C.J.W. wrote:
Maarten,
As a native speaker of Chinese, I feel obliged to let you know (if you don't already) that the term "shanzhai," as in your teacher's invention Shanzhaiquan 山寨拳, has strong negative connotations in modern slang usage. When a speaker refers to something as "shanzhai," it means the item is a cheap, pirated, and bastardized version of the original.
My guess is perhaps your teacher was being humble and self-deprecatory when he used the term to describe his hybrid system.
Hi C.J.W.,
This isalso mentioned in the website itself, under the "curriculum section" (emphasis mine):
"A man of good humour and quiet contemplation, Zou Jianhua chose the name Shanzhaiquan for three reasons. Shanzhai (山寨) has several meanings in Chinese (quan simply being fist). One meaning is a fortified mountain village outside of government supervision. In ancient times these places were where bandits and warlords would meet up and exchange knowledge, just as Shifu travelled around China, challenging many masters and making many friends along the way.
The other main, more modern meaning is that of a knock-off product, as Shanzhaiquan isn't any of the many styles it borrows from, but is effective nonetheless - just as knock-offs are made quickly and cheaply, but serve their purpose. The final meaning of Shanzhaiquan is a play on words. Here he uses the character 三, or three, (pronounced "san") instead of 山 to pay tribute to the three primary "camps" or masters that he learned from."
Maarten, this is a great site. Beautiful pictures, easy to navigate, with good content.
You probably already know this, but the "Blog" link on the toolbar at the top of the page is a generic template for a blog, with no content.
Best,
Greg