Tai Cheng infomercial, 2013: Cheez Whiz or what?
To the Tao Bums community:
Last week, one of my private students of six years who also has more than 12 ongoing years of training in the Tung Family branch of the Yang style, asked me about the “Tai Cheng” DVD product that’s being marketed via an hour-long information on numerous cable TV channels across America over the past several months). I had seen glimpses of the infomercial late at night but it impressed me so little that I always turned the channel. But because my student asked, I forced myself to watch the entire infomercial two weekends ago. It turned out to be an hour in duration. Afterwards, I told my student that I thought that his form was better than Dr. Cheng’s as seen on the infomercial.
After expressing my dismay to my friend Debbie Shayne (co-owner of Plum Publications in Santa Cruz, CA (plumpub.com), which, btw, has one of the most extensive online book and DVD catalogs on Chinese martial arts) over what I saw in the infomercial, Debbie harshly critiqued that the “Tai Cheng” product doesn’t even rate as a bastardization of Tai Chi Chuan. Rather, she told to me in roaring fashion that Tai Cheng is to Tai Chi Chuan what Cheez Whiz is to real cheese—i.e., that Tai Cheng has nothing to do with real Tai Chi in substance, and is about as relevant to Tai Chi as soccer is (with no disrespect to the sport of soccer, its players, or fans)!! After thinking about what she wrote these past couple of days, I feel that she hit the nail right on the head with her colorful Cheez Whiz analogy. (Debbie Shayne, btw, has 33 years of business experience in distributing all forms publications having to do with Tai Chi, Kung Fu and Chinese internal arts. She is a Tai Chi practitioner and her husband, Ted Mancuso, has been teaching Tai Chi for 45 years.)
Pasted below is a copy of my correspondence with Debbie to get this discussion kicked off.
On May 29, 2013, at 1:26 PM, Terry Dunn wrote:
Hi Debbie,
My primary inspiration for raising the price (of my Tai Chi For Health DVD’s) came after watching the hour-long "Tai Cheng" infomercial that's running late at night on cable stations like FIT. Have you seen it yet? It was hard, but I forced myself to watch it a few nights ago. Egads, although they don't show much of what's actually on the DVD's, what they do show looks pretty ghastly and cheesy to me--in terms of bastardization and then piling on a whole bunch of gimmicky products (a mat with a tic tac toe grid on it!) and ineffective therapeutic exercises that are totally unrelated to Tai Chi. (holding onto a chair back and swinging one leg forward and back. geesh)
If you've seen it, I'm curious to know what you think of Tai Cheng. (Given how much they're charging for that mass-marketed series--$39.95 x 3 installments, I think that either of my TCFH titles can justify a price of $29.95 --or 25% of the price of "Tai Cheng" product.)
At any rate, I'll keep the SRP's where they are for now.
Best,
Terry
On May 29, 2013, at 4:49 PM, Ted Mancuso & Debbie Shayne <[email protected]> wrote:
Hi Terry,
You are a stronger man than I am if you can watch that crap.
I use the 'cheez whiz' analogy (copyright: me!) If you think of cheez whiz as a type of cheese, it will never satisfy. But if you are eating some appetizer that, for some reason, requires cheez whiz, and you don't associate it at all with cheese, then you might actually like it. Think of cheez whiz as a different food item from cheese...that's the exercise. Think of Tai Cheng as something completely different than Tai Chi. It is not some bastardized form of Tai Chi, it is as different from Tai Chi as soccer. And believe me, you wouldn't want those customers or students!
Anyway, thanks for the info. I know I am a bit on the conservative side when it comes to pricing (that's about the end of my conservatism) but I am pretty sensitive to that issue, being where I am at Plum, and also at my job at the bookstore.
Keep in touch,
debbie
On Wed, May 29, 2013 at 11:35 PM, Terry Dunn wrote:
Subj: Cheez Whiz-- accurate and PRECIOUS!!
Hi Debbie,
Thank you for your candid and un-sugar-coated opinion of the Tai Cheng program, which I also consider to be total malarkey and a pretty grotesque derivation/ bastardization of Tai Chi Chuan.
If you don't mind, as a service to that community, I would like to start a new discussion thread on www.thetaobums.com titled "Tai Cheng: Cheez Whiz -- or what??" And start it off by posting verbatim our email correspondence about it.
Let me know if it's OK with you to do this.
While in the past I normally just bit my tongue and kept mute about what I considered to be outrageous hokum peddled in the name of Tai Chi, I think world communications has evolved to the point (with internet and social networks magnifying the reach of TV infomercials and PBS fare to an almost exponential extent) where that it's my duty to humanity and the furtherance (and protection) of culture to call out and assail what I consider to be the latest insult to Tai Chi Chuan.
Best,
Terry
On Thu, May 30, 2013 at 9:42 AM, Ted Mancuso & Debbie Shayne <[email protected]> wrote:
Hi Terry,
Sure, go ahead! And if you want, you can mention I come from Plum (plumpub.com).
Debbie
Thus, with Debbie Shayne’s permission, I have posted our correspondence expressing our opinions of “Tai Cheng” as TaoBums’ to spark discussion of what people think about this product and the infomercial promoting it. For the record:
(1) Based on my careful viewing of the infomerical, I agree with Debbie’s opinion of the “Tai Cheng” program as appearing to be the “Cheez Whiz” version of Tai Chi.
(2) In my personal and expert opinion, the Tai Cheng program as advertised in the infomercial is not representative of high-quality or even average-quality Tai Chi Chuan instruction or optimally health-enhancing Tai Chi practice because I did not see demonstrated the basic nor the cardinal principles of Tai Chi form.
(3) I believe that Tai Cheng does a disservice to the Tai Chi community and the English-speaking world because I believe that it misinforms and confuses the uneducated consumer and absolute beginner as to what Tai Chi Chuan is, what correct Tai Chi practice involves, and how Tai Chi's health benefits are actually derived from correct practice of the art.
(4) However, I don’t agree with Debbie’s dismissal of the Tai Cheng infomercial as “crap”. In my opinion, the infomercial is a very savvy and professionally crafted advertisement that effectively hypes a wide variety of professed benefits of an exercise regimen that to me is not very good Tai Chi—and in in several instances is not even Tai Chi at all.
(5) “Marketing is marketing” --But I think that to name what's purported to be a Tai Chi Chuan instructional product using a contraction of “Tai” and one’s own last name (“Cheng” in this instance) shows a certain irreverence to the art and to the same extent, a certain degree of hubris. Note that none of the greatest Tai Chi Chuan masters throughout history had ever truncated the name “Tai Chi Chuan” and then suffixed their own last name. That puts Dr. Cheng in a class by himself.
Again, I emphasize the fact that I have not viewed any part of the Tai Cheng DVD series or examined the ancillary materials (floor mat with tic-tac-toe-like grid and a roller device) marketed by the infomercial and I base my opinion solely on the statements, testimonials, and demonstrations by Dr. Cheng and the other persons appearing in the one-hour infomercial.
Based on the infomercial and my knowledge of what movements embody Tai Chi principles and which do not, I do not believe that the Tai Cheng program furthers the ethical development of Tai Chi as a martial art or as a holistic health discipline. To the extent that the narrative script of the infomercial states that "Tai Cheng is based on Tai Chi", I acknowledge the fact that Dr. Cheng is teaching his own exercises derived from Tai Chi while touting the numerous health benefits of Tai Chi form practice. However, I don’t believe that “Tai Cheng” program is an effective utilization of Tai Chi form practice for health maintenance. Nor do I believe that Dr. Cheng’s performance of Tai Chi and method of teaching—as reflected in the infomercial--warrants national attention. This is my personal opinion based on 33 years of continuous training in Yang style Tai Chi Chuan under five high-level masters and 22 years of training Liu He Ba Fa (Six Harmonies/Eight Methods) under two eminent masters, having 39 years of training in several styles of Kung Fu (with master-instructor’s certification in three systems), and being the creator, writer, producer, and on-camera instructor in the most successful instructional Tai Chi DVD’s of the past 23 years, Tai Chi For Health Yang Long Form, and TCFH, Yang Short Form (created and released in 1990 on VHS). www.taichimania.com/taichi_catalog.html
I normally do not write or publish anything to the negative about other people's published programs that teach Chinese holistic health practices or Chinese martial arts—even when I am asked to do so. In the past, I have simply bitten my lip and kept silent over various products published by self-proclaimed masters and Hollywood celebrities that appeared to me as mediocre, useless, or worse--for my tolerant attitude has always been one of: “this is America and business is business.” But I have made an exception here in expressing my opinion of the "Tai Cheng" infomercial and the home-study course that it sells because I believe that it gives Tai Chi a bad name and because I believe the training seen in the infomercial will not give people a good start or a foothold in the art of Tai Chi Chuan nor enable progress at an “average” pace. (Based on my teaching experience of the past 33 years, my standard for “average progress’ by a beginning student is to become totally proficient in practicing a classical Tai Chi form (e.g., 108) in approximately three years’ time, and thereafter steadily experiencing Tai Chi’s health benefits through one’s unaided practice at home.) Rather, it is my opinion that the “Tai Cheng” training will probably hamper and retard beginners’ development in the art and only cause highly credentialed and dedicated Tai Chi instructors extra work and aggravation in undoing misconceptions about Tai Chi that I think this infomercial creates, and trying to undo physical habits counter-productive to Tai Chi development that I also believe will be inculcated by its training methods as demonstrated on the infomercial.
If any Taobums subscriber out there has used or is using the Tai Cheng training program and finds it to be a highly beneficial and health-enhancing Tai Chi Chuan training regimen that would provide a solid foundation for life-long growth in the art--as opposed to what I suspect may be a waste of time--please share your experience and tell me that Debbie Shayne and I are wrong here with our assessments.
The great Tai Chi master Cheng Man-ching wrote that out of the three elements necessary for progressing to mastery of Tai Chi—natural talent, hard work, and correct instruction—correct teaching was the most important element of all. For hard work can make up for lack of natural talent. But no matter how much natural talent or hard work students may have, if the instruction is not correct, then all that human potential and effort is wasted--and for years if one subscribes to the wrong teacher or program. My opinion from viewing the “Tai Cheng” infomercial is that this training program will not very likely provide correct teaching of Tai Chi Chuan that will enable or further students' progress towards mastery in the either the short term or the long term.
I am starting this discussion topic based on my personal opinion of the ‘Tai Cheng” infomercial. I have no opinion whatsoever about the reputed skill level of Dr. Cheng in Tai Chi Chuan or his teacher, or his Tai Chi lineage, if he is a part of one.
Terry Dunn
www.taichimania.com/chikung_catalog.html
http://thetaobums.com/topic/12639-flying-phoenix-chi-kung/page-55?hl=%2Bflying+%2Bphoenix+%2Bkung#entry257448
Last week, one of my private students of six years who also has more than 12 ongoing years of training in the Tung Family branch of the Yang style, asked me about the “Tai Cheng” DVD product that’s being marketed via an hour-long information on numerous cable TV channels across America over the past several months). I had seen glimpses of the infomercial late at night but it impressed me so little that I always turned the channel. But because my student asked, I forced myself to watch the entire infomercial two weekends ago. It turned out to be an hour in duration. Afterwards, I told my student that I thought that his form was better than Dr. Cheng’s as seen on the infomercial.
After expressing my dismay to my friend Debbie Shayne (co-owner of Plum Publications in Santa Cruz, CA (plumpub.com), which, btw, has one of the most extensive online book and DVD catalogs on Chinese martial arts) over what I saw in the infomercial, Debbie harshly critiqued that the “Tai Cheng” product doesn’t even rate as a bastardization of Tai Chi Chuan. Rather, she told to me in roaring fashion that Tai Cheng is to Tai Chi Chuan what Cheez Whiz is to real cheese—i.e., that Tai Cheng has nothing to do with real Tai Chi in substance, and is about as relevant to Tai Chi as soccer is (with no disrespect to the sport of soccer, its players, or fans)!! After thinking about what she wrote these past couple of days, I feel that she hit the nail right on the head with her colorful Cheez Whiz analogy. (Debbie Shayne, btw, has 33 years of business experience in distributing all forms publications having to do with Tai Chi, Kung Fu and Chinese internal arts. She is a Tai Chi practitioner and her husband, Ted Mancuso, has been teaching Tai Chi for 45 years.)
Pasted below is a copy of my correspondence with Debbie to get this discussion kicked off.
On May 29, 2013, at 1:26 PM, Terry Dunn wrote:
Hi Debbie,
My primary inspiration for raising the price (of my Tai Chi For Health DVD’s) came after watching the hour-long "Tai Cheng" infomercial that's running late at night on cable stations like FIT. Have you seen it yet? It was hard, but I forced myself to watch it a few nights ago. Egads, although they don't show much of what's actually on the DVD's, what they do show looks pretty ghastly and cheesy to me--in terms of bastardization and then piling on a whole bunch of gimmicky products (a mat with a tic tac toe grid on it!) and ineffective therapeutic exercises that are totally unrelated to Tai Chi. (holding onto a chair back and swinging one leg forward and back. geesh)
If you've seen it, I'm curious to know what you think of Tai Cheng. (Given how much they're charging for that mass-marketed series--$39.95 x 3 installments, I think that either of my TCFH titles can justify a price of $29.95 --or 25% of the price of "Tai Cheng" product.)
At any rate, I'll keep the SRP's where they are for now.
Best,
Terry
On May 29, 2013, at 4:49 PM, Ted Mancuso & Debbie Shayne <[email protected]> wrote:
Hi Terry,
You are a stronger man than I am if you can watch that crap.
I use the 'cheez whiz' analogy (copyright: me!) If you think of cheez whiz as a type of cheese, it will never satisfy. But if you are eating some appetizer that, for some reason, requires cheez whiz, and you don't associate it at all with cheese, then you might actually like it. Think of cheez whiz as a different food item from cheese...that's the exercise. Think of Tai Cheng as something completely different than Tai Chi. It is not some bastardized form of Tai Chi, it is as different from Tai Chi as soccer. And believe me, you wouldn't want those customers or students!
Anyway, thanks for the info. I know I am a bit on the conservative side when it comes to pricing (that's about the end of my conservatism) but I am pretty sensitive to that issue, being where I am at Plum, and also at my job at the bookstore.
Keep in touch,
debbie
On Wed, May 29, 2013 at 11:35 PM, Terry Dunn wrote:
Subj: Cheez Whiz-- accurate and PRECIOUS!!
Hi Debbie,
Thank you for your candid and un-sugar-coated opinion of the Tai Cheng program, which I also consider to be total malarkey and a pretty grotesque derivation/ bastardization of Tai Chi Chuan.
If you don't mind, as a service to that community, I would like to start a new discussion thread on www.thetaobums.com titled "Tai Cheng: Cheez Whiz -- or what??" And start it off by posting verbatim our email correspondence about it.
Let me know if it's OK with you to do this.
While in the past I normally just bit my tongue and kept mute about what I considered to be outrageous hokum peddled in the name of Tai Chi, I think world communications has evolved to the point (with internet and social networks magnifying the reach of TV infomercials and PBS fare to an almost exponential extent) where that it's my duty to humanity and the furtherance (and protection) of culture to call out and assail what I consider to be the latest insult to Tai Chi Chuan.
Best,
Terry
On Thu, May 30, 2013 at 9:42 AM, Ted Mancuso & Debbie Shayne <[email protected]> wrote:
Hi Terry,
Sure, go ahead! And if you want, you can mention I come from Plum (plumpub.com).
Debbie
Thus, with Debbie Shayne’s permission, I have posted our correspondence expressing our opinions of “Tai Cheng” as TaoBums’ to spark discussion of what people think about this product and the infomercial promoting it. For the record:
(1) Based on my careful viewing of the infomerical, I agree with Debbie’s opinion of the “Tai Cheng” program as appearing to be the “Cheez Whiz” version of Tai Chi.
(2) In my personal and expert opinion, the Tai Cheng program as advertised in the infomercial is not representative of high-quality or even average-quality Tai Chi Chuan instruction or optimally health-enhancing Tai Chi practice because I did not see demonstrated the basic nor the cardinal principles of Tai Chi form.
(3) I believe that Tai Cheng does a disservice to the Tai Chi community and the English-speaking world because I believe that it misinforms and confuses the uneducated consumer and absolute beginner as to what Tai Chi Chuan is, what correct Tai Chi practice involves, and how Tai Chi's health benefits are actually derived from correct practice of the art.
(4) However, I don’t agree with Debbie’s dismissal of the Tai Cheng infomercial as “crap”. In my opinion, the infomercial is a very savvy and professionally crafted advertisement that effectively hypes a wide variety of professed benefits of an exercise regimen that to me is not very good Tai Chi—and in in several instances is not even Tai Chi at all.
(5) “Marketing is marketing” --But I think that to name what's purported to be a Tai Chi Chuan instructional product using a contraction of “Tai” and one’s own last name (“Cheng” in this instance) shows a certain irreverence to the art and to the same extent, a certain degree of hubris. Note that none of the greatest Tai Chi Chuan masters throughout history had ever truncated the name “Tai Chi Chuan” and then suffixed their own last name. That puts Dr. Cheng in a class by himself.
Again, I emphasize the fact that I have not viewed any part of the Tai Cheng DVD series or examined the ancillary materials (floor mat with tic-tac-toe-like grid and a roller device) marketed by the infomercial and I base my opinion solely on the statements, testimonials, and demonstrations by Dr. Cheng and the other persons appearing in the one-hour infomercial.
Based on the infomercial and my knowledge of what movements embody Tai Chi principles and which do not, I do not believe that the Tai Cheng program furthers the ethical development of Tai Chi as a martial art or as a holistic health discipline. To the extent that the narrative script of the infomercial states that "Tai Cheng is based on Tai Chi", I acknowledge the fact that Dr. Cheng is teaching his own exercises derived from Tai Chi while touting the numerous health benefits of Tai Chi form practice. However, I don’t believe that “Tai Cheng” program is an effective utilization of Tai Chi form practice for health maintenance. Nor do I believe that Dr. Cheng’s performance of Tai Chi and method of teaching—as reflected in the infomercial--warrants national attention. This is my personal opinion based on 33 years of continuous training in Yang style Tai Chi Chuan under five high-level masters and 22 years of training Liu He Ba Fa (Six Harmonies/Eight Methods) under two eminent masters, having 39 years of training in several styles of Kung Fu (with master-instructor’s certification in three systems), and being the creator, writer, producer, and on-camera instructor in the most successful instructional Tai Chi DVD’s of the past 23 years, Tai Chi For Health Yang Long Form, and TCFH, Yang Short Form (created and released in 1990 on VHS). www.taichimania.com/taichi_catalog.html
I normally do not write or publish anything to the negative about other people's published programs that teach Chinese holistic health practices or Chinese martial arts—even when I am asked to do so. In the past, I have simply bitten my lip and kept silent over various products published by self-proclaimed masters and Hollywood celebrities that appeared to me as mediocre, useless, or worse--for my tolerant attitude has always been one of: “this is America and business is business.” But I have made an exception here in expressing my opinion of the "Tai Cheng" infomercial and the home-study course that it sells because I believe that it gives Tai Chi a bad name and because I believe the training seen in the infomercial will not give people a good start or a foothold in the art of Tai Chi Chuan nor enable progress at an “average” pace. (Based on my teaching experience of the past 33 years, my standard for “average progress’ by a beginning student is to become totally proficient in practicing a classical Tai Chi form (e.g., 108) in approximately three years’ time, and thereafter steadily experiencing Tai Chi’s health benefits through one’s unaided practice at home.) Rather, it is my opinion that the “Tai Cheng” training will probably hamper and retard beginners’ development in the art and only cause highly credentialed and dedicated Tai Chi instructors extra work and aggravation in undoing misconceptions about Tai Chi that I think this infomercial creates, and trying to undo physical habits counter-productive to Tai Chi development that I also believe will be inculcated by its training methods as demonstrated on the infomercial.
If any Taobums subscriber out there has used or is using the Tai Cheng training program and finds it to be a highly beneficial and health-enhancing Tai Chi Chuan training regimen that would provide a solid foundation for life-long growth in the art--as opposed to what I suspect may be a waste of time--please share your experience and tell me that Debbie Shayne and I are wrong here with our assessments.
The great Tai Chi master Cheng Man-ching wrote that out of the three elements necessary for progressing to mastery of Tai Chi—natural talent, hard work, and correct instruction—correct teaching was the most important element of all. For hard work can make up for lack of natural talent. But no matter how much natural talent or hard work students may have, if the instruction is not correct, then all that human potential and effort is wasted--and for years if one subscribes to the wrong teacher or program. My opinion from viewing the “Tai Cheng” infomercial is that this training program will not very likely provide correct teaching of Tai Chi Chuan that will enable or further students' progress towards mastery in the either the short term or the long term.
I am starting this discussion topic based on my personal opinion of the ‘Tai Cheng” infomercial. I have no opinion whatsoever about the reputed skill level of Dr. Cheng in Tai Chi Chuan or his teacher, or his Tai Chi lineage, if he is a part of one.
Terry Dunn
www.taichimania.com/chikung_catalog.html
http://thetaobums.com/topic/12639-flying-phoenix-chi-kung/page-55?hl=%2Bflying+%2Bphoenix+%2Bkung#entry257448
