Good or Not (Wu Jien Quan)

[Zhin]

As a Wu jien quan stylist, I'm constantly looking for vids, etc of the art. I found this one of the short form recently, and I want to see what other people who do the Wu think of it.

This is the first time I've seen a vid of someone other than my teacher, or my teacher's teacher and his direct family.

What do you think? Is this along the same lines of what you do?

http://taichited.tripod.com/html/wustyle.htm

[RAF]

http://www.geocities.com/yongnian/

Take a look at these short takes. You'll get a chance to compare both traditional Yang style taijiquan (Yang Cheng Fu) and the Wu style.

[Zhin]

I'm familiar with both styles, conceptually, but my teacher teaches an older way. The pics you posted are a good comparison. The question remains though, out of the two sets of pics now, which is more representative of how *you* learn Wu. I'm not making value judgements, I'm just curious.

[Zhin]

Okay, actually, I will be judgemental. I think the film I posted sucks. I also think the yongnian animations are crappy too.

Oh well.

Glad I got that off my chest.

[Zhin]

of the two, the Yongnian is better. The first guy should be beaten senseless, and if I'm ever in Canada, I'll take care of it.

[RAF]

Shin:

I guess we can agree to disagree. I do not practice the wu style although I did take a seminar with Wen Mei Yu and found her to be an excellent teacher.

Although I practice a version of the Yang style different from that on the website, Dr. Mei Ying Sheng, in my estimation, is one of the best representatives of the Yang Cheng Fu style. There is a book about him put out by Thomas (English student).

If these don't fit, you might look at Wang Peisheng as a representative of the Wu style, Beijing

[Rory]

ask your teacher. also who is your teacher what is his lineage

[Zhin]

My teacher was an indoor disciple of Mah Liu Liang. As I'm talking smack, I'd rather not drag the name into it, though if there's a serious issue with my comments, I'm more than willing to step up myself.

[GLW]

That name would be Ma Yueliang. He was the son-in-law of Wu Jianquan...married to Wu Yinghua...and together they were noted as the leading Wu style people in China. They lived in Shanghai and died a couple of years ago.

[Zhin]

I've seen Ma or Mah;

Liu, Yueh, Yue;

The only consistent one is Liang.

I never could figure out which one is Pinyin, and hence "official".

[GLW]

Check the site you listed...it has a link to famous masters photos....Ma's picture is there and the spelling is the correct pinyin...

He also lists several people (my teacher as well) with photos but, at best, he learned in seminars from many of them and is NOT a close student of those people. Personally, I am a little bothered by people who have the teacher sitting, person standing picture with people done in the traditional way since to many of us, this implies a close relationship with that teacher and not a seminar student.

Many teachers allow this so they are not rude but they don't really like it either.

[Zhin]

Thanks for the info about the pinyin, but I don't need to see it, I've seen plenty of pics of him, as well as videos of him performing.

[GLW]

I wasn't referring to it for the picture...doubtless you have that....

But rather for the correct pinyin spelling.