So years later, 2007 I found out Chen Xiao Wang was doing a seminar at their school so I joined the school a couple months before the seminar so I could learn as much as I could of the form so that I wasn’t completely in the dark. Those 2 guys are straight off the boat, hardcore traditionalists. Being younger than them I couldn’t speak directly to them. These 2 Chinese women were who you had to talk to, and then relay information to them. Even though you’re standing right in front of them. Dr. Xie and Jinbao know this tradition isn’t going to fly in America so they didn’t even care. You could talk to them all you want.
These 2 women are also the ones who teach all the classes. They’re the gatekeepers. So the main lady, I will just call LT, asked me how long I’ve been practicing and I told her that I’ve done a little Taiji but Bagua for 10 years. “Chen Taiji is for experienced people. You have to do Yang style Taiji class first.”
Me: “but I am literally here just to take the Chen Taijiquan seminar with CXW.”
LT: “I don’t care. You practice Yang style.”
So I went to the Yang style class.
But the 2 guys eventually saw me and let me take the Chen classes and go to the really advanced class that they taught. Which really irked LT. But she was subservient to them.
So when the seminar happened. Since I could Fali he mistook me for their best student and directed a lot of attention towards me, and would lecture and speak directly towards me. This really irked LT because she was translating for CXW.
So come end of day two it’s the Q and A time. I was the only one raising my hand. I asked a couple questions. Some other people asked stupid questions. Then I asked about silk reeling and Dantian rotation, and she lost it, she started yelling at me: “You only practice Taiji for 2 months! How do you know about Dantian!” She yelled at me for close to a minute. Red in the face. You could see CXW looking wtf and trying to hide a laugh. This was one of the most outrageous public displays I have ever seen. And then factor in the idea of ‘Face’ in China, she stopped when she realized that she lost all Face in front of CXW. Long long awkward silence. Then CXW started talking in his limited English. There was some more lecturing. Then “any questions”? Nobody wanted to ask anything. So to add insult to injury CXW invited me up to place my palm on his abdomen and feel the rotation while he was doing silk reeling. You could see the smoke coming out of her ears at this point. He showed me some other stuff. Invited me to take a private lesson with him the next day. But I was flat broke, I had to take a cash advance just to pay for the seminar. And I knew that c**t would be there translating. So I didn’t take him on his offer.
I ran into LT a few times afterwards and we just glare at each other.
