day 29: world tai chi & qi-gong day

there was actually no class this saturday. instead, we attended World Tai Chi & Qi-Gong Day.

the event was held at the Rose Bowl Brookside Park, and featured news media and demonstrations from various tai chi schools in Southern California. it's an annual event that Sifu has attended for a number of years. the website is: http://www.worldtaichiday.org/

for this year, Sifu was serving as a translator for a European media news crew, and a contingent from the school (Phunsak, Keiun, John Eagles--doing double duty with his other kung fu school, Siwann-da, James, and Jonathan) was supposed to provide a demonstration. i chose to just observe this year, since i didn't feel advanced enough to do a demonstration--particularly since they had the "Jason Tsou Kung Fu Academy" listed last, suggesting we were the headliners.

everything was scheduled to go from 8am to 1pm. however, as the day went on people began leaving as soon as their demonstrations were complete. by 11am, approximately half the crowd had departed. by this time, Sifu had finished a piece with the news crew using Phunsak and Kieun to perform combat applications of tai chi techniques. he decided we should leave early, and so we ended up leaving before time for the demonstration.

i have to be honest, i have very mixed feelings about this day. enough that i plan to write a commentary on this. everyone was very nice, and very friendly, and very open. but it just seemed...disturbing.

on one hand, i was somewhat alarmed by the demonstrations given this day. i don't know anything about tai chi, and i'm not much of a kung fu practitioner. but as an outside observer, i do expect the words "martial art" to be as much about "martial" as they are about "art." most of the demonstrations (actually, all of them) were more focused on display and showmanship (i.e., art), and not at all on self-defense or combat (i.e., martial).

this was apparent in the prevalence of choreographed routines with loud synchronized music. practitioners were performers, complete with bright-colored costumes and coiffed hair and make-up. the weapons were all props (Phunsak pointed out a wushu display with swords that flopped around mid-blade, and a spear that swung like a rope).

it didn't help that there was an element of flakiness--what i've commonly heard labeled as "hippiness." Siwann-da and i detected the distinct odor of marijuana. we overheard abstract conversations about "energy of the universe" and being "in touch."

this all just seemed to feed the Western stereotypes of tai chi: either as a slow, plodding exercise populated by old people and pot-smoking California hippies living in communes, or as a showpiece performance art for celebrities on a stage.

Kieun, Phunsak, and i ended up having a very long, very sober conversation about this. too long and too sober to put in this post, and something i'll reserve for my commentary.

on the other hand, for all this, i can see that there is a certain benefit--and even necessity--to attending these types of events. Phunsak, and later Sifu, commented that we can see that we do things a little differently than most: the Wutan curriculum in general, and Sifu in particular, approach tai chi as a combat art...in Sifu's words, we do "tai chi chuan" (tai chi as fighting style). as a result, we don't emphasize the aspects of tai chi other people do, and focus instead on the components relating to self-defense.

i asked Sifu about what we were seeing. he pointed out that tai chi, as with all martial arts, has many facets, including combat, health, mental development, etc. as we could see, most people preferred to only accentuate the non-combat aspects of tai chi. he said that this is fine, and they are getting what they want from it. he said martial arts can--and should--do this.

but he pointed out that in that such case people aren't really practicing tai chi chuan, but just tai chi dance. in doing so, they're getting away from the origins of tai chi as a fighting style. which means the world is getting a distorted view of tai chi.

Sifu explained that this is the main reason he attends demonstrations like these, since he feels it is crucial to remind people of the original purpose of tai chi, and to try to balance out the prevailing stereotypes with something closer to its original purpose. otherwise, people will never know.

Phunsak and Sifu are right: we really do things a little bit differently than other schools. events like today make this clear. i can understand that all schools serve a role in promoting (and preserving) the full image of tai chi, and that tai chi has many different aspects that can benefit many different people. but having said that, i have to say i prefer what we do--because to me there's not much point in calling something a "martial art" if you can't use it for martial purposes.

Phunsak said we should just treat events like today as just fun, and time to hang out and see what other people are doing. he asked me if i was going to attend World Tai Chi & Qi-Gong Day again. i didn't answer. i have to think about this.

it might help to see pictures i took to get a better feel for what i'm describing. i've included some photos of the day below, and divided them up into sections: signs, demonstrations, and what we were doing. check them out for yourself:

signs

demonstrations

what we were doing