Asking about Chen village for a friend
Posted: Thu May 22, 2014 3:15 pmI have a buddy in NZ who is wanting to to train at the Chen village. Can anyone who has done so give me any info or tips about it that I may pass on?
Surprised no one has jumped in on this yet. You should also try Chenwired, I'm sure there are plenty of guys over there who've been.
As someone who has visited the Chen village but not actually trained there, I would say that Daniel Poon's website is still a very good resource: http://www.chenvillage.com/
The actual logistics of getting to the village are actually very easy: flight/train into Zhengzhou, then a coach from Zhengzhou to Wen county, then normally (IIRC) a short cab ride to Chen village itself.
The main question your friend is going to face is who to study with. Just for dajia (large frame), there are schools run by Chen Xiaoxing, Chen Bing, Wang Xi'an's son Wang Zhanjun and Chen Zhaosen (famous for his skill with the halberd). There is also a lot of xiaojia (small frame) in the village, although there weren't any schools as such teaching it last time I went (4 years ago). Xiaojia seems mostly to still be taught in teachers' backyards.
Your friend should bear in mind that you don't have to go to Chenjiagou to study good Chen style, Beijing and Xi'an in particular have strong Chen style followings with several good teachers. HTH!