Nihao from China

[Ansijia]

Hi there dear friends,

 

 

I am really grateful for the opportunity to join this forum!

China has been quite an adventure for an European and I look forward to the new twists on this journey. In fact I very much hope that this forum could help me to find female qigong Master(s) in China - this is my prime intention at the moment. I already know 2 female qigong Masters working specifically with women, both of whom reside outside of China, and I wonder if I can connect with anyone while in China.

 

Your hints will be very much appreciated!

Take care,

Ansijia 安思佳 (my Chinese name)

[onebir]

你好right back at ya ;-)

 

& congratulations on venturing to one of the provinces of mountains & mangled Mandarin. (No slight to the people of Sichuan intended - it can just make communication a bit tricky...)

 

It might be worth finding out if there's a local taijiquan society (太极拳协会 or maybe even 武术协会) near you. Certainly the big cities have them. Many of the people involved will only know the more modern forms. But go along and do the Beijing 24 form and talk to people and you'll find some of them know traditional forms, hold lineages, know other stuff etc. And some of them will know people who know people etc...

 

Also have you tried practicing qigong in a park & chatting to locals? When I did that they'd sometimes tell me where to find other people doing qigong...

 

Likely most of the people you'll find will be male, but I can remember seeing a 奶奶 demonstrating a pretty bone-crunching Chen taiji form

 

祝你好运!

Edited April 25, 2012 by onebir

[Elliot]

Namaste & Welcome!

[Sonica]

Namaste & Welcome!

 

 

Hi Elliot,

I live in Beijing and I'm also looking for a Qigong master. If you find a good one let me know

[Sonica]

Sorry Elliot,

my replay was for Ansijia

I wrong name

[gendao]

Hi there dear friends,

 

 

I am really grateful for the opportunity to join this forum!

China has been quite an adventure for an European and I look forward to the new twists on this journey. In fact I very much hope that this forum could help me to find female qigong Master(s) in China - this is my prime intention at the moment. I already know 2 female qigong Masters working specifically with women, both of whom reside outside of China, and I wonder if I can connect with anyone while in China.

 

Your hints will be very much appreciated!

Take care,

Ansijia 安思佳 (my Chinese name)

Yuanming Zhang is from Chengdu. Li ChingYun was also from Sichuan (if he actually lived as reputed). So, there should be some decent practitioners in the area? You might look around Zhang's various lineages for any leads.

 

Wang LiPing's Ling Bao Tong Zhi Neng Nei Gong Shu also includes a whole Chapter 5: Nu Dan Xin Fa for females to cultivate Jin Dan.

Edited April 26, 2012 by vortex

[mjjbecker]

[mjjbecker]

[onebir]

Actually I heard Wang Xiangzhai's daughter was still teaching in Beijing a couple of years ago. It's possible some Yiquan people might be in contact with her, & she might have female disciples even if she's no longer teaching.

 

Yao Chengguang's school was in Nanguan Gongyuan (南馆公园 off 东直门北小街). I think the school's moved, but probably Yiquan people still train there. There were also Yiquan people training in Guanyuan Park (官园公园 off 平安里西大街). Or you could try asking one of the Yao brothers (Yao Chengguang & Yao Chengrong) both have schools with websites.

Edited May 1, 2012 by onebir

[Ansijia]

Thank you everyone for your hints, some very useful info to follow up upon. If anything else comes up, I'd be much grateful.

 

 

One thing I came to understand recently is that I do need to move out into a new location. This provincial city does not seem to be a good choice and does not serve my needs. Chengdu has more to offer, while I stayed there I did attend qigong with Dr.Zhang Zheng Bin, a Lineage holder in the Sixth Generation of Nan Gong Zi Ran Men (that's what is on his card). At the moment he is on a tour in Europe. However I have not heard from people who translate him, that he would differentiate female and male practices.

[Ansijia]

Actually I heard Wang Xiangzhai's daughter was still teaching in Beijing a couple of years ago. It's possible some Yiquan people might be in contact with her, & she might have female disciples even if she's no longer teaching.

 

Yao Chengguang's school was in Nanguan Gongyuan (南馆公园 off 东直门北小街). I think the school's moved, but probably Yiquan people still train there. There were also Yiquan people training in Guanyuan Park (管园公园 off 平安里西大街). Or you could try asking one of the Yao brothers (Yao Chengguang & Yao Chengrong) both have schools with websites.

 

Onebir, thanks a lot! I shall follow up on your leads.

 

P.S 是的, as one experienced tai-chi practitioner once said, the most fragile looking 奶奶 might as well show the real feats of strength and vigour

 

 

[Ansijia]

Sorry Elliot,

my replay was for Ansijia

I wrong name

 

 

 

Hi Sonica, glad you have some good leads too out of this exchange. Too bad I' m not in Beijing, we could've gotten together

Edited April 27, 2012 by Ansijia

[Ansijia]

http://www.kungfumag...ead.php?t=55716

 

Reposted from the above forum as the original link didn't work when I tried it now.

 

 

 

Grandmaster Li Cheng Yu sounds very inspiring! Mjjbecker, thanks so much for the exercise, I will try it out

I also heard of an old Woman Master who passed away sometime during the last decade, she was around or over 100 years of age then; she lived in Beijing. I don' t know her name, will try to ask a friend but he couldn' t recall it at the time he told me about her.

[onebir]

One thing I came to understand recently is that I do need to move out into a new location. This provincial city does not seem to be a good choice and does not serve my needs. Chengdu has more to offer, while I stayed there I did attend qigong with Dr.Zhang Zheng Bin, a Lineage holder in the Sixth Generation of Nan Gong Zi Ran Men (that's what is on his card). At the moment he is on a tour in Europe. However I have not heard from people who translate him, that he would differentiate female and male practices.

There might actually be more high level people in smaller places, where the pace of life is slower. They just won't have high positions in various associations (which often seem to reflect administrative prowess/guanxi as much as anything...)

 

It'll take longer and a more grass roots approach to dig them out. But if you have the time, you may have a better chance of meeting someone who's more interested in teaching you than in money; some Chinese teachers are extremely frustrated that so few Chinese young people are interested in learning what they can teach. They often view their practices as an integral part of Chinese culture, worry it will die out, would like to see it spread to other countries etc. So they can be very happy to run into a westerner who's prepared to do the work to learn from them. I've seen this happen a couple of times.

 

Apart from parks, it might be worth chatting to people around temples. AFAIK there aren't many functional Daoist temples, but Buddhist monks and nuns are often pretty approachable, and may know people who practice qigong even if they don't themselves.

[Ansijia]

There might actually be more high level people in smaller places, where the pace of life is slower. They just won't have high positions in various associations (which often seem to reflect administrative prowess/guanxi as much as anything...)

 

It'll take longer and a more grass roots approach to dig them out. But if you have the time, you may have a better chance of meeting someone who's more interested in teaching you than in money; some Chinese teachers are extremely frustrated that so few Chinese young people are interested in learning what they can teach. They often view their practices as an integral part of Chinese culture, worry it will die out, would like to see it spread to other countries etc. So they can be very happy to run into a westerner who's prepared to do the work to learn from them. I've seen this happen a couple of times.

 

Apart from parks, it might be worth chatting to people around temples. AFAIK there aren't many functional Daoist temples, but Buddhist monks and nuns are often pretty approachable, and may know people who practice qigong even if they don't themselves.

 

 

 

good point, thanks! yes, good idea about the temple. hope to convince my colleague for next w-end to come along and translate, my 'chatting' skills are not that fluent yet lol

[ChiDragon]

Ansijia 安思佳 (my Chinese name)

 

安思佳(Peaceful and think well), a lovely name, it is very poetic and meaningful.

Edited April 27, 2012 by ChiDragon

[thelerner]

See if you can contact this man- http://www.jingxinyuan.net/linaiwei.htm . He used to be an active member here. Very talented and authentic. He had some solid suggestions and contacts for people studying in China. Because he's a traditionalist from a demanding lineage only people willing to do serious highly respectful study should contact him.

 

Michael

[Ansijia]

Ansijia 安思佳 (my Chinese name)

 

安思佳(Peaceful and think well), a lovely name, it is very poetic and meaningful.

 

Thank you ChiDragon, you wrote my name exactly right!! We made up the name together with one teacher, I liked the sound but changed the Chinese characters for "si" and "jia" couple of times, now happy how they all suit together. I like that "si" has a "heart" part in it, although it is not directly conveyed in the meaning, and its also part of "meditate". Isn' t it amazing that each character has a story of its own ?! Well, language is a little hard for a beginner though People keep telling me 慢慢走

Edited April 28, 2012 by Ansijia

[Ansijia]

See if you can contact this man- http://www.jingxinyu...et/linaiwei.htm . He used to be an active member here. Very talented and authentic. He had some solid suggestions and contacts for people studying in China. Because he's a traditionalist from a demanding lineage only people willing to do serious highly respectful study should contact him.

 

Michael

 

Thank you so much Michael, that's a brilliant idea! I'm reading his webpage, seems Lin Shifu might currently be in China.

Thanks again.

[ChiDragon]

Thank you ChiDragon, you wrote my name exactly right!! We made up the name together with one teacher, I liked the sound but changed the Chinese characters for "si" and "jia" couple of times, now happy how they all suit together. I like that "si" has a "heart" part in it, although it is not directly conveyed in the meaning, and its also part of "meditate". Isn' t it amazing that each character has a story of its own ?! Well, language is a little hard for a beginner though People keep telling me 慢慢走

You welcome, Ansijia, it happens to be that my Chinese name is 思正(think correctly). The character 思(si) has two radicals, 田(tian2) and 心(xin1). The radical 田(tian2) is a field which symbolizes broad in Chinese thinking. The 心(heart), once thought, is the center of the human body which does all the thinking. Hence, 思(si) is thinking with a broad field as one's thinking with a vast and open mind.

[onebir]

Well, language is a little hard for a beginner though People keep telling me 慢慢走

One major problem I had trying to improve my Chinese in China was getting decent textbooks. The bookshops had very little, and would often be missing volumes of multivolume sets etc.

 

I finally discovered a website that sells Chinese published textbooks at near-Chinese prices:

http://www.studychineseculture.com/

(they ship to China & worldwide; if you're inside China you don't even need a bank account to pay; just take cash to any bank, along with their bank details.)

 

There's a series of books by Zhang Peng Peng that I think looks particularly good ("Intensive Spoken Chinese", "The Most Common Chinese Radicals", "Rapid Literacy in Chinese". Also check out the FSI materials (www.fsi-language-courses.org) especially for pronounciation which can be a big hindrance to communication (& progress).

 

& if you haven't discovered it yet chineseforums.com is a good place for asking about the language & study methods/materials.

 

慢慢来安思佳

[Ansijia]

One major problem I had trying to improve my Chinese in China was getting decent textbooks. The bookshops had very little, and would often be missing volumes of multivolume sets etc.

 

I finally discovered a website that sells Chinese published textbooks at near-Chinese prices:

http://www.studychineseculture.com/

(they ship to China & worldwide; if you're inside China you don't even need a bank account to pay; just take cash to any bank, along with their bank details.)

 

There's a series of books by Zhang Peng Peng that I think looks particularly good ("Intensive Spoken Chinese", "The Most Common Chinese Radicals", "Rapid Literacy in Chinese". Also check out the FSI materials (www.fsi-language-courses.org) especially for pronounciation which can be a big hindrance to communication (& progress).

 

& if you haven't discovered it yet chineseforums.com is a good place for asking about the language & study methods/materials.

 

慢慢来安思佳

 

谢谢 你， 这个主意挺不错的 ：）

 

It indeed is confusing not to be able to understand most of the things being said to me (I attribute part of it to a local dialect LOL) , but on the bright side after 8 months here I can deal with daily situations, express my needs and ask questions. A dictionary in my mob.phone, helps a lot.