Party like it's 1599

Beijing was definintely the Disneyland of its day. There are different layers in this city. There's a slick ultra-modern facade of course. That's basically American hyper-commercial culture channeled through Japan. Then there is a layer of boring ugly Sovietized crap still cluttering the picture. You can just fast forward your eyes through that. Then there are still lots of partially torn down ruins (many still inhabited) of the ancient Beijing hutong's (dusty little alley labyrinths of decrepit tiled-roof houses). Those may have some kind of historical charm to some people, from a distance, but they really suck as places to live. I can't blame the city for wiping them.

But I'm not talking about any of that. I'm frankly talking about the touristy stuff. OK yeah the Forbidden City and Gulou and all that kind of stuff - I know it is really just tourist kitschiness now. Nothing but cliches of stone. Yet, those things also show the amazing creative whimsy of the ancient and historical people who built this place. Imagine some peasant coming here for the first time, during the Ming or Qing dynasties and trudging down the dusty street seeing this totally weirdo, amazing, wild cityscape all around him. Somebody who's spent his entire life shoveling shit in Louisiana. The colors, shapes, layouts - after a while its like looking through a kaleidescope while on acid (don't ask). And it wasn't all done by Chinese, this place was designed by all kinds of Disneyesque geniuses of their day, from India, Nepal, all over the world really. What a trip if you can redact your gaze in just a certain way.

Anyway who cares.

Lesseee... martial arts. Had lunch today with the foreign student contingent of the Yao school. Nice guys and interesting to talk to. I like 'em so much I translated into English the interview with Master Yao that was just published in the main martial arts rag here (none of these guys can speak or read Chinese to any proficiency), just for them. There Master Yao talks about his dad, and compares Yiquan to Taiji and talks about how power is generated in real fighting and all kinds of interesting topics. Maybe I'll post that translation here sometime.

I feel combative training in some ways is like language learning. I have (pointlessly) been into both. There are some interesting parallels. You learn words and patterns from textbooks, you drill and memorize - but can you use them "on the street"? I'm fluent now in C and J to the level of a professional interpreter, but it wasn't always the case. On the way up, somebody could always throw you a curve ball in a real situation. Can  you use your shit on the street? And just as with martial arts, sometimes you don't even have a clear idea what situation or scenario you are actually training for (see my earlier post The Goldilocks Attack). That applies to language learning a bit also.

Then in language learning, just as in martial arts or anything, there seem to be natural geniuses. I once knew a guy (now dead) who could speak 40 languages. Alright you are saying how could I verify. Some I could verify myself. And as for the others, well when  you see a guy coming down the corrridor with 3 Navajo Indians in blankets, buzzing at each other in Navajo a mile a minute, and then a few weeks later the same scene but with Mosquito Indians (Nicaragua) and this kind of scene keeps repeating itself, you begin to believe the stories. And lots of his languages were not the easy type like Chinese and Japanese and Spanish are now, where there are thousands of tapes and dictionaries and websites and software and teachers and courses and institutes and all kinds of supportive shit. This guy did it on the bare metal.

I respect people like that.

I'm set to hit Shanghai for a few days later in the week. I'll train a few days with Qian Zhaohong, maestro of kickass applied Xingyi (and the best energy drills ever). Should anything of interest transpire, take it from  me - you won't be left out of the loop...

I'll cut off comments here soon, and all will be as before. How could it be otherwise?

*Tabby beams his Cheshire Smile through his Crocodile Tears*

Comments

[Stuart Herbert]

I'd be very interested in reading your translation, if you decide to publish it. I'd never heard of Yiquan before I came across your blog, and would be interested in reading the comparison between Yiquan and Taiji.

[Tom]

The Tabster is your introduction to Yiquan, Stuart?

Your consciousness is forever seared. ;- )

[Tom]

Speaking of the "amazing creative whimsy" of the Imperial buildings in Beijing, one of my favorite is the Temple of Heaven . . . with which there is a Pacific Northwest connection. I read somewhere that it was struck by lightning and burned in 1889, and was rebuilt using lumber from Oregon. Today's PRC agronomists preparing the official harvest prayer-reports for the coming year use software from the Northwest.

Approaching in the early mornings, there may be all sorts of CMA practice groups amongst the trees in the park, a smorgasbord of movement styles, mostly movement for health and as performance art, but very occasionally a recognizably martial practice.

Your translation of the interview with Mr. Yao, however rough and ready the rendition, would be much appreciated. As would any observations and notes from training with Qian Zhaohong.

Thanks, as always.