masters: chang dong sheng

this has little to do with what i'm learning (bagua). but it does have a lot to do with my kung fu school, since one of my Sifu's instructors was a man named Chang Dong Sheng.

Chang Dong Sheng was a well-recognized and highly respected master of shuai jiao (a form of Chinese wrestling).

i wanted to show this video of an interview with him in 1980:

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4jcgVIO2fs

his comments are priceless (the English translation of the interview is in the video summary).

i suspect this interview came on the heels of this demonstration:

• part 1 of 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_O33kCCXlrc
• part 2 of 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-UJ4NCCMA0
• part 3 of 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wsakrgK0h6Y

what amazes me is that he was 72 years old in these videos. he's absolutely DESTROYING people. yeah, it's just a demonstration, and it's with his own students. so it's not real fighting. but let's see ANYBODY try to throw people like this at 72 years old.

there's another classic video of Chang Dong Sheng taken earlier than the above:

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SgPzk85BYIg

he was apparently also a master of other kung fu styles. here's a video of him performing Yang style tai chi in what appears to be a school (it's very old film, i suspect a digital transfer of an old 8mm film...a short excerpt of this video is in the previous video):

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gr6dhevbLJ0

on a side note, shuai jiao is not the only form of Chinese wrestling. in particular, compare Chang Dong Sheng's comments in the interview regarding shuai jiao to those of another Sifu, Liang Shou Yu, regarding kuai jiao (another form of Chinese wrestling):

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQLuQTNraII