The film “The Professor: Tai Chi’s Journey West” was interesting to watch. It was nice to know Professor Cheng Man-Ching’s journey and the struggles he faced. I always thought of Tai Chi as a fascinating type of martial arts used for defense and good health. It’s a way to meditate and exercise to maintain a healthy life. In India, people do yoga to relax themselves. I see Tai Chi as a type of yoga that relaxes people. Tai Chi has make people do some extraordinary things like break a wooden board. It can give one powers that otherwise would not be possible.

As Professor Cheng Man-Ching started teaching his students in New York, there was a special bond formed. Despite language barriers, he could connect with his students and teach them well. There are very few things that could be universally understood. Certain body language is understood throughout all cultures, and it was pretty evident in this documentary. Overall, I thought it was a good and an informative documentary to watch.

The professor: Tai-Chi’s Journey West juxtaposed America’s turbulent 60’s with an Eastern art that has stood the test of time. As a daughter of Chinese-immigrants, the Professor’s attempt to unify the east and west in his classroom resonated with me personally. I’ve learned that it’s not always easy to bring together two cultures, and the older I get, the more difficult it seems.

Though tai-chi may have once taught enough skills to hold a person in a fight, in today’s age, I feel like it could not to the same extent. I see tai-chi more as a personal skill that shows resiliency and discipline but may not have as much external use as it once did. The film showcased Eastern values through tai-chi’s use of grace, serenity, and introspection, and it reminded me of other practices like yoga and meditation.

Overall, the professor’s journey is admirable and adds to America’s great mix of multi-cultural practices. It reminded me of the importance of being at peace with oneself, the ability for people to communicate beyond words, and has inspired me to practice yoga and meditate more regularly.

Last week I saw a documentary movie about a great master, Cheng Man-Ching, who brought Tai Chi to the Western world. I don’t have much knowledge about Tai Chi, but I have heard a lot about Taekwondo. I was curious to know the difference between the two types of martial arts. Here is what I have found.

Taekwondo is grouped under hard martial arts because it emphasizes on kicking and striking techniques. Training involves punching, kicking, jumping, and blocking. Tai chi on the other hand is considered as soft and internal martial art. It emphasizes on stability and involves rhythmic and relaxed movements (moving meditation) which involve redirecting and countering techniques. It helps to improve sleep, balance and cardiovascular health. Similar health benefits could also be acquired from Taekwondo. Tai chi is considered as non-aggressive martial arts while Taekwondo is aggressive since its main purpose is to build defense skills that will help during a fight.

What spoke to me most about the movie was the cultural influence that the Tai-chi master had on his students, which I don’t think is exclusive to learning Tai-chi. Towards the end of the documentary most of them had changed their interpretation of Tai-chi from a mere martial art to something relating to health or a new lifestyle. Their lives were changed, not because of learning a form of self defense but rather the new state of self-consciousness about their bodies that the master had encouraged. They stated in the video that when the master died, the students separated into groups, between those that wanted more emphasis on the physical aspects of Tai-chi and those who wanted to learn more about their own well-being.

I had a similar experience in when I practiced Tae-Kwon-Do. I was interested in learning it as a form of self-defense and found myself learning more about how to take care of my body and staying safe, using the energy and strength I already have in a strategic manner. Yet physical contact and fighting did not seem to me to be the primary focus of martial arts after that experience. It was a way of teaching preventive action and awareness of your surroundings more than it was about how to hit and block. However, I have come to believe that this emphasis on other aspects of life when learning a martial art comes from instructors with a deeper understanding about how martial arts tie in practically into our lives. My brothers had previous instructors who taught more on the basis of fighting strategy, but those tended to be larger classes.

I had never really discussed my own martial arts experiences with anyone. Watching this documentary helped me to interpret my own experiences in a new light. Ultimately, I think what made the experience of the people in the video so powerful was the wisdom and knowledge that the Tai-chi master was willing to share with those who had never experienced his culture or passion.

It’s pretty crazy to imagine that a good portion of the American population know what Tai Chi is. This is largely thanks to “The Professor,” Cheng Man-Ching. Cheng is heralded as the man who brought Tai-Chi to the west. As an ethnic Chinese-American male, I have enormous respect for the Professor, especially since my mom was at one point heavily into tai chi. To us, tai chi is in a way like yoga. In another way, it’s a lifestyle. To be in tune with your “chi”, or spirit, is to know yourself.

The documentary did a great job in explaining tai chi in terms of 1960s America. Indeed, the students of the Professor were mostly “hippies”- odd folk who were open to learning new things. Now, it is an exercise performed by many in this country and around the world.

And sometimes, I wish my mother would go back to doing tai chi. I think she was a lot happier then. Having that spiritual and emotional outlet would be incredibly helpful as life gets more hectic. As such, I have a strong desire to learn tai chi. If I only I could find a Professor like Cheng.

There was one Summer when my father and I watched a bunch of Tai Chi related films, for some reason. We watched “Ip Man” 1, 2, and 3, “Man of Tai Chi” (I don’t recommend this one), and “The Grandmaster”. Since then, I’ve been mildly interested in Tai Chi.

Seeing the poster for this film, I had assumed it was about Ip Man (I should really read the descriptions) and decided to watch it. It turned out to be a documentary about Tai Chi master Cheng Man-Ching coming from Taiwan to New York City in the 1960’s and teaching a variety of people, notably hippies. It was interesting to see this man and his teaching create a microcosm of Americans learning Tai Chi in New York City. From the footage in the film, it seemed that their community was tightly-knit and everyone appeared so care-free (maybe a symptom of being in the 60’s).

As I’m thinking of what to write, I’m reminded of a short clip I saw this week from a new Netflix show hosted by Bill Nye. I’m not entirely sure what the show is about, but the segment I saw was a brief rant about “cultural appropriation”. From what I understand, this phrase apparently describes how someone of one culture adopts certain elements or lifestyles of another culture. An example given in the clip was what “[white people] have done to yoga”, presumably making yoga look bad by practicing it. I think this is ridiculous, and goes against the idea of America as a melting pot, however cliche that phrase may be. This isn’t the first time I’ve heard of “cultural appropriation”, and it seems to me that some people understand it as a form of racism. If people weren’t morally permitted to embrace and/or practice aspects of other cultures, I think that should be considered more racist than “cultural appropriation”. The people who chose to learn from Cheng Man-Ching certainly weren’t being racist, but today they would be considered perpetrators of “cultural appropriation” by some, which is absurd.

I remember sleeping over at a friend’s house when I was little, probably about 3rd grade or so.  The beauty of being that age is that your body has a natural alarm clock, and mine was set to 6 AM, so I got up, got my friend up, we had some breakfast, and went to explore outside.  We got to a park, and I vividly remember seeing this elderly couple doing these slow movements synchronized with each other on a tennis court.  Matthew, my friend, knew that these guys did this every morning, and so was less shocked.  This was the first time I remember seeing tai chi, but at that age I don’t think Matthew or I knew what it was.

The movie “The Professor: Tai Chi’s Journey West” documented a group of Tai Chi students that studied under Cheng Man Ching.  The documentary is filled with modern day commentaries from people who studied under him in the 70’s, mixed with older archived film of their actual classes.  Much of the time, the students talked about how great their teacher was at showing them the way one can manipulate another person’s body based on the other person’s movement, sort of similar to what I saw from the elderly couple.  What I found most interesting though is that Cheng Man Ching also spent time teaching his students how to fight with swords, how to write calligraphy, and even gave them prescriptions for Chinese medicine, which they could then take to a nearby apothecary.  In all the videos, everyone was wearing everyday American style clothes.  And given the broad range of things the tai chi teacher spent time on with his students, it sometimes seemed more like these guys were all hanging with each other.  I’ve never tried tai chi or sword fighting with actual swords, but watching these pupils and their teacher together, regardless of what they were doing, brought about what seemed like a certain familial quality to the screen.

Last Friday, I had the opportunity to watch the film The Professor: Tai Chi’s Journey West. Although I knew very little about Tai Chi before watching the film, I have had a bit of exposure to it. In fall semester of freshman year I had, out of curiosity, decided to sign up for a class on Tai Chi. However, I never really got the chance to participate much before I ended up with a foot infection that caused me to miss out on most of the course. Since then, I have always been curious to know what I could have learned from that class. After watching the film, I can say that my interest in Tai Chi has only increased.

While often lumped together with the other martial arts, Tai Chi is actually quite different. The film revealed how Tai Chi is more of a way of life, than just simply another martial art. It is often used as a form of meditation, and it can have benefits on a person’s health. In addition, the film showed how Tai Chi has a philosophy behind it. Perhaps most interestingly of all was how Tai Chi related to concepts like art or medicine. I found it really fascinating to learn that the Professor would incorporate painting lessons into his class on Tai Chi. It was not exactly a combination that I would have thought of, but it surprisingly seemed to fit really well.

The whole concept of Tai Chi seems really interesting. I really like the fact that it is an all-encompassing way of life. Overall, the film made me more curious to learn Tai Chi, as well as make me regret having missed out in the first place.

For me, documentary films are always iffy. Some filmmakers create a strong, compelling central narrative, that ties together the various clips and characters that make up a film. But other films just feel like a two-hour flood of facts. I wasn’t sure if I would like “The Professor: Tai Chi’s Journey West”-even from the title, it sounded like a niche film, something that would only be of interest to martial arts fans.

I needn’t have worried. The film does a good job of explaining Tai Chi to a lay audience. It makes good use of archival footage, showing Cheng Man-Ching and his students in their studio. I especially enjoyed watching the “forms”. As someone who had not seen Tai Chi before, this was not what I was expecting. I believed Tai Chi to be a martial art, but the forms seemed like something different, elegant. The closest thing I can compare them to is yoga, but that’s not really an accurate comparison. Yoga is stretching and posing, this seemed more fluid. The film also showed footage of “Push Hands”, in which the Professor would unbalance his students, sometimes bounce them up against the walls of the studio, without seeming to use any force.

While “push hands” and forms are two specific aspects of Tai Chi, for Cheng Man-Ching, it seems like Tai Chi was nothing so much as a way of life. Cheng Man-Ching was also a painter, who had his students practice drawing straight lines for weeks. Cheng Man-Ching saw Tai Chi as a way of keeping healthy, an approach to life. Learning about his philosophy and about what he taught his students expanded my views of what Tai Chi is. It doesn’t seem like “just” a martial art any more.

However, this didn’t feel like a film about Tai Chi. It’s a film about a group of people, and the effect one man-the Professor-had on their lives. Most of the film is comprised on interviews with his former students. A lot of them describe being “hippies” or “weirdos” when they came to the Professor’s studio. It was interesting to see how, many years later, the Professor’s students still seemed to know each other, and how many of them still taught Tai Chi. Watching the film, it was obvious that Cheng Man-Ching had a dramatic impact on their lives.

I would recommend this film to a friend, and I would say to someone considering it that you don’t have to know anything about Tai Chi to enjoy it. In part, this is a film about martial arts history and philosophy. But, it is also a study of a community, its relationships, and the very interesting, very impressive man who brought it together.

“Mom what are they doing in the park over there?” the three year old me asked my mother as I pointed my fingers towards a group of middle to old age men and women slowly waving their hands in smooth order. They were all really relaxed and it looked like they were having fun.

“They are practicing Tai-chi”, my mother answered.

I grew up in Taiwan from the ages of zero to five. While I do not have complete memories of everything that I experienced during that time, I remember a handful of memorable experiences. This was one of them. After that day I had proceeded to pretend that I was doing Tai-chi within my home and I would imitate random movements when I was seeing them done in parks. Tai-chi is a common exercise done in Taiwan, especially in the morning hours. It was seen as something that old people did but it was seen as normal.

Ever since I moved to the states during elementary school, I had barely noticed the absence of Tai-chi in American culture. It wasn’t until last week when I realized that people in the states would view Tai-chi as something foreign, a little bit strange, slightly bit other-worldly and weird. It is interesting because when I am in Taiwan, I didn’t think anything of Tai-chi. However here, in a separate environment, what is once so familiar to me seems out of context and unfamiliar.

I find this interesting because even as someone who has experienced different cultures, I am still susceptible into molding my thinking and viewpoints based upon what is the norm in certain areas. I think we should realize that no matter where we are and who we are with, we should remember to keep an open mind – approach things as if they are already familiar to us already.

This Friday’s film was a documentary about a man from Taiwan went to New York City to teach people Tai Chi. What I find impressive is that the scenes are set in the 1960s, an era that is characterized with violence and conflicts within the country and across the globe: Martin Luther King Jr. was giving speeches at marches, and U.S. soldiers were being sent to Vietnam despite oppositions from its citizens. Thus, I am surprised and impressed to see that in the documentary, so many people, with different gender, race, and ethnicity, go to learn Tai Chi together. Moreover, not only the movements, such as pushing hands, are taught, but Chinese culture is spread as well; as the students vividly articulate the philosophy behind Tai Chi–Taoism in the documentary.

My only experience with Tai Chi was from the Yoga class I took last year. I thought I would feel the power of Chi when pushing hands, like when one tries to push water in a swimming pool. Nevertheless, I felt nothing–there was no energy flowing between my palms or whatsoever. I did feel peace, like meditating while still doing exercise of some sort. However,  Tai Chi remains to be a powerful but mysterious thing for me. I have heard myths, like people who master Tai Chi can jump really high, or they have really long life expectancy. The documentary confirmed some of the myths. As the Professor, with relatively small body build, manages to ‘defeat’ (push away) all his students. It sends a inspiring message: one does not have to look strong/tough to be powerful.

My final observation is about communication. In the documentary, a translator interprets the Professor’s instructions into English so that the students could understand. Yet language barrier does not keep the students and the Professor from forming a deep bond between each other, as the documentary captures several moments that the class are laughing together. This reminds me of a friend, who once told me that she joined karate because it was easier for her to communicate with others in non-verbal ways; and she made lots of good friends from karate. I suppose that there are some universal expressions in the movements (of Tai Chi, karate, etc.) that enables people to communicate and understand each other.

In short, it was an interesting comparison to the Hollywood films we usually watch in Rose House.