Meihua Tanglang Quan, Qingdao, 2002

[RAF]

There is a nice clip of Zhang Wei Fu's son playing a meihua praying mantis form. Zhang Wei Fu heads one of the Meihua associations in Qingdao and helps sponsor the tournament.

http://www.wutangcenter.com/China02.htm

Click on Zhang Maochang for a short clip.

Interestingly, I watched some of the video from their most recent trip to Qingdao and saw some competitors performing 8 Step Praying Mantis. Xiao Fan Sha and Da Fan Sha. also saw a version Xiao Hu Yan.

Lilly Lau's students also attended the tournament. Qingdao is one of the best places to visit in the Shandong Province. The seafood is unbelievable and the hotel rooms are great!

[Skarbromantis]

Nice form !

Does anyone know the name of it?

Skard1

[Skarbromantis]

Check out the little kid, with his mom watching in the back ground, looks like he's practicing Bung Bo!!:D

Skard1

[mantis108]

Hi RAF,

Thanks for the link. If I am not mistaken, I think I have seen him preforming the Dzai Yao (Yi Lu) in the 2000 event before. Looks like he's been working hard since then.

Skarbromantis,

It is Mei Hua PM Dzai Yao (Yi Lu) which is one of the more popular competition piece. It is similar to CCK TCPM except that it is shorter and ends in 3 slow chops, 3 quick chops and a pull down move. In the 2000 tournament, most people do this routine (many variants). The "big 3" on the other hand was not played that much. Also Lily Lau's (Eagle Claw) people were there in the weapon divisions in the 2000 one as well. Hope this help.

Regards

Mantis108

[RAF]

Mantis 108:

Thanks for the I.D.. Although I trained in mantis for a long time, I have not seriously trained in it for 8 years or so. I dabble in liu he duan tui and hope to eventually learn a 6 harmony mantis form or two. However, I still love the 8 Step, 7 Star, Plum Flower mantis flavor and players. I hope they put more of the tournament on tape. There was some really good taiji mei hua praying mantis. They have a couple of kids about 6 or 7 that really play well---solid structure and you can see their stance work in their movements. 6 or 7 years old and unbelievable. I think praying mantis is so underrated and that if properly taught, would compete commercially with Taekwando and Japanese karate without losing its traditional training and flavor. In short, PM is a bad ass system if taught properly.

My teacher Tony Yang compared some of his meihua with that of Zhang Wei Fu and they are very close. I was very surprised because prior to my 98 trip to China, I believed that most traditional training was gone. There still exists a lot of it but it seems that you need connections to find it.

The Qingdao people will be coming to our Tournament this fall and I hope that Master Su Yu Zhang will come and do a seminar.

I am pretty sure that Lily Lau's students did very well. We only sent 3 people this year along with Tony Yang and his father. There should be more

[mantisben]

Excellent link RAF! The performance of the form is great! That young man and his parents should be really proud!

Mei Hua Praying Mantis forms look great!

[Skarbromantis]

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I think praying mantis is so underrated and that if properly taught, would compete commercially with Taekwando and Japanese karate without losing its traditional training and flavor. In short, PM is a bad ass system if taught properly.
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Ahem!:D

Skard1

[count]

Great pics and video Bob, and special props to Andy for his 1st place in the Qingdao tournamnet. Do you know which bagua form he did?

[RAF]

Hello Count:

I am not sure what open hand form Andy played. He currently is at the Center for Body Mind Harmony but comes down for seminars with Tony and gets checked by him every couple of weeks. He handles Tony's website but you can e-mail him from the Center for Body Mind Harmony website. I know he played deerhorn knives and would be my guess that he played Ying Shou (tighthand form) with the circle walking. He is bagua crazy (in a good sense) and has also learned the bagua da dao from Master Su Yu Zhang and some forms from Master An Tianrong. His article on the bagua deerhorn knives is very good and in large part, was based on Tony Yang's notes from Liu.

This year they got some great footage. The other guy, Rob, whom I've known since 15, did well with his praying mantis and liuhe spear form. They went to the Shaolin temple and the "young" monks did the old "put the bowl on my stomach and try to pull it off" trick. Rob had done some serious eagle claw training and Tony sent him up to try to pull the bowl off the stomach. To everyone's amazement, Rob literally ripped the bottom of the bowl along the rim off from the sides. So he stood there with the bottom half while the sides of the bowl remained attached to the stomach of the young monk. No one could believe it and they tell me it was quite funny to see the expression on the Songshan monks' faces. No one had ever done anything like that before. They have it on Tony Yang's cousin's video in Jinan and we are waiting until it arrives to post it on the website.

Rob also got learn one of the taiji meihua praying mantis forms along with every basic posture application. The master was extremely nice and had Rob learn with his school. Its a very nice form and Rob would love to go back and learn more. He is currently looking for a building to open a school. He will primarily teach praying mantis. His lan jie, fen zhen ba zhou and qi qing zhai yao are pretty good too.

I am also trying to get Tony to post a clip from a TV demonstration they did in Taiwan during the 1970s. They did the full range of baji forms, mi zong i 2, xiao fan sha, a 6 harmony form, two man kun wu sword fight, and praying mantis form, Lan Jie. Its all of the older students when they were young and is a good example of the flavor and beauty of traditional forms. It also has Liu demonstrating his calligraphy.

Anyway, I'll keep the board posted if we get it on. We just got permission to post the 2 articles we wrote on bajiquan and pigua zhang for the JAMA and hope to have them up in 3 or 4 weeks.

[mantis108]

Hi RAF,

Thanks for the I.D.. Although I trained in mantis for a long time, I have not seriously trained in it for 8 years or so. I dabble in liu he duan tui and hope to eventually learn a 6 harmony mantis form or two. However, I still love the 8 Step, 7 Star, Plum Flower mantis flavor and players. I hope they put more of the tournament on tape. There was some really good taiji mei hua praying mantis. They have a couple of kids about 6 or 7 that really play well---solid structure and you can see their stance work in their movements. 6 or 7 years old and unbelievable. I think praying mantis is so underrated and that if properly taught, would compete commercially with Taekwando and Japanese karate without losing its traditional training and flavor. In short, PM is a bad ass system if taught properly.

You are most welcome. I think an event like this bringing all mantis styles together is great. I hear you about PM can maintain traditional flavor bit. That's why I don't understand why people change or even creat Wushu praying mantis routine. Well, I guess to each their own.

My teacher Tony Yang compared some of his meihua with that of Zhang Wei Fu and they are very close. I was very surprised because prior to my 98 trip to China, I believed that most traditional training was gone. There still exists a lot of it but it seems that you need connections to find it.

I believe you are right about all traditional mantis styles regardless of lineages share more things in common than not in common. A lot of times, distinctions are made in pursuing a personal agenda than for the common good of the community. Personally, I applaud such efforts are happening to bring us more care about what others do than bickering about who's mightier.

The Qingdao people will be coming to our Tournament this fall and I hope that Master Su Yu Zhang will come and do a seminar.
Great , please keep us updated. I am sure quite a few people would be interested. Thanks

I am pretty sure that Lily Lau's students did very well. We only sent 3 people this year along with Tony Yang and his father. There should be more

I wish I could be there too. Just being among Mantis folks is great.

Regards
Mantis108