Two wonderful new items about Professor Cheng Man-ch'ing have recently been released. The first, the long-hoped for "Shr Jung tapes." These were shot in New York City in the late 1960s and have only been shown at special events. Through great effort, these were edited into a coherent, thematically arranged set of four DVDs titled Cheng Man-ch'ing: The Master Tapes. Disks are Form, Push Hands, Sword, and Ch'i (encompassing informal Q & A with students, calligraphy, and flower-arranging. The DVDs, though expensive at $149, are an incredible boon for any serious student, as you are able to "be in the room" with Professor Cheng, watch him teach, and see him interact with students. Ed Young and Tam Gibbs provided translation in the original videos, and you can see many familiar faces among the participants: Maggie Newman, Ken Van Sickle, Lou Kleinsmith, Natasha Gorky Young, and others. New commentary by Ed, Maggie, and Ken make this a very meaningful presentation.
Douglas Wile has come out with another valuable book Zheng Manqing's Uncollected Writings on Taijiquan, Qigong, and Health, with New Biographical Notes (Sweet Ch'i, $11.95), this time combining Professor's own short works with those about him by Chinese students, articles from Taiwan newspapers, and Wile's own extensive essays that focus on historical and cultural context. This is a very intriguing book with much fresh material that will give food for thought.
Great River T'ai Chi Ch'uan--Minneapolis, Minnesota
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Great River T'ai Chi Ch'uan in Minneapolis, Minnesota, was founded in 1979, and is one of the oldest t'ai chi ch'uan (taijiquan) groups in the Upper Midwest of the United States. Great River is led by Barbara Davis and Cheryl Powers, both of whom have trained in Taiwan and the United States with senior students of the late Professor Cheng Man-ch'ing, including Maggie Newman, Ed Young, and since 1986, Mr. Liu Hsi-heng of Taipei, and workshops with Ben Lo. They have also worked with numerous other students of Professor Cheng's including Jane Faigao, Bataan Faigao, Wolfe Lowenthal, Ken Van Sickle, Lorie Reinstein, and Tao Ping-siang. Great River has regularly sponsored workshops with many of these senior teachers, and in recent years with Weiming Yuan (Taiwan) and Nathan Menaged, among others.
Barbara Davis is editor of Taijiquan Journal and author of The Taijiquan Classics: An Annotated Translation and translator of Chen Weiming's Taiji Sword. She is at work on a full-length biography of Professor Cheng Man-ch'ing. Barbara has been a presenter at A Taste of China, the Zhang Sanfeng Festival, International Forum on Taijiquan and the National Qigong Association. Cheryl Powers is on the editorial board of Taijiquan Journal and has taught throughout the midwest, and written many articles about t'ai chi.
Barbara, Cheryl, and Great River senior students have taught at numerous locales, including the University of Minnesota, Macalester College, Mankato State University, Minnesota College of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine (now part of Northwestern Health Sciences University), Minneapolis College of Art and Design, Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Tasks Unlimited, Honeywell, Hennepin County, Minneapolis Public Schools, YWCA (Minneapolis, Duluth, and Mankato), First Unitarian Society, Minnesota Jung Association, Concordia University-St. Paul, Minnesota Psychological Association, and the Minnesota Nurses Association.
For information on classes in the Minneapolis-St. Paul Twin Cities MN area, or to schedule a workshop, call 612--822-5760.
Great River T'ai Chi Ch'uan's Studio:
We meet at St. Luke's Episcopal Church, 4557 Colfax Avenue South, in Minneapolis, just east of Lake Harriet. Ample street parking available. By bus and LRT: #46 (46th Street crosstown service; connects to LRT), #4 Bryant/Lyndale. For schedules and information click on this button:
By bike: Bryant Avenue and 46th Street both have bike lanes, as does nearby Lake Harriet.
We meet at St. Luke's Episcopal Church, 4557 Colfax Avenue South, in Minneapolis, just east of Lake Harriet. Ample street parking available. By bus and LRT: #46 (46th Street crosstown service; connects to LRT), #4 Bryant/Lyndale. For schedules and information click on this button:
By bike: Bryant Avenue and 46th Street both have bike lanes, as does nearby Lake Harriet.