Interview with Yang Hai

[Josealb]

Juan, not necessarily a full transcript...but at least a list of the questions asked on each part. Thanks in advance.

[wuwei]

Thank you Master Yang and everyone behind this project. I haven't got time to finish viewing all but excellent stuff so far.

[Dillon]

This was great; many thanks to everyone involved.

[kreese]

Yeah, I realize a full transcript it a bit much, and literal one is near impossible. But, there is much gold that I've seen so far, and video can be flaky. If anything, it'd make great content for his website. Thanks again.

[mixjourneyman]

Yeah, I realize a full transcript it a bit much, and literal one is near impossible. But, there is much gold that I've seen so far, and video can be flaky. If anything, it'd make great content for his website. Thanks again.

I think the plan is to design a new website and have a section for videos and a separate section for articles.
Look out for it in 09

[SquattingMonkey]

Wow! incredible interview. I learned a great deal. Thanks for all involved with setting this up and taking the time to produce such a great interview. Please send my special thanks to master Yang. I have a great deal of respect for him. I didn't even know before this interview that he also did TJQ, and Chen style to boot. Very cool.

[jack coffee]

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[mixjourneyman]

shanxi comes from hebei? jarek,tazido or j.b. could comment... i respect yang hai and no disrespect but is this correct. is there more info on this? cheeres .

Li Neng Ran taught xingyi in hebei province, then his students (and maybe him) went to Shanxi. Its pretty much standard xingyi history

Edit: Li visited Shanxi to teach. He did not stay there. He died in Hebei province.

[jack coffee]

.....

[I-mon]

i'm loving this interview. some good questions in there and some great solid and clear answers. one thing i really love is how he's so enthusiastic and he'll jump up and demonstrate something without a second thought. like the moment he's asked about chinese wrestling he looks down at the floor space and the two guys on the couch and he's like well we don't have space to do much but i guess we can talk about it!

[Bao]

At last I have had time to watch it all. A very nice interview - good questions and a generous, enthusiastic Yang Hai. Though, I am a bit puzzled. It was all very basic and many things there you could read in books or understand by yourself through study. I found very little to be of real practical use. An excellent interwiev, but I think your teacher have much more to give than this. I am a little bit disappointed, but that might be mostly caused by personal reflections. I believe a person who spent less than 10 years of practicing could find it to be a treasure chest of good stuff.

[CaliG]

At last I have had time to watch it all. A very nice interview - good questions and a generous, enthusiastic Yang Hai. Though, I am a bit puzzled. It was all very basic and many things there you could read in books or understand by yourself through study. I found very little to be of real practical use. An excellent interwiev, but I think your teacher have much more to give than this. I am a little bit disappointed, but that might be mostly caused by personal reflections. I believe a person who spent less than 10 years of practicing could find it to be a treasure chest of good stuff.

That might be true for some, but I still know of people who have been training for decades who think that if they just stand and do qigong that someday they'll be an old man who can go out and kick ass, where as this interview might help them realize that in old school China that's not how things were done.

[xingyijuan]

Good post Bao.

Yes, they were the basics stuff on each art. But, I believe that that's were master Yang sees a problem in the world of martial arts today. The basics are not understood, distorted or plainly left out. For a first interview with an old school teacher from China, on that point it wasn't that bad, wasn't it?

To get conversation going, Bao, what were your expectations? What are the themes that would satisfy the curiosity of a more seasoned player?

[mixjourneyman]

He can't give away all the secrets for free, can he?

[xingyijuan]

As generous as Yang Hai is, that would be too much asking for anyone.

I mean, you pay him and it's still obvious your shit is fake!

Seriously, there are so many things going on that you can't catch on a video. I mean, his talk is pretty nice but his actions are so much neater. You have to feel this guys techniques at least once. But this is a discussion board and we need this going forward. That's why I asked Bao to give his opinion.