Chen Zi Chen This is Me

 Web References

1. 1. www.zhong-ding.com

   www.zhong-ding.com/qigong.htm - [Cached]

   Published on: 9/4/2006   Last Visited: 9/8/2007

   As well as being associated with the fields of medicine and physical fitness it is also found in connection with Buddhism, Daoism and of course the practise of the martial arts.
   
   Exponents claim to be able to use their qi to cure illnesses, prolong life and even to damage opponents; all of which serves to make qigong a field of study very attractive to a wide range of people. it also makes the art open to exploitation and misrepresentation.
   
   While I have always found the stories very interesting and even as a young and impressionable teenager had sat cross-legged with one hand over my ear in imitation of an exercise I had found in a book, on the whole I have remained sceptical about the superhuman powers promised to the qigong exponent.
   
   In the majority of the systems of Chinese martial arts that I have studied, however, qigong in one form or another has played a part, and so over the years I have learnt quite a wide range of such methods.
   
   In Cheng Man Ching taijiquan, as taught in Malaysia and Singapore, there exists a set of exercises for developing nei gong or internal strength, that many exponents believe to be absolutely vital to the development of effective martial skills.
   ...
   This particular form of qigong is, to the best of my knowledge, not found among the teachings of Cheng's students either in Taiwan or America other than Chen Zi Chen, who as a youth helped Cheng with his internal strength training.
   ...
   Another version of this story tells how Chen Zi Chen taught Yue Shu Ting in return for a large sum of money.
   ...
   Exponents of qigong are also told to be aware of these phenomena, but not to become fixated on them, for if aimed for as a goal they tend to become less rather than more accessible.
   
   From the time that I first embarked on the study of taijiquan I had always been rather sceptical of this whole area of study and it is only with the passing of years that I have noted the appearance of some of the phenomena associated with qi development in my own training.
   
   It was while I was living in China that I had my first concrete experience of one of the manifestations of this inner energy which is claimed to be the very stuff of life. It was while I was living in China that I had my first concrete experience of one of the manifestations of this inner energy which is claimed to be the very stuff of life.
   ...
   It turned out that they were bandsmen and as members of an elite PLA band had even toured America.
   ...
   I had already seen members of the armed police unit which served as a gate guard to the hotel complex where we lived, practising martial arts before their early morning parades.
   ...
   This is known in Chinese as waiqi (outside qi) and much research has been conducted into the skills of the masters who are able to do this.
   ...
   I looked at Doug's face quizzically. He looked astonished.
   
   "It's like electricity," he said, "I can definitely feel it!"
   
   I put out my own arm and Xioa Hong made the same gesture. it was as Doug had said; like having a mild electrical charge run up and down your arm.
   ...
   I have often thought back on this incident and wondered why both Doug and I plainly felt something while Denise didn't.
   ...
   I don't know.
   
   Since that time other qigong teachers have sought to demonstrate the same emission of energy on me but I can truthfully say none of them with as startling an effect as that PLA musician in a downtown Beijing restaurant.
   ...
   Cures follow and then a famous personality, perhaps a pop singer or a movie star is cured of some serious illness by this new, "old" method.
   ...
   Exponents of this style stand in a natural position, concentrating on their breathing until their body starts to move of its own accord. this is often manifested as a general shaking of the body but then the practitioner might start performing movements representative of one of the animals of the Five Animal Play sytem. The Five Animal Play is a qigong exercise that is supposed to have originated over a thousand years ago, having been invented by the "father of Chinese medicine", Hua To. the exercise involves the performance of specific actions associated with the monkey, the bear, the deer, the crane and the tiger. Exponents of spontaneous qigong, however, follow no set pattern but just move sometimes in imitation of these animals.
   ...
   So it was that one exceptionally hot evening after two hours of taiji which had left me sweaty and exhausted, I watched from the porch area of his house come training hall as four of his students unrolled a huge piece of carpet and covered the concreted courtyard where training took place. The climate of Malaysia is wonderful for martial artists as there is no need to train indoors.
   ...
   I decided instead to focus for a while on one of the seated students. By now he was rocking from side to side, the motions becoming stronger and stronger, until, with a shout, he threw his body to one side and rolled over and over.
   ...
   Master Lim who had come to stand at my side leaving the prostrate students under the supervision of his assistant instructor, pointed to the growling man and said, "Tiger, he is performing the movements of the tiger."
   ...
   It made me think of the karate kid and I had to stifle a giggle. I turned it into a question. "Master Lim have these students trained in Tiger or Crane boxing?"
   ...
   Her movement was so startlingly un-Chinese, being totally free-form and uninhibited that I looked at Master Lim to try to guage his reaction. His face was impassive; this was obviously something he had seen before.
   ...
   As a defence I wasn't sure that it would stand up in court but I nodded as if in dawning comprehension.
   ...
   Now, as I have said before, I am sceptical about the benefits of such training particularly since, as many of my teachers have pointed out, they have no direct relevance to progress in the martial arts which has always been my main area of interest. What it seemed to me with my jaded and cynical eye was that the woman was moving in an unrepressed and fully natural way without the inhibitions that everyday life in her culture placed her under. Her qi helpers on the other hand were getting cheap thrills, doing in their "trance" state what they could not have done otherwise except in a place where the girls were paid for!
   ...
   The teaching and testing of neigong is an integral part of the taiji teacher's practise in Malaysia and I have always taken every opportunity to extend my knowledge and understanding of this aspect of the art. So it was that when a cousin of my wife's told me that he was learning neigong I jumped at the chance to be introduced to his teacher.
   
   The class took place in a town about an hour's drive away from where I was living and one Saturday evening just as darkness was falling my brother-in-law and I set off.
   ...
   I knew from daytime visits that surrounded on three sides by sharply-rising rocky hills covered with jungle vegetation, the town is similar to many other places in Malaysia.
   ...
   Next Master Kang asked if I would like to have a go and the larger of the two educators smiled myopically at me as his teacher insisted that i could hit him anywhere on his abdomen with any kind of strike. "Any kind of strike?" I queried. The master nodded. I decided that the man was fair game so I gently placed my loosely-clenched fist on his solar-plexus and simultaneously sinking and contracting my muscles delivered a taiji punch.
   ...
   This time to make sure that I delivered the "correct" kind of blow he mimed a number of punches, chops and open-handed techniques, indicating that any of these were permissable.
   
   So for the next three or four minutes I chopped, punched and hacked at the chosen student. In the end I had to stop because my wrist and hand were beginning to hurt. Throughout all this my punchbag stood relaxed and showed no visible signs of discomfort. It was impressive.
   
   I asked Master Kang about the nature of their training and he replied that they practised qigong breathing methods for about three months before they were able to withstand blows. I asked him whether they did any kind of conditioning such as beating the body and he replied with a definite no. Furthermore at the end of three months each student had to take an examination before he could progress to the next level of training. This consisted of allowing senior students to strike freely at their abdomen. "All of our training is natural and relaxed. Just look," so saying Master Kang walked over to where one of his students stood, back to the teacher, talking to two other men. Without warning Master Kang struck him forcefully in the centre of his back. The student turned, not fast and with no trace of surprise or astonishment and smiled at the master and myself. "See, no preparation!" I was even more impres

2. 2. Cheng Mang Ching Yang Style Tai Chi Chuan Qigong Neigong Iron Shirt

   www.yellowbamboohk.com/Tai_Chi - [Cached]

   Published on: 5/12/2006   Last Visited: 11/29/2007

   As well as being associated with the fields of medicine and physical fitness it is also found in connection with Buddhism, Daoism and of course the practise of the martial arts.
   
   Exponents claim to be able to use their qi to cure illnesses, prolong life and even to damage opponents; all of which serves to make qigong a field of study very attractive to a wide range of people. it also makes the art open to exploitation and misrepresentation.
   
   While I have always found the stories very interesting and even as a young and impressionable teenager had sat cross-legged with one hand over my ear in imitation of an exercise I had found in a book, on the whole I have remained sceptical about the superhuman powers promised to the qigong exponent.
   
   In the majority of the systems of Chinese martial arts that I have studied, however, qigong in one form or another has played a part, and so over the years I have learnt quite a wide range of such methods.
   
   In Cheng Man Ching taijiquan, as taught in Malaysia and Singapore, there exists a set of exercises for developing nei gong or internal strength, that many exponents believe to be absolutely vital to the development of effective martial skills.
   ...
   This particular form of qigong is, to the best of my knowledge, not found among the teachings of Cheng's students either in Taiwan or America other than Chen Zi Chen, who as a youth helped Cheng with his internal strength training.
   ...
   Another version of this story tells how Chen Zi Chen taught Yue Shu Ting in return for a large sum of money.
   ...
   Exponents of qigong are also told to be aware of these phenomena, but not to become fixated on them, for if aimed for as a goal they tend to become less rather than more accessible.
   
   From the time that I first embarked on the study of taijiquan I had always been rather sceptical of this whole area of study and it is only with the passing of years that I have noted the appearance of some of the phenomena associated with qi development in my own training.
   
   It was while I was living in China that I had my first concrete experience of one of the manifestations of this inner energy which is claimed to be the very stuff of life. It was while I was living in China that I had my first concrete experience of one of the manifestations of this inner energy which is claimed to be the very stuff of life.
   ...
   It turned out that they were bandsmen and as members of an elite PLA band had even toured America.
   ...
   I had already seen members of the armed police unit which served as a gate guard to the hotel complex where we lived, practising martial arts before their early morning parades.
   ...
   This is known in Chinese as waiqi (outside qi) and much research has been conducted into the skills of the masters who are able to do this.
   ...
   I looked at Doug's face quizzically. He looked astonished.
   
   "It's like electricity," he said, "I can definitely feel it!"
   
   I put out my own arm and Xioa Hong made the same gesture. it was as Doug had said; like having a mild electrical charge run up and down your arm.
   ...
   I have often thought back on this incident and wondered why both Doug and I plainly felt something while Denise didn't.
   ...
   I don't know.
   
   Since that time other qigong teachers have sought to demonstrate the same emission of energy on me but I can truthfully say none of them with as startling an effect as that PLA musician in a downtown Beijing restaurant.
   ...
   Cures follow and then a famous personality, perhaps a pop singer or a movie star is cured of some serious illness by this new, "old" method.
   ...
   Exponents of this style stand in a natural position, concentrating on their breathing until their body starts to move of its own accord. this is often manifested as a general shaking of the body but then the practitioner might start performing movements representative of one of the animals of the Five Animal Play sytem. The Five Animal Play is a qigong exercise that is supposed to have originated over a thousand years ago, having been invented by the "father of Chinese medicine", Hua To. the exercise involves the performance of specific actions associated with the monkey, the bear, the deer, the crane and the tiger. Exponents of spontaneous qigong, however, follow no set pattern but just move sometimes in imitation of these animals.
   ...
   So it was that one exceptionally hot evening after two hours of taiji which had left me sweaty and exhausted, I watched from the porch area of his house come training hall as four of his students unrolled a huge piece of carpet and covered the concreted courtyard where training took place. The climate of Malaysia is wonderful for martial artists as there is no need to train indoors.
   ...
   I decided instead to focus for a while on one of the seated students. By now he was rocking from side to side, the motions becoming stronger and stronger, until, with a shout, he threw his body to one side and rolled over and over.
   ...
   Master Lim who had come to stand at my side leaving the prostrate students under the supervision of his assistant instructor, pointed to the growling man and said, "Tiger, he is performing the movements of the tiger."
   ...
   It made me think of the karate kid and I had to stifle a giggle. I turned it into a question. "Master Lim have these students trained in Tiger or Crane boxing?"
   ...
   Her movement was so startlingly un-Chinese, being totally free-form and uninhibited that I looked at Master Lim to try to guage his reaction. His face was impassive; this was obviously something he had seen before.
   
   Master Lim's assistant, known affectionately by the students as "Old Yang" was rushing here and there on the carpet attempting to protect all of his charges at the same time.
   
   Then, as if a switch had been pressed, the woman came to a stop, still up on her toes but now her body swayed fro side to side.
   ...
   As a defence I wasn't sure that it would stand up in court but I nodded as if in dawning comprehension.
   ...
   Now, as I have said before, I am sceptical about the benefits of such training particularly since, as many of my teachers have pointed out, they have no direct relevance to progress in the martial arts which has always been my main area of interest. What it seemed to me with my jaded and cynical eye was that the woman was moving in an unrepressed and fully natural way without the inhibitions that everyday life in her culture placed her under. Her qi helpers on the other hand were getting cheap thrills, doing in their "trance" state what they could not have done otherwise except in a place where the girls were paid for!
   ...
   The teaching and testing of neigong is an integral part of the taiji teacher's practise in Malaysia and I have always taken every opportunity to extend my knowledge and understanding of this aspect of the art. So it was that when a cousin of my wife's told me that he was learning neigong I jumped at the chance to be introduced to his teacher.
   
   The class took place in a town about an hour's drive away from where I was living and one Saturday evening just as darkness was falling my brother-in-law and I set off.
   ...
   I knew from daytime visits that surrounded on three sides by sharply-rising rocky hills covered with jungle vegetation, the town is similar to many other places in Malaysia.
   ...
   Next Master Kang asked if I would like to have a go and the larger of the two educators smiled myopically at me as his teacher insisted that i could hit him anywhere on his abdomen with any kind of strike. "Any kind of strike?" I queried. The master nodded. I decided that the man was fair game so I gently placed my loosely-clenched fist on his solar-plexus and simultaneously sinking and contracting my muscles delivered a taiji punch.
   ...
   This time to make sure that I delivered the "correct" kind of blow he mimed a number of punches, chops and open-handed techniques, indicating that any of these were permissable.
   
   So for the next three or four minutes I chopped, punched and hacked at the chosen student. In the end I had to stop because my wrist and hand were beginning to hurt. Throughout all this my punchbag stood relaxed and showed no visible signs of discomfort. It was impressive.
   
   I asked Master Kang about the nature of their training and he replied that they practised qigong breathing methods for about three months before they were able to withstand blows. I asked him whether they did any kind of conditioning such as beating the body and he replied with a definite no. Furthermore at the end of three months each student had to take an examination before he could progress to the next level of training. This consisted of allowing senior students to strike freely at their abdomen. "All of our training is natural and relaxed. Just look," so saying Mas

3. 3. Welcome to tonymasiello.com home page of Tony Masiello

   www.tonymasiello.com/library/b - [Cached]

   Published on: 11/11/2003   Last Visited: 6/12/2004

   by Chen Chen
   ...
   Chen Chen was labeled a counter-revolutionary, and after making disparaging remarks about Mao's wife, suffered beating, starvation and solitary confinement with her three-month-old baby. For the next seven years, she was barred from being a musician and writer and assigned to agricultural work. Come Watch the Sun Go Home powerfully evokes the viciousness and absurdity of a society in thrall to totalitarian hysteria and the manifold ironies awaiting Chen upon her "rehabilitation" and return to professional life.
   
   While taking part in an educational exchange in the United States in 1989, the author learned of the Tiananmen Square massacre. Chen's condemnation of the regime was broadcast on national television, and she has yet to return to China and her children.