The Professor: T'ai Chi's Journey to the West

"The Professor:  T'ai Chi's Journey to the West" chronicles Professor Cheng Man-ch'ing's decade in the United States. Told in the words of Cheng's direct students and family, this feature documentary film casts a spell that brings the 1960s to life again...."The Professor" is highly recommended for anyone interested in t'ai chi, Asian martial arts and spiritual disciplines, Chinese-American history, later twentieth-century America, and in understanding the nuances of global cultural exchange on a very personal level. Beyond this, "The Professor" is an intimate look at how big an impact one person can have on so many lives."
Read the complete review of this recently released movie at the Cheng Biography blog.

New Taiji Anthologies on Chen Style, Zheng Manqing, Taiji for Health

The Journal of Asian Martial Arts has created several taiji-related anthologies bundling its articles on a number of topics of interest, all available as ebooks at Via Media. These articles represent the accumulation of two decades of publication by leading researchers and practitioners in the field.
ChengMan-ch'ing and Tai Chi: Echoes in the Hall of Happiness, by Barbara Davis, Donald Davis, Michael DeMarco, T. G. LaFredo, Lawrence L. Mann, Russ Mason, Robert W. Smith, and Nigel Sutton.	T'ai Chi & Qigong for Your Health: Historical and Scientific Foundations by Michael DeMarco, M.A., Arieh Lev Breslow, M.A., S. Kachur, B.M.R. (P.T), R.N. Carleton, M.A. & G. , Kenneth S. Cohen, M.A., M.S.Th., C.J. Rhoads, D.Ed., M.Ed., Duane Crider, Ph.D.

Chen T’ai Chi: Traditional Instructions from the Chen Village, Vol. 2 by Adam Wallace, Michael A. DeMarco, M.A. & A. Edwin Matthews, Yaron Seidman, L.Ac., Michael Rosario Graycar and Rachel Tomlinson, M.Ed, Bosco Seung-Chul Baek, B.S.

Chen T’ai Chi: Traditional Instructions from the Chen Village, Vol. 1, by Dietmar Stubenbaum, Wong Jiaxiang; Michael DeMarco, M.A., Trans., Miriam O’Conner, M.A., Stephan Berwick, M.A., Asr Cordes, David Gaffney, B.A.

Media Reviews: New Book on Cheng Man-ch'ing's Taijiquan

Wisdom of the Masters: Insights into Cheng Man Ching's Art
Nigel Sutton
Tambuli Media, 2014
176 pages
ISBN-10: 0692250913

Cheng Man-ch'ing and his teachings are the subject of this new book from Nigel Sutton. The book is based on Sutton's encounters with the Malaysian branch of Cheng Man-ch'ing's tradition: Lau Kim Hong, Lee Bei Lei, Zhou Mu Tu, Ho Ah San, Tan Ching Ning, Dr. Fong Fung Tong, Wu Chiang Hsing and Koh Ah Tee. The focus is on practice of taijiquan as a martial art and neigong. The interviewees are of a calibre and age that allows for some deep reflections, insights on practice and teaching, melding taiji with spiritual practices, taiji as a "Dao," role of lineage, and many other topics, including the relationship of gongfu to years of practice, and the relationship to aging. 
 Reminiscent of Robert Smith's Masters and Methods, the book is conversational in tone, and explores the meaning of, and extreme dedication to taijiquan for these men's lives, with many insights into practice, regardless of the reader's lineage.

In Memory--Bataan Faigao, Rocky Mountain Tai Chi

Bataan Faigao, head of Rocky Mountain Tai Chi, has passed away. The Boulder Camera reported that Bataan was terminally ill, and was on a pilgrimage to China's sacred locales, when he died. He is known as someone who really embodied a deeper sense of tai chi. He had a very quiet way of teaching. He is quoted as saying,

"T'ai-chi Ch'uan is a journey of spiritual discovery. I encourage students to work hard and to adhere to principles," Faigao wrote about his philosophy of teaching the discipline on the foundation's website. "I teach T'ai-chi Ch'uan as a complete system for health, meditation, self-defense, and as a way of the tao. Learning this art is a process that takes care of the external to get to the internal, going back and forth from form to application, understanding and experience."

Bataan was born Dec. 1, 1944, in Cebu, Philippines. He married Jane Greeley Faigao in 1966; she preceded him in death. They were lifelong students of t'ai chi ch'uan, studying with Grandmaster Cheng Man-ching in New York City from 1968 until Cheng's death in 1975. They moved to Boulder the following year and established the Rocky Mountain T'ai Chi Ch'uan Foundation and directed Naropa University's Traditional Eastern Arts department. A memorial will be held in Boulder on October 6th.

For the complete article in the Boulder Camera, click here.
"The Dharma of Taijiquan: An Interview with Bataan Faigao" by Edward Clark,

appeared in Taijiquan Journal (Volume 4 Number 4 -- Fall 2003).

Lecture on Tai Chi History & Cheng Man-ch'ing

“Cheng Man-ch’ing:
Master of Five Excellences”
A talk by Barbara Davis
Director, Cheng Man-ch’ing Biography Project and editor of Taijiquan Journal
Saturday, November 8th, 2008, 6:30 pm
Sun Gallery, 4760 Grand Avenue South
612-822-6388
Learn about this intriguing master of painting, calligraphy, poetry, medicine, and t’ai chi. Cheng is most well known for his role in the spread of t’ai chi into the US in the 1960s. Come explore his life, his dreams, and his prodigious talents. Slides and movies of his artwork and t’ai chi will also be shown .
For further information, read the project blog, call 612-822-5760,
or email editor"at" taijiquanjournal.com.