208. Genchitaofu Baguazhang's Wing Chun - 艮氣道福八卦掌の詠春

To answer a few questions in one hit, the Genchitaofu Baguazhang system is about allowing the baguazhang practitioner to experience baguazhang in their everyday life outside of the dojo club or boxing ring. When I first began baguazhang, my goals centred around wanting to be a bonafide martial artist, and healing my body from the corruption of the modern consumerist lifestyle. Compared to most people, I had a legs up on the wannabe competition because I was already doing a bit of martial arts from other styles, for over a decade I was an I-Ching master, and for the guangxi, I was married to a Chinese woman. And... Just like every other style or form, at some point a practitioner comes across a question like this: What's this style good for? It's a very good question when a person takes the time to really think about it. It pops up all the time in different forms, and it has led many martial artists to end up in arguments and fights. For me, the question came up in the form of: How can a martial art style created almost 200 years ago, during Qing Dynasty China, by guys living in a cultural society that has no relevance to my modern life in Australia help me? People can't just go around starting fights just to work these things out. You spend years and years perfecting a specific technique, but when will you get the chance to use it? Honestly, it just doesn't happen. Not even in the boxing ring. And if it did, you probably wouldn't even notice it. Real life isn't a martial arts movie. And if, through experience, what I'm talking about: Congratulations! You're part of the ten percent that has actually been in a fight. Most men typically talk a big game but are lacking in details. I say 'men' because most women tend to be more honest about real life and fighting. In fact, for men, unless they're an active participant in a zone of conflict like a war or something. Or are in a bully-victim relationship, or practice in a dojo, the chances of trying out a move are next to nothing. It's all bullshit and jellybeans. Women, on the other hand, come across violence far too often. Case-in-point: Wing Chun. Regardless of what you believe I think about the style, and I have been threatened by practitioners (who practice the style) to shut up and stop disrespecting it, the truth is: I respect Wing Chun a lot. During my M.A.G.S. years, it was the going style. Everybody around me was learning it. And this was before the Ip Man movies. Wing Chun is its own unique style. While Crane style promotes itself as light and delicate to women in the belief that women are the fairer sex. Wing Chun was created by a Shaolin nun (a woman) to help defend her disciple called Wing Chun (also a woman) from an abusive man, in the small cramped up kitchens and alleyways of a Chinese town or village. Domestic violence is not a new thing. To reinforce this history, it was said that a woman's place in the home was the kitchen. Well why do you think the iconic weapons of Wing Chun are the butterfly knives? Most men see butterfly knives and think short stubby swords. Women see the kitchen chopper. Not the western meat cleaver but the Chinese all-purpose chopper, every Chinese home has. The digression into Wing Chun was to illustrate the importance of walking the circle because baguazhang is a thinking man's martial art. The circle represents the depth of knowledge and understanding symbolised by how deep the circle had become. For most practitioners the grass has barely moved. As the depression gets deeper and deeper, one's understanding grows deeper. Every baguazhang master of worth knows the moment of reaching dirt and realising the profoundness of it. The Genchitaofu system of Baguazhang is meant to train a practitioner to go deeper than the superficial and really grasp their art too, by having everyday experiences that allow them to transmute their skills to some more practical worth, in the environment and times they are in.