Taijiquan Tuishou is not even a folk sport

[Yeung]

Before the CCP started to brand Chenjiagou as the "Birthplace of Tai chi", Tai Chi practitioners if they wanted to compete did so in Sanda tournaments. The focus on PH as competition is exactly what has been detrimental to Tai Chi as a fighting art.

And everyone keep saying that "Chen style is the most martial tai chi style". What a joke. In fact, the focus on fake wrestling makes it the least martial tai chi style.

The CCP support Taijiquan because it does not have a direct link to the organized religion of Daoism. Most people acknowledged it has some relation to the development of Internal Martial Art which disappeared due to its resistance to the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911 AD). Push Hand Competition was part of the All China Taijiquan Championship in the 80's and early 90's. So, it is not something new in China excepted it disappointed the public by promoting the use of brute force in Taijiquan. If you look at the rules carefully, the standard push hand techniques are not from the Chens. In any case, the founders of Wu or Ng styles are good wrestlers.

[Bao]

The CCP support Taijiquan because it does not have a direct link to the organized religion of Daoism.
....
Push Hand Competition was part of the All China Taijiquan Championship in the 80's and early 90's. So, it is not something new in China excepted it disappointed the public by promoting the use of brute force in Taijiquan.

Promoting tai chi is one thing, promoting the Chen family and the Che village is something different. The CCP promoted the Chen family and Chenjiagou because of the Chen family's political connections and nothing else.

If you look at the rules carefully, the standard push hand techniques are not from the Chens. In any case, the founders of Wu or Ng styles are good wrestlers.

I don't understand your point. Rules is something else than technique. It's the Chen stylists, especially the Chen village people, who promote push hands competitions more than any else.

[Steve James]

The CCP support Taijiquan because it does not have a direct link to the organized religion of Daoism.

I don't think it had anything to do with Daoism. At the time, early 80s, the PRC was finally opening up to the rest of the world. Martial arts, in general, had been discouraged or worse by the PRC government. Most of the world's taijiquan outside China was not Chen style. I was at some of the first performances of the "Peking Wu Shu Troupe" in the US. The announcer made it very clear that "this" was the real "taijiquan" because most of the world knew Yang or some other variant. Many, if not most, of the taijiquan teachers were in former colonies like Hong Kong or from Taiwan and Malaysia, etc. By designating Chen style as "the" tjq, the PRC is establishing it firmly as "Chinese." I'm not saying that they designate all other variants as illegitimate.

Anyway, if it's about tjq technique, I think Wu (Jianquan) (Ma's style) would be a lot more interesting to watch.

[everything]

Taijiquan is no longer only "Chinese" just like Judo is no longer "Japanese" or BJJ is no longer "Brazilian" or association football (soccer) is no longer "English", and that's a GOOD thing - a cultural contribution to the world, but that kind of nationalistic dumbass toddler level of thinking marketing/propaganda will persist for another 100 years, it seems.

[Yeung]

If arm wrestling can be an open sport then why not Pushing Hands? There are lots of comparative advantages in Taijiquan as a martial arts and competition is a good way to develop these skills. I am not sure the rules will prevent the use of brute force as it was suggested but I think it is that the skills in neutralization have not fully been understood in the development of the rules, As for me, I am all for open sport.

They scrapped pushing hands in the early 90's because the Taijiquan participants were not trained to take on the powerful stance of Xingyi practitioners and the powerful arm techniques of Wrestlers. The Taijiquan pushing hand competition became a contrast with Xingyi people with some Taijiquan skills and wrestlers with some Taijiquan skills like doing the 42 forms at a certain standard. I think the revival is a great opportunity to try out all kinds of skills within a set of rules to promote the name of Taijiquan as a symbol of Chinese culture. In any case it will be a good training exercise for Taijiquan as a martial art.