Formosa Neijia

I never thought much about this kind of stuff until I moved to Taiwan and started working at the newspapers. But Taiwanese pay a lot of attention to things like where their beef and other food products come from. And that increased awareness is very, very bad for U.S. beef.
Every time a new case of [...]

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This is one of the main theories I use to discuss the manifestation of internal power. I think this theory is close to the idea of “whole body power” and both are good for illustrating neijia concepts. One of the best short pieces on the five bow theory is this excerpt from the excellent Ji [...]

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This past Saturday, I had the distinct pleasure of meeting with one of Taiwan’s top teachers — Chen Yun-ching. I met him near his home in Taizhong and we chatted and compared practices for a couple of hours.
One of the main things that I got from the conversation is that his father’s martial arts were [...]

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So I went out and did it. No more little point-and-shot for me! This is the Canon 400D, known in the States as the Rebel XTi. It’s an entry level DSLR so I can learn on it without too much trouble. We got a kit that included the better 17-85mm IS (internal stabilization) lens instead [...]

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This is an interesting piece about the Yang style taichi five bow theory. Interestingly enough, the comments were made by Feng Zhi-qiang (a Chen stylist) during a seminar.
Curved line is better than straight line. Even when your limbs are lengthened, they should also be curved. The body is the same. It should never be too [...]

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I use a lot of tools to work on the blog and some have been a lot more useful than others. I want to introduce some of the useful ones to you guys.
For downloading clips off youtube, nothing compares to Zamzar. This site is awesome. You give the URL of the clip you want to [...]

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I’m not usually impressed by the many VCDs that come out of China. I have bought about a hundred of these things, and I’ve seen so few that really impress me. At least until yesterday.
Wudang stylist Wang Ping (王平) has an older series out that just blew my mind. I’m so glad I picked his [...]

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I just wanted to say thanks for the orders placed through my Amazon links. They add up over time. Again, you don’t need to order the products listed. Just click on one of the links and then search for anything you want to purchase. I will get a small percentage of the purchase price to [...]

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This is an example of Joseph T. Oliva Arriola doing a type of knifework that he refers to as “external.”
This is a clip of what he calls “internal” knife work. Can you see the difference? The second clip shows the knife and the hands constantly sticking to the target. The flow from one point to [...]

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This was my Christmas gift. I love this movie. It’s even better on DVD than it was in the theater.
The film hasn’t been changed in any way that I can see from the original release. This is not an updated version or director’s cut, and that’s really too bad. If any movie ever deserved it, [...]

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