MARTIAL ARTS STUDY TOUR OF CHINA
Two of Paisley School of Kung Fu’s senior instructors have recently returned from participating in a Kung Fu study tour to China – a journey to the origins of Kung Fu. The tour was arranged by Sifu Wing Lam, a master of Hung Gar and Shaolin styles of Kung Fu based in San Francisco, (www.wle.com) and their links with him enabled Nick and Lynn Wojciechowski to join the trip which had a total of 24 participants.
Their first training experience in China was at the mysterious Wudang Mountain. This area was featured in ‘Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon’ and with the spectacular, almost tropically green mountain peaks shrouded in mist, one can see how the legends arose – it is like being in a postcard. There are penalties for this however. On several occasions the water in the hotel goes off because of problems with the pumps which bring the water up the mountain, and the electricity which powers the air conditioning units is rotated between floors as there is not enough for everyone!
Until relatively recent times, Wudang Kung Fu was guarded carefully, but now foreign as well as Chinese students are accepted. Teachers from the Academy of Wudang Daoism Wushu Arts (www.wudang-kungfu.com) taught us a 28 step Wudang tai chi form over a two day workshop. All the training was outdoors in temperatures around 100F, with over 90% humidity. This was quite difficult for most of the group to deal with, but the training venue, a courtyard of the Purple Heaven Palace, with incense burning and its sense of history and serenity made it a unique experience.
On the second day, we began training at 5am, at which time we also saw some of the 700 children who are resident at the Academy, out on a morning run. Our third session that day was held in the hotel courtyard, much to the amusement of the young waitresses. Our teachers were young, only around 20, but already with an amazing calmness and patience, and an ability to perform every action perfectly, every time.
We travelled from there to the Shaolin Temple, the world famous home of Kung Fu. (www.shaolinsi.gov.cn) The 1500 year old temple is best known for martial arts, and many will have seen the spectacular Shaolin Wheel of Life show, but it is also a functioning Buddhist monastery where the monks carry on a contemplative way of life in addition to their martial studies. Outwith the Temple itself, the atmosphere is quite different from the isolation of Wudang; there is more of a commercial orientation with retail outlets selling weapons, uniforms and souvenirs to the many tourists, the majority of whom are Chinese.
In the Shaolin area there are many residential schools where some 50 – 60,000 children from as young as 5 receive academic and martial arts education. The largest school, the one associated with the temple, has 13,000 students. Travelling to and from the temple each day we witnessed a sea of uniformed youngsters doing weapons and empty hand forms, tumbling routines, kicking drills and sparring. We were told that their parents enrol them in the belief that it may bring them a better life. There are no ‘nannies’ to look after the little ones, they are expected to be independent although we saw the older children helping them. At the end of their education some stay at the schools to teach, or may be accepted as disciples at Shaolin, some go back to their home towns and open their own kung fu schools, or some may find work as bodyguards.
We spent four days at Shaolin, with two training sessions, each of two hours, every day. The focus was a contrast to the controlled calmness at Wudang. Here the emphasis for the first hour was on aerobic physical activity, punching and kicking drills focussing on speed and power, and on stretching to increase flexibility. The instructor constantly cajoled – the language barrier was no barrier! - and during each session expected a bit more than in the previous one. The second hour of each session was spent in a smaller group with an instructor, in our case Master Shi Yong Zhi. Again very young, perhaps 24, very calm and patient and with a great sense of humour which emerged as the days passed and he got to know our group. His main focus throughout our lessons was speed and generating explosive power which are the hallmarks of Shaolin Kung Fu.
At the end of our stay, a ceremony of exchanging banners between Sifu Wing Lam and the Director of the Temple Wushu Academy, served to emphasise the importance now placed on creating links with the West.
A 12 hour journey took us to Beijing, for our final workshop, this time in bagua, taught by Master Zhang Quanliang. To the uninitiated, this looks as if practitioners simply walk in circles, and as none of us had any prior experience of this style, the workshops concentrated on the basic movements and principles of this complex style.
When not training, much of our time in China was taken up with travelling over vast distances. One of the interesting experiences of the trip was travelling overnight on the sleeper trains, which had compartments with six bunk beds but no door! The cubicles open onto a narrow corridor with flip down seats which is like Sauchiehall Street, with a constant stream of people selling foodstuffs, drinks or magazines. Passengers, old and young, pass back and forward and the whole ambience was incredibly social.
Our rest days from training provided the opportunity for trips to well known places such as Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City, the Summer Palace and the Great Wall of China. We also visited jade and pearl factories, and a weapons forge where many of the group purchased an assortment of training weapons. There are fewer customs restrictions on taking weapons into America than Britain.
A major novelty for us all was to find ourselves being viewed as tourist attractions. Many Chinese have never seen western people and we were regularly asked to pose in family photos! On a few occasions we were stopped in the street by Chinese who spoke some English, and who wanted someone with whom to practise language skills.
Most of the group were fairly experienced in martial arts and there was a consensus that we had all benefited immensely from the expertise of our teachers in all three styles of Kung Fu. They set standards to which we would all aspire, reflecting the fact that their lives are totally dedicated to kung fu, spending as much time training as we do at work.