Cheng's Student Ed Young to Have Art Exhibit

Ed Young, children's book artist and tai chi teacher, will be having an exhibit of his works in Abiline, Texas,  November 11, 2011-January 28, 2012 at the National Center for Children's Illustrated Literature. Young, who is about to turn 80, immigrated to the United States as a youth, and studied architecture, before turning to illustration.
In 1964, he happened to meet Professor Cheng Man-ch'ing, who was visiting the United States. After Cheng decided to stay on in New York City, Young became one of his assistants and translators, and became a taiji teacher himself in the New York area and beyond.

Young's book Lon Po Po, the Chinese Red Riding Hood story, won the Caldecott Medal, the highest US honor in children's book illustration. Two other books, The Emperor and the Kite, and Seven Blind Mice, by Young himself, have won Caldecott Honors. Recent books include Wabi Sabi (with Mark Reibstein), Moon Bear (with Brenda Guiberson),  Hook, and Tsunami (with Kimiko Kajikawa). His newest book, The House Baba Built, a picture-book memoir about his boyhood in wartime Shanghai, is meeting with critical acclaim.
For an article about the exhibit, see the Abiline Recorder.
Young can be seen on this BBC video discussing The House Baba Built.

A Visit from West Point

Cheng giving a demonstration
(source unidentified).

In December of 1967, Cheng Man-ch'ing welcomed guests from West Point, the United States Military Academy located in upstate New York. Led by John Kress, instructor of unarmed combat, a group of officers and cadets visited the New York Tai Chi Association studio on Canal Street in Chinatown. Kress and his group exchanged ideas and demonstrations with Cheng and his students. Many years earlier, Cheng himself had taught tai chi at the Whampoa Military Academy, China's "West Point."
As Tam Gibbs, Cheng's assistant and translator later recorded, "Mr. Kress demonstrated some Army field fighting techniques. All were helpless against him. Strong as a bear and as fierce as a tiger, he crouched in a stable posture, quick and light on his feet. Cooly concentrated and never initiating an attack, he took advantage of the slightest opening. Each of those to face him was sent staggering; no one could penetrate his long arms, which seemed like flagpoles with the hugest hands at the ends of them that I have ever seen on a man."
The tai chi students also gave demonstrations, and to everyone's delight, Kress and Cheng Indian wrestled. Cheng, a half-foot shorter and much lighter, bested Kress, but was worried, as he could sense Kress' high skill. The two men came away with a great appreciation of each other.

New Cheng Man-ch'ing Video Released

Followers of Cheng Man-ch'ing's t'ai chi school will greatly appreciate the release of Cheng Man-ching: The Master Tapes . This is a four-DVD set of material edited from footage shot in Cheng's New York school in the late 1960s. The content is grouped by form, push hands, sword, and "ch'i" (a compilation of calligraphy, flower-arranging, and informal talks about ch'i and about his own teachers).

These DVDs provide a unique glimpse into one of the first American t'ai chi studios, and give a sense of Cheng's personality and personal breadth and depth of ability in numerous fields.

New Book on Cheng Man-ch'ing

Douglas Wile's most recent contribution to study of Cheng Man-ch'ing, Zheng Manqing's Uncollected Writings on Taijiquan, Qigong and Health, with New Biographical Notes in addition to offering new, interesting translations of selected work of Cheng's and Cheng's students, draws on Wile's scholarly training by discussing such issues as the historical, geographical, and social influences on Cheng.
The taiji sections include eight essays by Cheng, and anecdotes by students. Translations of newspaper articles about Cheng give insight into how he was perceived in Taiwan.

Cheng Man-ch'ing's T'ai Chi Contributions

Cheng Man-ch'ing is often viewed as a "traditionalist," yet he was also an creative innovator. In the field of taijiquan (t'ai chi ch'uan), Cheng's contributions were numerous and influential, with international impact. With a career that spanned over four decades, Cheng:

• created a Yang-style short form; this received the imprimatur of his elder classmate Chen Weiming, one of Yang Chengfu's leading disciples
• helped increase taijiquan's popularity and helped spread it to Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan, and the United States
• promoted taijiquan as a highly suitable exercise for women
• taught taijiquan as a "dao"—a method of self-cultivation in harmony with Confucian and Daoist teachings
• taught publicly without regard to students' nationality, gender, or ethnicity
• created numerous curriculum innovations and adaptations
• wrote the influential Thirteen Treatises on T'ai Chi Ch'uan that focuses on in-depth theory and philosophy
• wrote some of the first English books on taijiquan
• drew on his in-depth knowledge of the Chinese Classics and Traditional Chinese medicine for his teaching and writing
• gave countless demonstrations
• regarded taijiquan practice as a method of saving the health of the Chinese people, as well as the world

That Cheng Man-ch'ing was able to contribute in such breadth and depth to the field of taijiquan would seem sufficient for one person's accomplishments. However, he was just as prolific in his other fields, writing numerous books and articles, giving interviews, lectures, and exhibits of calligraphy, painting, poetry, and exploring the rich writings of Chinese philosophers such as Confucius, Laozi, Mencius, Wang Yangmng, and others, as well as in his last work, a commentary on the Yijing—the Book of Changes.