Friday 25 January 2008

post 51. a bit about Teacher Zhou (周悅文)

well, been sort of motivated/inspired/kicked-in-the-ass to write a little bit about Zhou lao shi (Teacher Zhou), after reading this post at Jianghu. The author of Jianghu was kind enough to point me in the direction of Zhou lao shi, who also happens to be his ba gua teacher, when I was looking for a xing yi teacher, so I do owe the author a fair bit. Thanks, E, wherever you are now! China?

Zhou lao shi is quite an interesting figure and the bare outlines of his background are described at Jianghu, so I will not go over it. Interesting thing, Zhou lao shi is not as old as I thought he will be. The first time I had contact with Zhou lao shi was when I called him from Australia, and from his voice I constructed an image of what he will look like: probably 60's, balding, of middle height, strong but not gym-chiselled, rather of the stocky build that comes from labour, face is a bit square and broad with piercing eyes, and because he is a martial arts master, probably has a wispy moustache and/or beard.

Boy, was I wrong.

For one thing, Zhou lao shi still has all his hair, is clean-shaven, and is probably in his late forties or early fifties if he was born before the Cultural Revolution and was old enough to be a Red Guard. He looks younger though. I thought he was in his late thirties when I first met him, and his body is probably stronger than most men half his age. He likes to do a fair bit of hands-on, and once he was showing me how to tense up the entire body when doing the opening stance, and he got me to feel his legs, and I was quite surprised to feel how solid yet springy his thighs were. It's not the same feeling as someone who does weights and squats, which feels thick but dead, like a block of wood. Probably is the elastic strength that Zhou lao shi is always emphasizing. Surprisingly, he is not against using weights or body-building, but he does warn about "dead" (useless) versus "springy" strength. To wit, the explosive power in xing yi comes from the elastic strength in the muscles.

During our last lesson, he was more talkative than usual. Not that we don't talk normally. Come on, I am such a talker. I got him interested in coming to Western Australia with my incessant yakking about the peacefulness of Perth (there's nothing to do at night), the wide-open spaces (at night, I'm king of the roads due to lack of traffic. During the day, barring rush hour, the number of vehicles on the road at any one time can be counted on 2 hands) and the fine weather (not counting the 40-odd degreees Celsuis summers). He was even musing about buying a piece of land and rearing horses. Hehe. Of course he sorta changed his mind when I mentioned the hordes of summer flies.

Anyway, last lesson he was talking quite a fair bit about his background, some of it quite personal. It all stemmed when I was asking him about China cos a friend's been asking me to visit her in Shanghai, and I was wondering if it was safe. Also, we were discussing the various virtues of people from different parts of China at the same time, because we were talking about how some of the Chinese labourers here in Singapore like to fight. Our conversations do tend to get tangential at times. Anyway, he started sprouting a whole lot of horror stories about the thugs and scam artists in China, from which I drew some valuable lessons.

A) People from the North East have a fiery temper and like to grab you when having an argument. I should try to incorporate some of that angry, twisting quality when turning fists. Also, they like to fight.

B) Thugs and con artists still abound in many regions of China. The recent increase in wealth has only meant that these organisations have better equipment to carry out their activities. They tend to gravitate towards mugging, kidnapping, extortion, and numerous interesting behviour that involve much physical use of body parts, such as fists, and creative use of useful tools, including knives and iron bars. They are also good at fighting.

C) People from Shanghai are the best. Zhou lao shi is from Shanghai. Incidentally, Zhou lao shi is very, very good at fighting. So I must believe him.

D) To conclude, I will be robbed shirtless if I go to China alone.

But one interesting thing that did stand out was the different reasons why we learn martial arts. To me, of course self-defense is an important attribute, because like Zhou lao shi said, even if you only ever use it once in your entire life, and it saves a life, it justifies all the hours you put in. But the other aspects of internal martial arts are quite important to me as well - namely, the way to cultivate your mental and internal self, what the Chinese call "xin" (heart). Hmmm, strength of heart/will? Sigh, sometimes Chinese conveys some meanings better than English.

But for Zhou lao shi, it was because martial arts was the only thing in his life as he came from a poor background, and everyone around him was practising it. It was a means to protect himself, and even though he didn't say it, I got the impression that it also represented a chance at a better life. It was only through martial arts that he was able to leave China, which is a big thing, as it's not like they just let anybody leave China. He did tell me a bit about how difficult it was for him leaving China, which really opened my eyes a bit.

So that was our session. Of course, he did teach me a new form, Pao Quan (Cannon Fist, so that makes 4 out of the 5 element fists), and he did apologize for talking too much. Gosh, I'm lucky to actually hear his stories and he's apologising for taking up my time. But that's the kind of person he is.

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