For anyone considering going to train in China or anyone interested in knowing more about what's involved, here are some excerpts from my diary. I was training in Yueshan village, Henan Province, with four others from Tang Long kung fu school for two weeks in early May.
- Mark Omfalos
Intro...
..."My name's Mark Omfalos, I'm 28 years old and I'm crazy about kung fu. I used to go round to my neighbour Andy Chou's place as a young kid and he'd play me all the Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan classics on his VCR. So it's the usual tale of an impressionable youngster who dreams of taking out a group of thugs with triumphant leaps and a flurry of kicks and punches.
Growing up I was put through the regular mill of swimming and running, and my first real experience of martial arts was in my late teens when I started learning Wing Chun, a close quarters combat style, which employs straight attack theory with strikes and blocks to the centre line.
After some years of trying out different styles and sports, I came back to kung fu in early 2007 when a friend of mine mentioned he'd found a school which was "the real deal".
There is a well-founded skepticism surrounding the quality of martial arts instruction in the UK, mainly based on the fact that the paid grading system in a lot of schools encourages instructors to rush their students through gradings. Once the student obtains teacher status themselves, the whole process starts again, much like a factory line.
After my first one hour beginners training session at the Tang Long school in Finchley Road, I agreed that this was very much "the real deal". Shifu Heng Wei is a 35th generation master from the Shaolin Temple in Henan, who began his training aged 6 and qualified as Master aged 16. His "beginners" sessions are unrelenting and everyone is expected to at least keep up if not exceed expectations.
A year later I was faced with making the decision of whether or not to actually go out to train kung fu in China. I considered all the things that were happening in my life at that time and realised it wasn't really that exciting at all. In fact I was starting to stagnate in many areas of my life and thought that if I do throw myself wholeheartedly into this trip to China, it could be just what I need to shake things up again.
The months before the trip flew by as the anticipation and excitement grew and the next thing I know I'm shutting down my PC, grabbing my bags and heading to Heathrow..."
Beijing…
... "We woke at a reasonable time and went down with our tickets for breakfast, which consisted of curious sweet, sour and savoury dishes - no idea what most of them were.
Then it was over the bridge to Lian Hua Chi park. Entry was 2 yuan (= 0.15p) and it was well worth it. The park was enormous and there were people, mostly elderly people, doing exercise everywhere; sword forms, tai chi, dancing, dragonkite flying, twirling ribbons, dancing around with a ball on a tennis racket. There was row upon row of mechanical exercise machines and some seriously athletic and flexible old people about the place. Art also plays a big role in Chinese life and we saw a small group playing Erhu (Chinese violins) in a pagoda, and a man painting calligraphy on the concrete with water.
It appeared from all the looks we were getting that we were as much of a curiosity to the Chinese as they were to us. We were approached by a group of three women who wanted a photo taken with us. The one taking the photos was a model
apparently, so I got a pic of her too.
It was the first time Miss Jo had been outside of Bo Ai county and she didn't seem particularly enthralled to see Beijing, in fact she was yearning to return to Yueshan.
Back to the hotel to check out and hit Beijing Xi (West) station. I snapped some kids from the bedroom window all lined up exercising military style. This nor the fact that I hadn't yet seen any non-Chinese would be something which I was to become very accustomed to in Yueshan.
A short, stocky middle-aged man arrived at the hotel reception with our tickets - he was the headmaster of the school we would be training at and Ma Liang's father.
The station was huge and it took lots of queuing, baggage scanning and running to get to our departure lounge. There was a massive throng in the hot hall, mothers with babies, men lying on the floor, families sitting on their luggage. Our train was due to depart at 13:13 and at 13:05 the doors to the platform were opened - then it was as if the starting barrier had been lifted at the horse races and everyone bustled and pushed to be first onto the platform..."
Day 1…
... "It's 6am when I'm woken up - damn, we were supposed to be training at 5:30! We get over to the school and sifu is not pleased and threatens us with extra training for being late. We spend the first morning hidden away in the indoor basketball court doing running, basic jumps, kicks, then onto the first two wushu forms: wu bu chuan and shaolin lian huan chuan. We were treated to breakfast at a street stall round the corner from the school, which consisted of a red, thick beef soup, fried pork buns, boiled eggs, and a kind of eggy fried bread with spring onions. To this they served up hot water, which seems to be quite a popular drink to accompany the meal in China. Most of the water coolers also had a tap for hot water.
At the school the children were having their second training of the morning in the back courtyard. The girl with the pink stripes was incredibly flexible and quicker with the kicks than most of the boys. Miss Chen stood by with a serious expression as the kids practised their front kicks, ma bu, pu bu, xie bu, and powered along in the wheelbarrow race.
Lunch was noodles in vegetable soup, then to the hotel to prepare for the afternoon session of Ba Ji Quan. After basic warm-ups with two young students I had my first attempt at learning the complex form. Ma Liang is very precise and generates huge power through his stamps and strikes.
Ba Ji Fist originated from Yueshan Temple and is a powerful short-distance style which channels energy in eight directions. Typical moves involve an aggressive forward strike employing the elbow, shoulder and fist, followed by a quick pulling action in the opposite direction. Power is unleashed with a stamp and the body instantly relaxes, ready to move into the next offense/defense."
Day 2….
... "Woke up on time this morning and we were the first ones in the courtyard at 5:30am. We got into lines, towering above the little kids, and did circuits round the front courtyard military style; sprint race, racing one leg hops up 24 steps, jumping, warm up twists for butterfly kick, jumpkick into pu bu, jumpkick into downward fist, ma bu to gong bu. Then we watched as the smallest of the senior student had 30kgs loaded onto his shoulders. He then did a deep squat and punched up onto tip-toes and back down to squat repeatedly. The exercise wasn't as easy as the kids made it look and particularly painful as the bar was pushing straight into the neck vertebrae - everyone had sore necks for days after.
After breakfast there was a brief rest in the office where we were shown photos of our sifu in the UK and some flyers for the school. Outside the kids were rushing about tending to their daily routine of cleaning up the school. Kids balanced in ma bu on window sills, others dragged mops twice their size across the courtyard. The kids were still a little cautious around their new visitors but that changed very quickly.
The second session of the morning was the most challenging of the whole trip as we were training with the senior students. Not only that, but their peers were on the sidelines watching our every move. There were lots of new techniques to learn, mainly involving whirlwind arm movements, high kicks and elbows. The bags were brought out and, as they were supported by one of the students' knees, we were made to do countless roundhouses until we couldn't do anymore; then told to change leg. The top of Sami's foot was bleeding by the end of it. We lay down on our fronts and students came to massage the backs of our thighs. It was so painful that I almost screamed. Then it went from bad to worse as we were forced down into split positions - front, box and hamstring stretch. They had us practising flick ups and we had the second casualty of the day as Paul came off the ground and landed on his tailbone. After some more padwork we headed out for lunch and played cards around the back where the military girls were practising their fan dancing. As the sweat in Steve's t-shirt began to dry in the sun, the fabric was bleached white from the all salt deposits.
In the afternoon sifu taught basic sword exercises - overhead slashes, jabs, twirling the sword around the body."
Day 4…
... "Woke myself up at 5:10am, it was raining so we had to train in the dark gym, running for ages behind the 16 year olds, then hopping a full circuit and another round in squat.
Sifu takes Miss Chen's class as she's got a cold and hurt her knee in a recent competition. She comes over to play "pu ke" and we have a good laugh. The guys catch 40 winks before lunch; where better than right in the middle of the gym.
The food is pretty good - chicken giblets soup with thick rice noodles and buns and I feel ready for the afternoon session.
I'm finally starting to get ba ji as it's broken down into composite parts and the various martial applications are explained. The session is forgiving and sifu gets sidetracked into bringing the armory out into the hall for us to handle. Sifu demonstrates the correct way to hold the sword (dao), Da Dao, Spear, Monk's Spade and Kwan Dao. Here are Paul and Sami handling the Da Dao and me with the spear. Miss Chen also shows us how it's done and we start to see a lighter side to her.
One kid has to sit in ma bu for the whole hour's lesson and has to then walk the length of the gym in squat position.
There's an all school meeting on in the gym so we sit in the headmaster's office and listen to the kids whooping (their way of saying hello / getting your attention) at us through the window, asking "what's your name?". I go through to the gym to take a look at the grand show and Dan Tuan hands me a bunch of sunflower seeds.
Really happy to get served fried seaweed and spring onion pancakes (with salt!), sweet potato and pickled cucumber for dinner. I shout at the naughty kid messing about in the doorway and he disappears round the corner like a startled cat.
Back at the hotel and almost all 45 channels had news or olympics on but I managed to find a martial arts soap and stare at the box til the early hours."
Week 2, Tuesday…
… “The sunrise was beautiful this morning, a rich red colour. It's still cold so the warm up on the steps is very intense. We do the ba ji form together several times.
It turns out the death toll from the earthquake is worse than we had imagined with 8000 fatalities. It happened in Xi Quan, which is located about 1050km from Henan. They're showing collapsed schools and hospitals, people getting rescued from flooded banks on the news.
More ba ji and sword in the morning session and we start to learn xiao ba ji (the shorter form). The girls wash up outside in the sinks.
Lunch is delicious today; chicken and an unknown vegetable in salty sauce, egg and tomato stew, sour cherries, boiled tofu. No-one touched the boiled tofu though. Hu Yan Zuo and his friend stand in the doorway smiling at us as we eat.
After a quick shower at the hotel we sit on the steps slow-cooking in the sun as the military women arrive on their bicycles. The snotty-nosed local kid from the day before laughs with us as we give the military girls scores. He also chuckles at wholly inappropriate moments.
It's a hot afternoon of wushu warmups, xiao and da ba ji forms, and sword. Chan Ba Ying and Ho Hai Chi see me doing some handstands and ask if I can teach them some breakdance moves. In exchange for that Ho Hai teaches me the nine section chaindart (jyo jie bian). As I slam the handle repeatedly into the floor and attempt to bounce my body over the arcing metal whip, I barely notice the skin blistering off my knuckles.
The kids practise handless cartwheel with a half twist. Dan Tuan and co. perform tornado kicks, effortlessly landing in ma bu stance.
Sifu gets me to try out the whip (mu yuan bian). It's very hard to get the hang of and I only manage to get it to crack a couple of times. Meanwhile I'd whipped my ear and back. The pain from getting hit with a whip is quite unique; hot and stinging.
Good dinner of thin soup noodles with pork, cucumber in tomato soup with buns.”
Week 2, Thursday…
… ”5:10am wakeup, the alarm on my new Nokla didn't go off. Lots of xiao ba ji practice in the front yard. Sifu is looking very serious this morning and rightly so. Breakfast of rice soup and thinly sliced pancake.
We practise all forms in the late morning session, then at 10:30 sifu tells us we have 30 minutes til we have to be changed and performing in front of the cameras. There's a rush back and forth to the hotel. Paul comes strutting down the street in his red uniform, like a kung fu moviestar. We then sit with the camerawoman in the office sweating in our silk outfits.
The filming begins in the main hall and we perform da ba ji pretty well to sifu's count. Then we are told to just practise at random so they can get some spontaneous shots. The headmaster watches keenly and Miss Meng films.
Outside, the whole school is assembled in the courtyard and we stand at the front in single file, moving forwards one by one to deposit money into the earthquake appeal collection box. The cameras are rolling the whole time.
We grab a second to relax and have some photos with the seniors, then it's back to work. Several classes group together and we do the forms in the courtyard with the headmaster stopping to correct our positions.
The camerawoman wants me to make a speech about the earthquake for the news report but wants it done in Chinese! I said it would take about half and hour for me to learn what she wanted me to say so they let me do it in English and subtitled it.
There were still some shots to be taken and we were positioned awkwardly shoulder to shoulder in the headmaster's office, pretending to have a conversation about ba ji and then answer some questions about why we came to China. All the time sweating profusely in our silk uniforms.”
Week 2, Friday – Last day in Yueshan
… “I wake up late (5:35am) and sprint to the school, just in time for the morning line-up. It's quite an easy morning, comparatively, until the last 5 minutes when we have to do piggybacks and wheelbarrows up and down the two flights of steps.
Sitting on the steps watching the kids and waiting for breakfast, the realisation suddenly hits that this really is my last day in China. The last couple of days in Beijing would be ok but nothing like this. In retrospect, the two weeks had gone by so quickly and yet every day had seemed like a month, with every minute of training, socialising, travelling, being experienced so intensely.
The late morning is quite relaxed with lots of stretching and at some point it just drifts into a free session. Some of the seniors come in and as promised I give them a crash course in breakdance. They pick it up immediately of course.
A couple of mums turn up and sifu gets me to demo some of the ba ji form for them. One of them is particularly friendly and invites Sami for dinner.
It's back to the hotel for a quick shower and to finish packing. I throw most of the clothes I'd worn for training in a plastic bag and leave it outside the door.
We sit silently in the headmaster's office, watching the girls do their homework; Miss Chen playing on the computer, counting the minutes before we have to leave.
Throwing my bag into the headmaster's van, I failed to realise that sifu wouldn't be coming with us on our trip to Jiao Zuo. He gave a very curt, formal goodbye, closed the gate and returned to the office.”
Week 2, Sunday – Return to UK...
… “On one of nights out with Ma Liang, I asked Crystal to tell him that this had been the best experience of my life. Better than graduating. Better than getting my first job. It must have been hard for him to understand what I meant. It was hard for me to understand what I meant, but the somewhat spartan lifestyle I'd lead during my stay in China had revived a kind of youthful confidence. Two weeks in London would fly by in a blink and wouldn't be much different to any other given two weeks. Here however I had experienced a physical and mental awakening in a very short space of time and I couldn't be grateful enough for it. In hindsight, I just wish I'd planned on staying for four weeks as Sami had as I was just getting into the swing when I had to leave. I'll definitely be back in 2009 though and in the meantime I'll be working hard to maintain the level I'd been pushed to in China.”
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