Sometimes I think that Yang must be my middle name.
At the age of 12 I initially started learning Wu style Tai Chi cause there were a bunch of old folks practicing in my primary school field in the evening and I thought why not start my learning of Kung Fu here.
Yes, imagine little ole me standing in the center surrounded by old folks, trying to copy what they are doing. They were basically doing exercise Tai Chi though I saw the lady instructor do push hands once.
Soon primary school was over and I transferred to another school for secondary classes. One day during physical education time, I saw a teacher took a brick from a stack of bricks that were placed against a wall.
He casually sat down on the ground, held half the brick over the drain, and chopped it in half with his hand. Then he went down to the field and taught Shaolin to some people around his age. Later I found out that he was from the famous Shaolin school of Reverend Sek Koh Sum.
I asked him about learning whatever it was he taught but he told me to go look for the school which was in another state. I must have made an impression on him because the next year he told that was starting a Tai Chi class and I could join in.
In the meantime, I had found out that this teacher, Master Hui, was teaching Chinese language in my secondary school. He once asked me to go to his Chinese language class and in front of the other students he talked to me about Kung Fu and even asked me to punch him in the gut. Now those kids from the Chinese stream knew me. Just great.
So I went and join his Tai Chi class. He was teaching a few other school teachers. Fortunately the teacher’s whose home he was teaching at had a son who joined in so I was not alone with the adults. We learned the Cheng Man Ching style, the 37 form, a 2nd part of the form and even a practical usage form. I also learned my first pole form here, a Shaolin long pole form.
However, there weren’t much push hands practice cause the adults loved to move a bit, then chit chat. But make no mistake, Master Hui, does have the skill when he does show it. Should I tell the story of that time he showed me the Iron Crotch skill where he literally hung a few bricks from down there? I think not since its not Tai Chi.
My next learning of the Yang style came years later when I had gone overseas to study and came home. My senior had asked me to look around for a teacher of Tai Chi Ruler. By luck I found the teacher whose photo had appeared in a Hong Kong published book on this little known style.
Master Leong taught Tai Chi Ruler early in the morning in a car park in the local park. He also taught the 18 Qigong exercises that was the rage then. When I found out that his teacher, Grandmaster Nip Chee Fei, had learned from Yang Chengfu and came from Hong Kong to spread Tai Chi I asked him to teach the Yang style.
Master Leong could do the Yang form, however, he said that the really good stuff from GM NIp was this set of techniques they called Tai Chi San Sau. Yes, this was the name but it was not really all Tai Chi. The Tai Chi San Sau was really a set of techniques from different styles that GM Nip had compiled for his own personal use when he had to catch rebels. This Tai Chi San Sau was also known as Pok Khek Kuen. There is even an article in Black Belt magazine about it.
Around this time I got to know an old timer who practiced the Cheng style Tai Chi. He introduced me to his son, Richard, who had lived with Chu Kin Hung and even tutored his son. Richard had learned the Yang style of Yang Sau Chung from Chu Kin Hung.
Training with Richard was mainly focused on doing Zhan Zhuang before moving on to the form. Push hands was minimal. So though I had learned Tai Chi for years I knew little about its usage.
Later I moved to the Lion City for work and I met Mr Loh who was the proprietor of a martial arts bookshop. Mr Loh was actually a Tai Chi master. However, when I asked him to recommend a teacher to me he recommended me to check out one school and another teacher.
The school did not exactly impressed me so I checked out the teacher. This teacher turned out to be a legal beagle who had a law practice in the central business district. I met Master Yap in the afternoon at his office after his court session. As luck would have it, his senior Master Dong Zengchen was in town so I got to meet him the next night. Master Dong’s grandmaster was a disciple of Yang Chengfu and founded their own variant of the Yang style.
A year after meeting Master Yap I signed up for 1-to-1 private lessons and learned from him beside a swimming pool in Tanglin. Later he moved his teaching to the void deck in his condominium in Cairnhill. The condominium was later sold off, demolished and rebuilt.
Master Yap’s philosophy was to get me doing push hands from day one. He did teach the form because there was something important to learn there that could be used in push hands. Master Yap did not teach a fixed method of push hands until later. His initial approach was for me to attack him any way I like, using any technique I know.
This teaching method may appear to be a free for all, however, it was really for me to observe how he neutralized my attacks. When I had reached a sufficient level of familiarity then he would attack back. Thinking back it was like finding order within chaos, learning to adapt on the go.
Much later my Wing Chun senior, Victor, introduced me to the Yang style of Grandmaster Wei Shuren. I still have that letter where he gushed about it. Then the first book on the 108 form by Grandmaster Wang Yongquan came out. Much later, I heard of the second book on the 22 form.
Thanks to the 2nd book I got to know my teacher, Master L, who flew in to meet his friend and passed me the book. He showed me how to do the opening movement and told me to practice it for 3 months, then come and look for him if I was still interested to learn.
Since learning the 22-form I made it a point to visit and revisit the principles, going through the techniques and refining them. I never forgot Master L’s advice to never throw away the good stuff and to keep practicing until all the principles are there in each technique.
Up till now the form that I had spent the most time practicing is the 22 form. Practicing the form can still throw up surprises, minor things here and there.
With a background that revolved around the Yang style sometimes I feel that truly, surely that Yang is my middle name.
The Pine Tree is Right There 