Exclusive Interview with Taiji Mantis Master Zhou Zh

[chenyaolong]

[Bao]

Always nice with more personal interviews like this. I liked it. Thank you for sharing.

[nicklinjm]

Only just got a chance to watch this. Really nice video, and I learned a lot about Mantis and your teacher from it. Think this format - combining personal interview with history of the style and also applications - is really good, would definitely like to see similar attempts for other styles!

[vagabond]

Yeah that was really excellent. Makes me wish I had gotten to spend more time with mantis,or there was a good teacher near me now.

If you get a chance would you be mind asking your teacher about his earlier training in tong bei, and how if at all that gong translated to mantis?

[chenyaolong]

thanks a lot guys! yes, there are many more coming!

@vagabond: what he learnt as a kid wasnt tongbei, he just says the style was called White Ape, he doesnt know anything about the lineage, but content-wise it seems identical to mantis

[Trick]

I studied Tongbeiquan in Dalian(Liaoning province) where it’s quite widely practiced, many of the “older” generation are also skilled in Tanglangquan some mix the two. Yantai in Shandong is just a short boat ride away, so it seem natural the two have mixed up and influenced each other to some degree.

[chenyaolong]

there is also a lot of Tongbei in Yantai, and as you said, many people know both or mix both.

[vagabond]

Oh that's wild! I guess the Chinese like to get as much mileage out of a good name as they can. I'm always interested in anything to do with both at the same time, as the two really superlative cma fighters I've gotten a little training from have been a mantis cat and a Tong Bei gangster. And they seem like such natural compliments