shanghai teachers

[wuseng33]

hey just wondering if anyone knew any good teachers for taiji preferably chen in shanghai. any info will be appreciated

[grippster]

If you're intrested i know a xinyi liuhequan teacher that is worth the money

[woliveri]

And I know an excellent Bagua guy if you're interested.

There's so much Taiji in Shanghai you can't walk through a park without tripping over them. Should be very easy to find Chen if you like in Shanghai.

[grippster]

And I know an excellent Bagua guy if you're interested.

There's so much Taiji in Shanghai you can't walk through a park without tripping over them. Should be very easy to find Chen if you like in Shanghai.

Yeah, we walked past some of them on our way to practise but the problem is that most of them suck, bigtime. Sure, if you just want to do it for fun it doesn't matter but if you want to learn a martial art with some sort of connection to the real world you should be careful who you hook up with.

[Wong Ying Home]

Try contacting Jarek at www.chinafrominside.com...he should be able to help

[wuseng33]

hey guys thanks for your help i was in shanghai just a few weeks ago and didnt find all that much taiji or kung fu at all what are the main parks that people practice at? mabe i was just looking in the wrong places? and thanks wong ying home ill check out that link.

[GLW]

I found people practicing in Huai Hai park and People's Park but the trick is that you have to be there pretty early.

If you get there after 8:30, just about everyone is gone.

Never did see much in the evening.

Thenyou have to know how to recognize good. It is unlikely you will find GOOD simply by wandering into any of the parks. You truly do need to know who you are looking for, preferably have someone introduce you, know where to show up, and so on.

Now, if you were looking for ballroom dancing, wellll...THAT is a different subject...tons of people doing that both morning and evening. much more popular when I was there than wushu of any form.

[wuseng33]

hahaha yeh i saw the ballroom dancing every where! where else but china could you find something like this. i traveled through a fair few cities in china and know what you mean about having to know someone most cities i havnt had to much of a problem but shanghai seems to be different from the rest and didnt seem to have to much martial arts or should i say good martial arts that i could see i heard that fudan university has a chen teacher there does anyone know who he is?

[woliveri]

just post here:

http://www.emptyflower.net/forums/index.php?act=idx

there's a lot of ppl in Shanghai on this board that can give you recomendations.

[GLW]

As for the ballroom dancing...I have a theory on that.

Chinese society is fairly reserved in regards to public displays of closeness between men and women....even married couples.

This is a bit unusual since it is not at all uncommon to see girls and women walking arm in arm....something that would make folks think funny thoughts in the US but is just a typical show of friendship between women there.

But for men and women, it is uncommon to see even much hand holding in public....

But when you do ballroom dancing...especially if it is something like Tango or any of the latin dances, you get to be VERY close, rub body parts, and look into each other....and break all of the rules....and all that happens is people will say that you were not as together as you should have been.

So, ballroom dancing is China's answer to the 1950's drive in movie.

[woliveri]

yeah, but times are a changing.

Now you can see young ppl sucking face on the subway, etc.. Before long China will most likely have the same "children having children" problem the US and other western countries have.

[GLW]

I think that one is a long way away. Birth control is a lot more out in the open and unwanted pregnancies in China have a couple of very definite end results.

Not saying that is good but it is the way things work. Even married couples are painfully aware of the children rules and limits. One child...unless you have the money, connections, or are pure ethnic group other than Han ...is pretty much a rule set in stone - so much so that daughters are discarded.

I think we will see an attempt at repatriating Chinese women that were given up for international adoption before we see a bunch of unwanted babies. That one is going to be interesting. Take a one child law, combine it with a cultural preference for male children, stir liberally for 50 years...and find that you have a large number of marriage aged and minded males with no local female prospects. Hmmm....could that be one of the ways to bring the PRC and ROC back together :)

But Shanghai teachers - to get back to the original thread... The Shanghai College of Physical Culture is there...sort of out of town, but there. They DO have their Wushu program...in fact, Professor Wang Jurong was from that school and created the Master of Arts Degree program for Taijiquan that is for all of China there in Shanghai....

So...I would suggest getting in touch with them and finding out if they have foreign student or temporary student programs....then work that into private or offsite lessons.

[Redfish]

I have been in Shanghai for near 7 years now and it's true that there isn't much Kung Fu in the sense that we know.

The internal arts have got the same Wushu treatment as the other arts, Bagua and Taichi included. If you take Wushu you can learn their version of Taichi (based on Yang style) and Baugua. Terrible stuff.

For parks Luxun Park next to Hongkou Stadium Metro Station is fun, but yes early.

The problem is if you can tell the difference between trad and semi-trad mixed with Wushu. The easiest sign is if they use modern wushu 'basics' for warm up.

Anyhow - someone I know here, Sam, hooked up with a bagua teacher that he is very happy with. And he did it through Woliveiri on this very board. So try that route.

RF