Taiwan MA exchange - 2013?

[Bhassler]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xfQC5d5c67M

I really enjoyed watching this. Some was really good, other not so much, but I enjoyed it nonetheless. I think it's unfortunate that what made it over the pond as far as culture with the martial arts was basically the uniforms and some aspects of the teacher-student relationship that really don't even seem specific to MA within the originating areas. I wish here in the white suburban USA we had more of a sense of community and recognition of deep, difficult work rather than the themed dance competition for kids MA has become. Also, more friendly ass-kicking.

I've gotten interested in Crane style and have been reading Eric Ling's old blog (https://eric88ling.wordpress.com) and revisiting the Jibengong threads from a couple of years ago, and I guess it's got me feeling nostalgic for the good ole days when everyone had to walk to class in horse stance under a table top for 5 miles uphill both ways, and everybody else thought that was really cool and wished they had it so tough.

[allen2saint]

Love Eric's blog. I usually get very frustrated with "personal stuff" alongside technical discussion, but he is an interesting and thoughtful guy. A great read.

[Andy_S]

Some excellent stuff there:
The first chap in black (white crane of some sort?); the guy in grey doing tanglang; the one-armed guy who did a bit of rolling around on the deck, and the guy doing some kind of LF-tanglang in black were all impressive.

OTOH:
The second guy up - a young man doing old man taiji - impressed me not a wit; the guy doing long fist was close to pathetic; and the dodderer doing Chen taiji looked to me like a beginner with maybe a year's worth of training.

And where were the RSF favorites - Su Dong Chen, He Jing Han and Luo De Xiu?

And surely - surely? - we have had enough of the Wang Fei-hung theme, no? For EVERY DAMNED DEMO? Jesus. Three demos in and I was begging for some Justine Bieber.

Will be interested to see what Herman and Ken thought of it all.

[taiwandeutscher]

Longer than an hr?

Normally, I watch vids to a max of 60 secs, lol. Who got such time? Prefer to train!

Generally speaking, performances as such are seldom of pure high quality, you wouldn't see people like Luo, He or Su, but maybe a few of their students, who need such training.

I did practically stop going to such meetings and as said, I'm growing impatient watching too much stuff online...

[kenneth fish]

What Hermann said. Double.

[Andy_S]

Not sure what to make of Messrs Ken and Herman comments, above:
(1) Attention spans fall once your hair starts turning grey; or
(2) MA demos are like public speaking: The shorter, the better.

[kenneth fish]

Unless it is really top level people (Y.C. Wong, top level Feeding Crane, old line Wuxing Tongbei from Tianjin or Shenyang etc) the shorter the better.

BTW while the Huang Fei Hong music has been played to the point of annoyance, it still beats listening to endless renditions of "MeiHua" at Taiji demos

[edededed]

Hey! That Huang Feihong music is classic - what would we play without it?

But even I (not nearly as old as these gents ) have no patience in watching MA videos online - maybe 2 minutes top in general. Of course, about 400% more tolerance of video length if the video depicts something that I have specifically learned. But still, people should make the videos short and sweet in general!

[Andy_S]

No martial muzak besides "At the General's Command?"

By God, there is plenty!
Theme from "Way of the Dragon"
Theme from "Enter the Dragon"
Theme from "Game of Death"
Theme from "Rocky;"
Any kind of martial drumming, be it the corporal's mess pipe 'n drums or dragon dance heavy pounding
"Kung fu fighting" ("Wo ho-ho-ho....")
Anything by Village People

If you are doing Taiji, pretty well anything new agey will do. Or industrial death metal if you are doing Chen style.

[edededed]

Death metal with taiji? Are you kidding?! Music, that is not.

If I ever do a CMA demo of some sort - I will be sure to dazzle the audience by dashing expectations - perhaps some country twang, or maybe the Monkees. Or Eidelweiss. (I just have to concentrate to make sure I don't perform to match the rhythm - I hate that!)

[allen2saint]

I'd take Celine Dion. Anything over that other stuff.

[allen2saint]

I'll be booking these guys for my next demo:

[Bhassler]

Yeah, I can see how an hour-plus straight is sort of like watching paint dry, assuming that the paint is made of salt and painted directly on your eyeballs. I half-watched it a few times over several days and only payed attention when something looked cool. Again, I think I mostly enjoyed it because of recent new interests and the fact that I was able to see it with new eyes. Also, I almost never watch with sound. Below are my two faves, both only a couple of minutes.

Snake style:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xfQC5d5c67M&t=1158s

Authoritative older dude:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xfQC5d5c67M&t=1418s

Unless it is really top level people (Y.C. Wong, top level Feeding Crane, old line Wuxing Tongbei from Tianjin or Shenyang etc) the shorter the better.

Any references for Crane that you really like (Feeding or otherwise) beyond the Liu clan?

[kenneth fish]

There is plenty on the net. Li Gang does a nice demo for the Hong Kong Martial Arts historical project, and there are a number of others I like as well. I will start another thread on Wednesday of videos of Fujian White Crane that I like for one reason or another.

[wayne hansen]

Just watched this with a student last night
The Chen guy was the best of the tai chi even though I can see why some don't like it
Some good ba ji and hung gar
The guy in white with the sword surpasses Chen man Ching doing the same thing
Love the one armed Viking I can see the next jimmy wang yu movie
Overall worth looking thru the below average for some good solid stuff