Zhang San Feng Festival

[san tong bei]

Gene, In no way did I mean to imply that you should be shameful for leaving the Sun Style, and in no way did I mean that by doing so you were disrespectful in any matter, must be my english, I meant no offense and hope you can believe that. I do understand why people can learn something and move on, when I learned Yang Style it just did not fit me well and when I learned Chen Style, it felt more right, when I studied Sun Style I knew I had found something worth my time and energy. I thnk you have to search till you find what fits and then give it the attention it deserves. I'm am so sorry if I did not explain myself well and you had bad feelings, it was not my intention and I salute your efforts to promote the Sun Style Tai Chi Chuan and all of the CMA.

[Three Harmonies]

Whatever was/is the point of the Sun Taiji Research Group?? All I have ever heard is that it exists, nothing more. Is it still around? Webiste? What are their goals? Etc. Etc.
Thanks
Jake

[GeneChing]

The Sun Taiji Research Institute was founded under the auspices of Sun Jianyun. I think her original intention was to promote Sun style in America. She set up similar institutes in Japan, Hong Kong and in the PRC. She gave her blessing to Paul Tam and Wing Lam to start the institute, sending along a very unusual taiji banner as a blessing. It was this folk craft banner which looked like a macramé rug. We hung it up at Lam Kwoon. The main people involved beyond the Tam and Lam were Lam's top taiji students. The group was announced in Wing Lam's catalog newsletter and in some martial arts mags (in fact, if I bother to dig for it, I think it was announced in Kung Fu Tai Chi).

Since then, Paul Tam disappeared from the group. All of Lam's students that were involved have moved on. He has closed his school doors to the public, but still leads Sun style workout sessions with a private group. To the best of my knowledge, no one is doing anything with it anymore.

The institute were among the first to promote Sun style in America. Wing Lam offered GM Sun's book and official pin, proceeds going directly to her, of course. He also produced his own videos on the topic and cooperated with GM Sun to make a diagram poster, which was a very popular item. Additionally, there was a project to raise funds towards Sun Lutang's memorial grave site. I wrote a few articles on Sun style. In fact, my very first article for Kung Fu Tai Chi was Radical Taiji: The Rising Sun of Taiji in our Dec/Jan '97 issue. Beyond Dan Miller's and Tim Cartmell's work with Pa Kua Chang Journal, et. al, not many others were discussing Sun at the time. Now that the genie is out of the bottle, so to speak, it's fairly accessible, far more than before, and I like to think the Institute had a significant hand in that.

[Three Harmonies]

Gene
I have no clue why Sun taiji and Bagua are not more popular here in the west!!?!??! Great styles!
Yeah Wing Lam has done some things to help spread the art, but in all honesty the poster and vid's are embarrasingly bad! The apps DVD was one of the worst things I have ever seen. I have heard he is much better in person, put things wrong on DVD on purpose etc. not sure what the truth is, but I sincerely hope his understanding of apps is better than the DVD!
Nice article. Thanks for sharing.
Jake

[GeneChing]

It was great seeing Dale and Joshua again. Dale said he'd post some pics. I'm hoping for the one of him in the skirt. Anyway, more to come on that...

As for embarrassment, if there's anyone to blame for Wing Lam's poor Sun applications, it's probably me. I pushed him to show applications just like I push everyone to show applications. Personally, I think his production of the videos was premature. There was a lot of pressure on him to produce the Sun videos. At that time, nobody had them (this predates VCDs). The only one that was available was Aiping Cheng's Sun compulsory. Whether the pressure came from Sun Jianyun, Wing Lam's ex-wife, his students, the demands of the market or his own need to challenge himself, well, I can't really say. I personally don't think Wing Lam ever intentionally committed wrong things on video purposely. That's way too premeditated (although I will grant that he had a surprising sense of humor about such things). The WLE video production company was a grindhouse - we cranked out so many videos so quickly. Some are definitely flawed. But taken as a whole, it's still a hell of a lot better than the bulk of what's out on the market, especially over a decade ago.

One reason Sun taiji and Bagua are not more popular in America is the traditional students themselves. We don't allow for mediocrity. Either you're a master or you're not. Compare to golf, arguably one of the biggest money sports in the U.S. There's plenty of pros. There's a pro at every course. These guys aren't playing at the Masters. They aren't even close. But they are competent and they make their living teaching. There's no question of their skills and no baggage of being a 'master'.

In CMA, if you put yourself out there and haven't mastered it (or are just from a different school of thought), the traditionalists won't give you much slack. It's a personality quirk of TCMA. We're always looking for flaws. It's a natural characteristic of a strategist. But what exacerbates this is that so many people attack those flaws egotistically, as in 'that sucks'. The message the newbie gets is that everything sucks. Just look at this forum. The message we should be sending is that it's ok to suck. We all suck at the beginning, and most of us suck through to the end.

Which brings us back to the Zhang San Feng Festival. One of the unique things about this event is that it is very supportive of beginners and intermediates, no matter how much they suck. Ok, over to Dale and his pics in a skirt...

[Dale Dugas]

Sorry that it took me so long to reply but I was attending my Shifu's annual Gathering of the Circle for the week following the Zhang Sang Feng Festival. I just walked in the door...

Great to see Gene again and Joshua as well as show them my very cute legs in my Utilikilt (http://www.utilikilts.com)

The first photo is of me in my kilt at my vending booth in the corner. I sold a lot of injury medicine to people who had never even tried dit da jow before. Must have been the big bald head and the Kilt!!

The second photo is Gene and my fu brothers Yancy Orchard(on Gene's right) and Bob Maio who is on my left.

Had a great time teaching Iron Palm and Iron Vest to over 75 people that weekend!!


Enjoy!!

[Three Harmonies]

Sounds like you all had a blast! Perhaps I will make future events.
Cheers
Jake

[Dale Dugas]

Jake,

The festival itself was great!! Lots of networking with other teachers and practitioners as well as getting the snot beat out of me by my fu brothers for an iron vest demo, Yancy had combat boots on as well....

You should have seen the looks on the older ladies as my fu brothers kicked and punched me as hard as they could..... Fun to show em what internal can do for em

It was also a big event for me personally.

I turned 40 with all my fu brothers in attendance at the post festival.

Of course I bought myself some combat swords for that occasion. I picked up a very nice double handed combat steel(very sharp!) bagua jian and a very nice miao dao.

[Three Harmonies]

Firstly HAPPY BIRTHDAY you old man! According to rumor, you should be in your prime!
May I ask whom the Miao Dao is from?? Any pics? Do you do a Miao Dao set? One of my favorite weapons!

Cheers
Jake

[sanjuro_ronin]

Sorry that it took me so long to reply but I was attending my Shifu's annual Gathering of the Circle for the week following the Zhang Sang Feng Festival. I just walked in the door...

Great to see Gene again and Joshua as well as show them my very cute legs in my Utilikilt (http://www.utilikilts.com)

The first photo is of me in my kilt at my vending booth in the corner. I sold a lot of injury medicine to people who had never even tried dit da jow before. Must have been the big bald head and the Kilt!!

The second photo is Gene and my fu brothers Yancy Orchard(on Gene's right) and Bob Maio who is on my left.

Had a great time teaching Iron Palm and Iron Vest to over 75 people that weekend!!


Enjoy!!

Nice !!

Good work Dale, glad to see you had such a good time.

[GeneChing]

I should comment that Dale's classes looked pretty good, especially in the nice sports facility. My 5 Elements Xingyi Staff & Spear was in the old gym which had this whiny air conditioner simulator that only made the room stuffier. We moved outside where it was much cooler, especially when it started to rain. I told the whole class that when they should point their spears towards heaven when the lightning started.

I must refute Dale's 'cute legs' comment. Next year, Dale, you must join us for night training....

[sanjuro_ronin]

I should comment that Dale's classes looked pretty good, especially in the nice sports facility. My 5 Elements Xingyi Staff & Spear was in the old gym which had this whiny air conditioner simulator that only made the room stuffier. We moved outside where it was much cooler, especially when it started to rain. I told the whole class that when they should point their spears towards heaven when the lightning started.

I must refute Dale's 'cute legs' comment. Next year, Dale, you must join us for night training....

There seems to be a double entendre in that, and that worries me....

[Dale Dugas]

My wife calls them cute when in actuality I have really large/hairy scary fishwhite legs as I do not go out in the sun much....

I look forward to night training next year, brother.

Should be a blast. At least I would get some sleep on those nasty plastic coated mattresses that are as wide as I am...Uggh.

Sorry to hear about the whiny AC. I totally lucked out in the gym, though I had to yell as my voice disappeared into the rafters. It was good. Lots of people are buying my medicines onine and I have a bunch of people waiting eagerly for my Iron Palm DVD. Anyone interested can visit my website for more information.

[Dale Dugas]

Firstly HAPPY BIRTHDAY you old man! According to rumor, you should be in your prime!
May I ask whom the Miao Dao is from?? Any pics? Do you do a Miao Dao set? One of my favorite weapons!

Cheers
Jake

Here are some photos of my new whirling Cuisinart of death...

Enjoy!!

[Three Harmonies]

Sharp! No pun......................well, I cannot lie, it was intended!!
Where did you get the Miao? Did you learn some from Mr. Painter? Tell me more, tell me more!
I hope to make the fest someday. Between you and Gene, you guys have nothing but good things to say about it! Sounds like fun.

Cheers
Jake