Ken Gullette's Internal Fighting Arts Blog

A Morning Workout with Chen Ziqiang in Chicago

chen family taijiquan chen tai chi chen taiji chen ziqiang Jun 10, 2010

Each time I train with a member of the Chen family, it's like trying to go one-on-one with Michael Jordan. You experience people who are at the top of their profession.

Chen Ziqiang is around 30 years old and is a tough tai chi fighter. He's the son of Grandmaster Chen Xiaoxing and the nephew of Grandmaster Chen Xiaowang. His cousin is Chen Bing.

I got up at 2 a.m. and got to Master Han's school in Skokie, Illinois, a little after 5:00 a.m. Master Han arrived with Chen Ziqiang around 5:45 and at 6, he did a 2-hour workshop on the Chen fan form. This isn't the same form that Zhu Tiancai does on his DVD. This is the original Chen Village form. I've never studied the fan before, so it was an opportunity to add a new weapon to my list. I've always considered the fan to be more of a woman's weapon, but the form is more challenging than I expected, and I rubbed a hole in my right index finger opening and closing my steel-pronged fan.

The photo here is cropped -- in the back row from left...

Ken Gullette's Internal Fighting Arts

A Morning Workout with Chen Ziqiang in Chicago

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