shread sticks

TV what?

so I have been back from China for about a month now and so much has happened. First I have moved to Belfast, started my PhD and begun to take a more active role with different customers at work. (oh yeah I was also given a wave by a visiting pro surfer, but more about that some other time.)

anyway, today I received an email from my customer in china saying that i am now on the local TV station as part of some kind of commercial. I was sent this link by one of my other friends there but have not been able to make it work...

http://www.camusic.cn/showvid.asp?vid_id=143

I will explain how i ended up on Chinese TV in my next post. but hopefully you will be happy watching me do Tai chi poorly.

josh

happy moon festival

Well today is the mid-autumn moon festival. It is supposed to be the roundest moon of the year. Other than consuming a large amount of mooncakes the holiday really seems to be about spending time with your family. go out and look at the moon tonight it is pretty.



and here are a couple of shots from hong kong last weekend when they were getting ready for the festival.

thoughts of home

When ever i get home sick for some reason this quote always seems to hit the spot.

Desolate? Forbidding? There was never a country that in its good moments was more beautiful. Even in drouth or dust storm or blizzard it is the reverse of monotonous, once you have submitted to it with all the senses. You don't get out of the wind, but learn to lean and squint against it. You don't escape sky and sun, but wear them in your eyeballs and on your back. You become acutely aware of yourself. The world is very large, the sky even larger, and you are very small. But also the world is flat, empty, nearly abstract, and in its flatness you are a challenging upright thing, as sudden as an exclamation mark, as enigmatic as a question mark.

It is a country to breed mystical people, egocentric people, perhaps poetic people. But not humble ones. At noon the total sun pours on your single head; at sunrise or sunset you throw a shadow a hundred yards long. It was not prairie dwellers who invented the indifferent universe or impotent man. Puny you may feel there, and vulnerable, but not unnoticed. This is a land to mark the sparrow's fall. —from Wallace Stegner, Wolf Willow: A History, a Story, and a Memory of the Last Plains Frontier (New York: Viking, 1966; originally published 1955), p. 8.

My Taiji Family

So while I spend the weekends in Hong Kong studying with Mr. Lam, I have been getting up every morning and practicing with the largest group of taiji players here in my part of Chang'an. So I have to admit going into these sessions I thought I knew my taiji pretty well. Additionally had always had the simplified 24 taiji frame talked down about. Well after two days, the group leader Sifu Li decided she had seen enough and started making sure that my frame was perfect. I had thought I was keeping up pretty well. Needless to say the 'Respect People Taiji Team' has become a great extended family of taji aunties an uncles. Most of the uncles had drifted off at this point, but the aunties always stick around a little longer so posed for this picture with me.



Here is Sifu Li making me look heroic.



With out the assistance of my friend Viking working as translator I would have been really lost.



Finally, this is Lao-si who has also been working as an instructor. Her criticism of my taiji is sharp and direct. Reminds me of both of my late grandmothers. Especially in the way she lets you know you aredoing it wrong, and then smiles at you when you get it right. Oh and like a proper grandmother she gave me a box of mooncakes this morning.

Hong Kong again

Many ask where in china I am hiding. Well I can tell you that i am in the town of Chang'an, outside of Dongguan City. Now apparently Chang'an has the most millionaires of any 'town' in the world. One way or another the town fathers are fairly well off so they decide to build a new town hall several years back. well they build a government building so big that it is actually bigger than Beijing's. So once the central government found out that some tax money was owed by Chang'an they left the town with the choice, tear down the government building or no one goes in it. they choice to let the building stand. here it is.



Since I had the pleasure if working on my tai chi with mr Lam weekend before last I decided that i might as well take advantage of this opportunity to soak up as much tai chi knowledge as possiable while i am here. so here is the group that i have been working with the last two weekends. all really nice guys. I was even told that i offered some new challenges to mr lam since i am so much taller and heavier than any one he has worked with before.
(l to R: mr lam, me, tommy and tony)



ok here is the least blurry night shot of hong kong island form kowloon. let me just say that the more time i spend in HK the more I grow to love it. it is a really vibrant fun town.

before i get into random photos of the weekend here is one of my favorites. Turns out that many Hong Kong families hire nannies from the Philippines. well Sunday is their day off. So like anyone on a day off you head out with your friends. what this means is that every park, plaza and even the street like in this case gets taken over by hordes of your Filipino women gossiping, doing their nails and just relaxing.




ok I lied this on need some explanation too. turns out that when any construction project in china needs to be done up goes the bamboo scaffolding. Which only reminds me of the hong kong kung fu classic 'return of the master killer', in which the hero master the kung fu style of 'roof top kung' and ties all his opponents to bamboo poles. what is really unconceivable is that i have seen these bamboo structures go up over 8 stories.


ok now some more pics

riding the trams are fun (think double decker cable cars are for 2 hong kong dollars)



got to have one dragon I am in hong kong



finally basket ball is huge in china... makes me want to try it again even.

Two Weeks Down

So here are a few photos from my first two weeks in China. Most of the photos are from this last weekend in Hong Kong. Mr Lam in the first picture is a Tai Ji Push Hands master that I got to work with on Sunday morning. This photo was taken as his Sunday morning group went to breakfast after practice.

The picture of the bridge comes from the garden next to my hotel in Chang'An.

Cina continues to be one of the most amazing, fustrating and beautiful countries I have visited. More to come in the next few days