Formosa Neijia

I meant to post this a long time ago but forgot. It reveals what happened between these two so long ago. I’ve heard a lot of nonsense about this encounter, so now we can clear it up.
It was an open GuoShu competition held on June 24th, 1955 (Sorry, not the 60s). There were [...]

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If it weren’t for Robert Smith, many of us would not be where we are today. His efforts to promote martial arts, especially the Chinese martial arts as practiced in Taiwan, have been more influential than anyone else’s. Yet I rarely see him given the credit he deserves.
Many of us take information for granted because [...]

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Former Taipei mayor Ma Ying-jeou seems certain to win this weekend’s presidential election. This means that the KMT will likely come back in power with all branches of government under its control. Will the KMT rule Taiwan as it did before? Will it decide to re-fund Chinese cultural activities that went unfunded during the DPP’s [...]

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This is a real treat. This is famous Taiwan teacher Fu Shu-yun doing xingyiquan for about ten minutes. Those of you who need background on her should look here.
Fu seems to have been enigmatic in that she knew many things and taught a few of them. She apparently shared her knowledge of xingyiquan and baguazhang, [...]

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This is a style that I hear about every now and then, but it’s been a bit hard to find info on it until now. This page has a nice intro into this rare Taiwanese style. Here’s an excerpt:
The Golden Eagle style or, as it is known in Chinese, ‘Jin‑Ying Chuan’ 金鷹拳, was [...]

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Well here’s something you don’t read everyday. The following is from Ted’s latest blog post. It has some interesting thoughts on where the Chen’s other 8 forms went and why taiji gained popularity when it did. The point of the article was how the taiji classics could help everyone, regardless of style.
Is he right that [...]

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This pic was taken in 1961, at the inauguration of the ZhongHua MinGuo Taijiquan Association.
Starting from the left:
喬長虹 Qiao Zhang-hong (Little Nine Heaven小九天), 翁子川 Weng Zi-chuan ( ZMQ’s student 鄭子太極), Unknown, 王樹金 Wang Shu-jin (XYQ and BGZ 形意八卦), 陳泮嶺 Chen Pan-ling(BGZ, XYQ, TJQ), Unknown,王子和 Wang Zi-he (Yang style taiji 楊太), 戚靜之 Qi Jing-zhi (organization secretary), [...]

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I’m quoting this whole article by Stan Henning because I find it fascinating, as I do with most things written by this author. General Qi’s book is highly regarded by scholars and the info given here shows how pre-modern MA training was conducted.
General Qi Jiguang’s Approach To Martial Arts Training
By Stanley Henning
Ming General Qi Jiguang [...]

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This is General Gao Fang-xian 高芳先, who was described by Robert Smith in Masters and Methods as a master of Northern Shaolin. General Gao has quite a bit of history behind him as he was a hero of both the War of resistance against Japan and World War Two. This picture may give you some [...]

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Here are more photos taken by Curtis Adkins in Taiwan around 1962. (First post here.) I have posted some of his comments regarding training during that time so you can get an idea of what it was like then. Once again, I can’t thank Curtis enough for allowing me to host these photos. Enjoy.

HQT taught [...]

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