aikido have been powerful influences on many of us in  internal
martial arts. It’s not a system of
Chinese boxing, but a subtle Japanese art of grappling, throws and
locks. Its founder Morihei Ueshiba is a modern figure who distilled
traditional wisdom into a radically nonaggressive but fantastically skilled
martial art. Its non-egoistic
philosophy of harmony has influenced many outside the martial arts—e.g. green
energy analyst Amory Lovins who has called for an
“aikido strategy” of social and economic change: gentle redirection of the
system's momentum in a constructive way.
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Yiquan
and Standing Meditation
 Internal
Stillness is the core of any IMA, and no style of Chinese kung-fu is more
known for its uncompromising pursuit of stillness than Yiquan
(or I Chuan), meaning ‘Mind Fist’ or Mind
Boxing. It is a radically mental form
of Xingyi (or Hsing-I,
‘Form of Mind’ fist—one of the three main internal styles, along with Tai Chi
and Bagua). Yiquan’s founder Wang Xiangzhai made students spend most of their
training time standing still in one place.
As fighters, he and his students were unbeatable for a long stretch of
the 30s in Shanghai and later in Beijing.
After the revolution of 1949, standing meditation, or Zhan Zhuang, became an increasingly respected  form of healing and health
building. It has long been employed in
many internal systems, but Yiquan catalyzed a
renaissance of the internal—reminding many martial arts of some of their most
powerful sources and potentials. One
only needs to experiment with standing for a few weeks to verify the powerful
effects it can have on body and mind.
It encourages the use of ‘whole body power’ and tuning into subtle
flows one might never otherwise notice.
Despite the simplicity and apparent passivity of its practices, it
opens up new worlds of intention and awareness—which are eventually expressed
in movement. Today Yiquan
and zhan zhang are
growing rapidly in popularity—as forms of both qigong (chi kung) and self-defence. Many tai
chi and bagua practitioners are also spearheading a
revival of standing meditation within their own disciplines for martial,
health and spiritual purposes.
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Circle-Walking
 While
the Long Form is the central training practice of tai chi, ‘walking the
circle’ is the core of baguazhang, the Eight
Trigrams Palm—reputedly the martial art most based on the I Ching (Yijing), the Taoist Book
of Changes. As a fighting art, this is
because bagua focuses on constant and surprising
changes in direction and  on
getting around behind opponents.
Energetically, it cultivates a certain kind of sensing and attunement to natural flows. While bagua is
known for its practicality, especially for bodyguards who often encounter
multiple opponents, some feel bagua's ultimate
roots are in the meditative circle-walking of Taoist monks. Many bagua
systems utilize standing meditation, but circle-walking in fixed postures is
in itself a powerful form of zhan zhuang with many martial, health and spiritual
benefits. Such walking can tap into
similar energies as those of the Whirling Dervishes of Rumi's Mevlevi Sufi order.
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Push Hands
 Most
of the internal styles of Chinese boxing have their versions of Push Hands, a partner exercise geared to developing
sensitivity and flow in relationship.
Often observers or new students see only the defensive or
competitive side of this relationship.
But such partner work in training is more often utilized as
cooperative learning, with the each player acting as a form of biofeedback
for the other. One creates just enough
pressure or weight for the partner to feel how to best channel or redirect
this pressure with a relaxed whole body unity. Until one develops some skill in doing
this, competition is usually an impediment to learning. Push hands can be a standing or moving
exercise, choreographed or improvisational.
Besides clicking on the pictures, check out these varieties of push
hands in tai chi, bagua
and yiquan.
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Internal Arts and Youth
Empowerment
The ecological crisis, created by massive waste of the
earth’s resources, is inextricably connected to  social
crisis and a parallel waste of human potential. New urban activists like Van Jones insist that solving
our environmental problems necessitates solving our social equity problems—by
empowering disenfranchised youth with green job skills. But male violence based in macho values
remains one of the biggest impediments to true community spirit in the cities. In this context, internal martial arts hold
great promise to complement green job creation for youth empowerment. They can not only provide images of
strength based in harmony rather than domination, but they can provide actual
skills to deal with conflict constructively.
The diversity of martial arts is more than matched by the diversity of
people involved in these arts, and a new breed of martial arts teacher seems
to be emerging in many cities. These
clips are of NYC’s Roberto
Sharpe.
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Women's Martial Arts
In today's world the
suppression of human and ecological transformation relies as much on gender
role brainwashing as on class and race division. Back in the seventies when the old John
Wayne male identity was taking a  beating
in Vietnam and white male dominance in the workforce began to erode, Macho
culture was revitalized by its racialization: via
black macho and the kung-fu boom.
Today the "war on terror" facade of neo-colonial resource
wars goes hand-in-hand with the new goonish cannon fodder mentality cultivated by cage-fighting
and mixed-up martial arts. Hopefully
this is a last gasp of the old patriarchal
domination mentality, but it sure is a decadent and violent gasp. By
contrast, transformative martial arts sees the relationship between holistic
human development and learning how to best deal with conflict. Without getting self-indulgent or
narcissistic about it, there has to be more focus on the specific needs of
its participants, especially the different developmental needs of men and
women. The steady rise of women's martial arts in the last decade is
inspiring, offering glimpses of a new
warrior mentality committed to harmony and empowerment rather than
domination.
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Capoeira,
Social Justice and the BodySpirit
 Capoeira
is a colourful acrobatic Brazilian martial art created by African slaves and
their descendents—for practical street self-defence and for personal and
social empowerment. Long banned by the
authorities, it is now prized as a folk art, with its distinctive music,
movements and philosophy. No frozen
artefact however, capoeira continues to evolve—under positive and
negative influences, from sport competition, sex role stereotypes and
cultural fadism, to growing respect for indigenous
knowledge, bioregional heritage and women's participation. Like many martial arts in our transitional
age, it is in flux but has much to teach us.
So how do we distil its essence without throwing out the baby with the
bathwater?
 One
of Toronto's top capoeira instructors, Lang Maria
Liu (aka Professora Estrelinha) has wrestled with this dilemma
in her practice, her teaching and her graduate research. Of French and Chinese ancestry, and an
engaged feminist, green and community activist, she has studied capoeira in Brazil and Canada for years, finally
committing to the dynamic Regional style
of Mestre Bimba. How will this marriage of tradition and her
progressive social concerns turn out? How can traditional mind-body learning
be relevant for us today?
Lang opted to explore these questions through an intense
and intensive training regime in Brazil—that also served as the raw material
for her Ph.D. dissertation at OISE-UT, completed in 2013. Lang is only one of many martial artists
exploring what's been called embodied learning
in academia. Her thesis, however,
while documenting a fascinating journey of discovery, also raised as many
questions as it answered, particularly about the limits of rational scholarly
knowledge in fully appreciating a multidimensional indigenous experience like
capoeira.
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Roxana Ng and Embodied Learning
 One
of the leading lights of embodied learning (EL) was Roxana Ng, a professor at
OISE-University of Toronto, who was also Lang's doctoral supervisor until her
untimely death on Jan. 12, 2013. Known
more for her scholarship and activism
related to immigrant
women and racism, over her last two decades Hong Kong-born Roxana
increasingly immersed herself in the practice and theory of qigong, tai chi and traditional Chinese medicine
(TCM). Not one to segment her
interests, she sought to enrich her teaching of critical theory with the
insights and techniques of Wisdom traditions that have been based on
different, but, she felt, complementary, forms of knowing and learning. Her work tended to simultaneously reveal
the political aspects of 'embodiment' in everyday life, while emphasizing the
necessity of a spiritual dimension in progressive social change today. In a world where even those most committed
to change are often bitterly divided as to whether the priority should be  social or
personal change, Roxana advocated both.
With tremendous grace, she also embodied both in her daily
life—integrated into her activism,
projects, teaching, writing,
relationships and personal spiritual practice. Never one to cultivate academic disciples,
she nevertheless won the loyalty of many students attracted by her
intelligence, empathy, generosity, professionalism and passion for positive
change. Her persistent efforts to
expand the horizons of mainstream university teaching and learning were, over
the past few years, finally paying off—by the growing acceptance of EL within
the academic community. For this, and
so many other reasons, Roxana's passing, at the hands of a fast-acting cancer
at 61, was tragic, especially since she had apparently still so many
contributions to make. In these
confusing days of insurmountable
opportunities, Roxana's energy, insight and friendship will be sorely
missed by many of us.
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George Leonard: Mastery in an Age of
Transformation
 In
1974, I stumbled onto Leonard's 1972 book, The Transformation: A Guide to the Inevitable
Changes in Humankind, and was stunned with its visionary
articulation of the relationship of evolutionary, political-economic and
personal change. Since then, his  books—including
The Silent Pulse, Education and Ecstasy, The Ultimate Athlete, The End of Sex, The Way
of Aikido and Mastery—have
been very influential on my thinking—even when I didn't completely agree with
him. He was rare in combining the macro
and micro in a strikingly clear yet subtle way—a way that was also quite
lyrical. Far more than an astute observer of our times, he provided practical
principles and techniques (many derived from Aikido) for real change. He was President Emeritus of Esalen
Institute and a founder of Aikido of
Tamalpais.
Leonard, who passed away in January 2010, was a true renaissance man,
and he will undoubtedly be missed by many progressive people, even those like
me who never met him personally.
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Links
Jiulong Bagua Toronto (Mind Body
Training Institute)
Nine Dragon Baguazhang,
Arlington Texas (Dr. John Painter)
Nova
Scotia Institute of Kung-fu and Tai Chi (Yau-Sun
Tong)
Wikipedia on Tchoung Ta-Tchen
Tai Chi magazine / Wayfarer
Publications
Journal of Asian
Martial Arts
Pa Kua
Chang Journal
Kungfu
Magazine.com
Living Tao Foundation
(Chung-Liang Al Huang)
Cheng Hsin (Peter Ralston)
Energy Arts (Kumar Frantzis)
Sam Masich & Little Productions
Emerge Internal Arts
(Andy James)
Jarek's
Chinese Martial Arts Pages
Canadian Taijiquan Federation
The Pa Kua Chang of Lu Shui-Tien (Park
Bok Nam)
Consciousness
& the Martial Arts: In conversation with George Leonard
Karel
Koskuba, "Yiquan—the
Power of Mind"
Karel Koskuba, "Zhan Zhuang—the
foundation of Internal Martial Arts"
Steven Seagal's
Eco-Speech at Alaska State
Capital in On Deadly Ground
 
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Morris, Maria 
