Our JUL+AUG 2015 table of contents is now online
Digital version now available
The Digital edition of our JULY+AUGUST 2015 issue available through Zinio.
Xingyi from Dragon Gate Mountain
Despite some editorial errors (tones were listed wrong, missing quotes and repeated sentence in full text view in Zinio), I found the article to be quite interesting. Perhaps a bit too much space devoted to describing Quanzhen Daoism rather than the martial style, but I suppose that's good for the average Kungfu Magazine reader. I was surprised there was no mention of Quanzhen being the only "official" Daoism in China and that it is the monastic version of Daoism that you'll see at the various tourist spots nowadays.
But more importantly, I'm surprised that kungfumagazine.com hasn't released any video clips of Gu Honggang on youtube yet. For it purporting to be an all most extinct style hoping for more exposure, a video clip showing off it's uniqueness would be invaluable...
-Alvin
Unfortunately, we don't have video
That interview was done on the fly at Berkeley CMAT this year, as I'm sure you discerned from reading over the issue. We only had a very limited time with Master Gu, not enough to get video. Was the tone error with the Shaanxi/Shanxi thing, because that always confuses me. Where is the repeated sentence exactly in Zinio? And I'm confused on your comment about Quanzhen - was there too much or did you want more?
Thanks for your feedback, Taijiren. I do wish I had more on Master Gu but our interview time was very limited.
Thanks for your comments, Taijiren
My bad on the tones. My mandarin sux, but I'm surprised our proofreaders didn't catch that. As for having "the photographer double as a videographer", yeah, sure. Beyond being the author, I was the interviewer, part of the translator, and photographer. I wish I could have had a photographer/videographer but resources for our work are limited, and I'd opt for a ninjette secretary chauffeur first. ;) Actually, one of the problems with that shoot was GM Gu was one of those masters who didn't like to slow down and pose. He did everything at full speed so I had to catch him with the sports setting. Plus he lighting was horrible where we were shooting, but the best available at the time. The whole interview & shoot went down really fast, down and dirty, but that can be a fun challenge for me. And I confess that some of the Quanzhen material was filler because GM Gu only provided limited information given our time restrictions, but you are one of the few that knew anything about Quanzhen (most don't even know that there are different schools of Daoism). I hope that we can get GM Gu again the next time he visits, get him into our studio for a more extensive interview and video shoot.
Not sure what happened with Zinio. That's very odd.
DJ - What? You don't know Jack? :p
The JUL+AUG 2015 cover story is now online