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Robert W. Smith Martial Arts Collection Item English
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Hung I-hsiang; VHS

DVD access copy
This disk contains three separate segments from totally different sources.
The first segment is taken from a professionally filmed BBC television broadcast series entitled: The Way of the Warrior. The episode shown here is entitled: “T’ai Chi – The Soft Way”; however, this title is somewhat misleading. The focus of the episode is not on T’ai-chi but, rather, on Master Hung I-hsiang, one of Mr. Smith’s teachers in Taipei, Taiwan in the 1960s. The episode was filmed in Taipei in the late 1970s or early 1980s. It show-cases Master Hung’s teaching of the “soft arts” of Hsing-i Ch’uan, Pa Kua Chang, and T’ai-chi Ch’uan, as well as containing a few scenes of Shaolin Boxing. See YouTube post:
< https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQ4t7mWdKsw>

The second segment is a home movie filmed in Taiwan probably sometime in the late 1960s or early 1970s. In a small, indoor venue, a series of performers demonstrate their respective arts to a panel of distinguished guest or judges who are seated at the end of the narrow room. Arts demonstrated include Preying Mantis (Tang Lang), White Crane, Monkey, Linear Pa Kua, Hsing-i Linking form, and various Southern Shaolin forms. Of particular interest is a brief clip of Master Hung I-hsiang demonstrating how to escape from and reverse various arm joint-locks. Some of this footage has been posted to YouTube:
< https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_O7RqV8BYU>
The post refers to the website: “sacredpeaks.net”, but I couldn’t identify it.
The third segment consists of a color film made in Beijing, China on Ba Gua Zhang.
It appears to have been aired on television and consists of high quality demonstrations of bare-handed forms, weapon forms, and martial applications.
The final entry consists of two disks (“Part 1” and “Part 2”).

Compilation Tape-Taiwan,Boston,Minnesota, Hawaii,Hong Kong; VHS; 2 Disk DVD copy

Part 1
1) Color film shot in Taiwan (probably late 1960s or early 1970s) of Soong, Jyh-jian (a student of Cheng Man-ch’ing and others) performing a saber form.
2) More color film shot in Taiwan (probably late 1960s or early 1970s) of J. J. Soong performing a different saber form.
3) More color film from Taiwan (different venue) of Mr. Soong and a student (?) performing a two-person saber matching set.
4)Film of Liang, Tung-tsai (T. T. Liang) demonstrating T’ai-chi Ch’uan applications at a public performance (probably filmed in Boston in the 1970s).
5) T. T. Liang and a student perform a two-person double-edged sword matching set.
6) Students of T. T. Liang demonstrate a sword form.
7)Three men demonstrate a sword form on a circle.
8) A Chinese man demonstrates a fairly fast sword form. Ends with a group-shot.
9)A Chinese man demonstrates a six-foot staff form. Probably filmed in a park in Taiwan.
10) In the same setting, an older, balding man (perhaps Mr. Liang) demonstrates a double sword form.
11) A Chinese man demonstrates a linear bare-handed form.
12) A different Chinese man demonstrates a different bare-handed form in front of a wall and a Chinese door.
13) A Chinese man demonstrates a bare-handed form in a park-like setting with a palm tree in the background.
14) Two young men demonstrate a two-person matching set (perhaps Tang Lang?).
15) Two young men demonstrate leg sweeps and high circle kicks.
16) T. T. Liang and a student demonstrate the Yang T’ai-chi two-person matching set (sometimes referred to as Sanshou).
17) In the same venue, T. T. Liang demonstrates the sword form known as “Tamo Sword”, one of his specialties.
18) In the same venue, T. T. Liang demonstrates another of his weapon specialties: a double-sword form. Even though Mr. Liang is elderly here, his handwork (i.e., handling of the sword) is impressive.
19) Outdoors on a basketball court, T. T. Liang and two students demonstrate the “T’ai Chi Double Edged Sword” form.
20) T. T. Liang and a student demonstrate “Single Knife”, a saber form.
21) T. T. Liang demonstrates a double sword form.
22) T. T. Liang and his student, probably Jonathan Russell, demonstrate a two-person matching set entitled “Two-Person Sword Dance” in an indoor setting with linoleum flooring and chairs along the wall.
23) T. T. Liang demonstrates a “Preying Mantis” (Tang Lang) bare-handed form, wearing a cardigan sweater outside on a basketball court.
24) Two students (probably senior students of Mr. T. T. Liang) show throwing and trapping applications of T’ai-chi postures indoors.
25) The same two students show t’ui-shou (pushing hands) applications.
26) This footage was filmed professionally (the introductory titles are omitted) in a garden outside the Grand Hotel in Taipei, Taiwan in the 1950s by T. T. Liang, featuring Inoch Yu, Mr. Liang, and others introducing T’ai-chi. There are scenes of Mr. Yu demonstrating the 37 Posture form created by Cheng Man-ch’ing, of Mr. Liang and Mr. Yu demonstrating the Sanshou two-person matching set, of Mr. Liang demonstrating the solo sword form, and of Mr. Yu and Mr. Liang demonstrating applications of the sword techniques in San Tsai Sword Fencing. This film was sold commercially in America in video format in the 1980s by T. T. Liang and Stuart Olsen through Bamboo Tablet Journal, P.O. Box 961, St. Cloud, MN 56302.
27) T. T. Liang demonstrates a sword form (not Yang style) in an indoor venue.
28) T. T. Liang demonstrates a bare-handed form, probably Preying Mantis.
29) Shot of a scroll and Chang Sanfeng, the legendary creator of T’ai-chi Ch’uan.
30) T. T. Liang demonstrates a double-sword form in a parking lot (perhaps in Minnesota). The performance is interrupted abruptly and is continued in Part 2 (see below).
Part 2
1) This is the continuation of item #30 from Part 1. T. T. Liang completes his demonstration of a double-sword form.
2) T. T. Liang’s student, probably Jonathan Russell, demonstrates Hsing-i Ch’uan outside in this home movie.
3) T. T. Liang’s student, Jonathan Russell, demonstrates a saber form.
4) T. T. Liang’s student, Jonathan Russell, demonstrates Shaolin forms.
5) T. T. Liang’s student, Jonathan Russell, demonstrates more Shaolin forms.
6) T. T. Liang’s student, Jonathan Russell, demonstrates a Preying Mantis (Tang Lang) form and the application of one movement.
7) T. T. Liang’s student, Jonathan Russell, demonstrates a Chen Style T’ai-chi form.
8) T. T. Liang’s student, Jonathan Russell, demonstrates what appears to be a Yang Style T’ai-chi form.
9) T. T. Liang’s student, Jonathan Russell, demonstrates a Shaolin form (?).
10) T. T. Liang’s student, Jonathan Russell and another student demonstrate a two-person matching set.
11) T. T. Liang’s student, Jonathan Russell, demonstrates Chen (?) style sword.
12) T. T. Liang’s student, Jonathan Russell, demonstrates an Eagle Claw form.
13) T. T. Liang and his student, Stuart Olsen, show t’ui shou (pushing hands).
14) William C. C. Chen (a noted student of Cheng Man-ch’ing) teaches an outdoor form class (probably a home movie filmed by T. T. Liang in Minnesota).
15) William C. C. Chen teaches an outdoor workshop on yielding to strikes (probably a home movie filmed by T. T. Liang in Minnesota).
16) Wm. C. C. Chen teaches the Yang T’ai-chi sword form (same venue).
17) Wm. C. C. Chen teaches his T’ai-chi boxing (same venue).
18) Wm. C. C. Chen teaches the bare-handed form (same venue).
19) Wm. C. C. Chen teaches neutralization, pushing, and throw-away techniques (same venue).
20) Wm. C. C. Chen teaches his T’ai-chi boxing and striking techniques (in the same venue but indoors this time).
21) Film of a “T’ai-chi Kung-fu” class (probably senior students of T. T. Liang)
22) Mr. Liang’s senior students demonstrate a two-person sanshou matching set.
23) Jonathan Russell (?) demonstrates on the circle what is probably the so-called “Original Style” Pa Kua Chang form of Chiang Jung-Ch’iao, who called this style “original” to distinguish it from a later version that he created.
24) Two senior students (possibly Ray Hayward and Paul Abdella?) perform two-man applications.
25) Paul Abdella (?) demonstrates a sword form.
26) Ray Hayward (?) demonstrates some kind of sword form.
27) A Japanese Aikido Sensei dressed in a formal hakama teaches a class of westerners in a gymnasium. Various student-teacher demos and applications are performed.
28) This segment, probably filmed in Hong Kong in the 1950s or 1960s, begins with a formal reception for a visiting elderly dignitary, who is probably Tung Ying-chieh (the scholar-scribe and student of Yang Cheng-fu who ghost-wrote Yang’s first book and who took his T’ai-chi Ch’uan to Hong Kong, where it became famous as Tung [or Dong in pinyin] Style) to distinguish it from the T’ai-chi taught in Hong Kong by Yang’s son, Yang Sau-chung. After greetings from dignitaries in long, traditional robes, a reception, the presentation of flowers, and group photos, Grandmaster Tung demonstrates his version of the long Yang T’ai-chi bare-handed form outside against the backdrop of a fence.
29) A brief movie clip.
30) A Chinese man (the image quality is so poor that it is difficult to identify him—it may possibly be Yang Cheng-fu’s son Yang Sau-chung or it may be Tung Ying-chieh’s son Tung Hu-ling. At any rate, the performer shows the traditional long Yang T’ai-chi Ch’uan bare-handed form.
31) This segment is labeled “1960 in Bangkok, Thailand” but the performer is not identified. My guess is that it is probably Tung Hu-ling. The performer shows the sword form. Because of the grouping of these segments, this is likely all Tung Family T’ai-chi.
32) The image quality here is poor, but judging from the man’s body type and movement quality, my guess again is that this might be Tung Hu-ling. The performer shows the double-edged sword form in a sandy lot with palm trees in the background, so this could be Southeast Asia or Hawaii. Because of the grouping of these segments, this is likely Tung Family T’ai-chi. (My notes seem to indicate that there might have been a title here reading “Dong’s School of T’ai-chi Ch’uan”.)
33) This is the same performer on the same day, this time showing the T’ai-chi saber form.
34) This might possibly be what is known as the Tung (Dong) Family “Fast Form” of T’ai-chi Ch’uan. This is done in a grassy, park-like setting probably somewhere in Southeast Asia. At first, the performer, (perhaps Tung Hu-ling) does the movements of what might be the so-called “fast form” in slow motion. In the same camera cut, he next does some kind of slow T’ai-chi Ch’uan form, but it does not look like the traditional Yang form.
35) Finally, the same performer (probably Tung Hu-ling?) shows applications of T’ai-chi Ch’uan postures against two student attackers. I have a commercially available video distributed by Alex Tung (Dong) containing different footage of Tung Ying-chieh and other Tung family members demonstrating form and applications, but the footage in that commercial video differs from that which is on this disk. I am curious about the source of these films, especially the Hong Kong (?) footage of the elderly Tung Ying-chieh.

Prof. Cheng Man Ch'ing's Simplified T'ai Chi ch'uan (37 postures) by Ben Lo;  VHS; DVD copy

This is commercially available material that was copyrighted in 1991 (All Rights Reserved) by Benjamin Pang Jeng Lo. The film is a professionally made teaching video of the 37 posture T’ai Chi Ch’uan form, presented by Mr. Lo. The DVD can be purchased directly from Mr. Lo at Universal T’ai Chi Ch’uan Association, P.O. Box 210537, San Francisco, CA 94121-0537.

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