56 diverse and unique ethnic groups make up what most westerners call “Chinese”. With that diversity of DNA also comes diversity in language, culture, and customs.

One unusual piece of culture that is seen less and less these days is the Zhong Fan. The Zhong Fan is a bamboo pole approximately 5 or 6 m long decorated with flags, banners, and bells.

It is a tradition that originated with the Mongol military, but was borrowed by the Manchus and bought to Beijing at the beginning of the Qing dynasty (1644 AD). Over the last several hundred years the Zhong Fan has become a loved part of local Beijing culture too.

Zhong Fan culture is kept alive - like so many other physically demanding aspects of Beijing culture – by wrestlers. Every year Coach Zhou leads his team of wrestlers out to demonstrate the Zhong Fan under the watchful eye of Master Li at all sorts of jubilant occasions including last year’s World Team Judo Championships held in Beijing.

Weighing approximately 15kgs, it is incredibly challenging to balance especially since it’s banners and flags catch even the slightest breeze.

Despite the challenge of the wind, wrestlers perform all sorts of tricks and stunts with the Zhong Fan, including: throws, twirls, kicks, cartwheels, forward rolls, balancing acts, and my favourite - catching it on your face! In all there are 30 or 40 different movements, and as many variations as your imagination can come up with.

Interestingly, the audience always shouts in glee at the success of each stunt. It is obvious as an observer that wrestlers throwing a heavy pole around like it is a chopstick are still held in awe by the everyday Zhou, – reminiscent of days hundreds of years ago when wrestlers were imperial staff.

In the demonstration below, you can see Wang Yanlong – 2007 National Shuaijiao Champion - demonstrate the painful looking stunt of kicking the Zhong Fan up and catching it on his face… take a look at the photos… after the show you can see bruises on his forehead.

Prospeous New Year!

Michael

I was reminded of a photo that I had seen at Master Li’s home yesterday.

It was a photo of some young wrestlers or acrobats in Jinan, Shandong Province during the spring festival, doing pretty much what I witnessed at the temple fair. Yesterday’s demonstrations just goes to show that China’s obscure traditions are still alive and kicking.

Check these out!

9th Feburary 2008, Dongyue Temple, Beijing

Now check this photo out!!!

Sometime early last century, Jinan, Shandong

Hope you enjoyed that piece of history!

Keep Smilin’

Michael

Pedro Schmall is learning Shuaijiao.

He is just an ordinary guy, a nice guy, but this is news.

It is news because Pedro is also a Brazilian Jiujitsu expert who’s mission is to spread BJJ around the world. Hailing from Rio, Brazil, Pedro has trained and competed with almost everyone in the who’s who of modern BJJ. After being bitten by the travel bug he has taken his family on adventures around the world, all the time teaching and promoting Brazilian Jiujitsu. His mission has led him to teach in America, Korea, Taiwan, Thailand (including K-1 Ole Laurson’s Legacy Gym for a while too) and now Beijing, China…where we are very pleased to have him
Pedro is teaching professional and amateur BJJ and MMA fighters at Andy Pi’s Beijing Brazilian Jiujitsu Academy. In his spare time he likes to learn other martial arts that can help him improve his BJJ game, and that is why he contacted me.

Shortly after seeing him this morning, I realized that Pedro is from a place where you can surf in shorts all year round - Rio. Beijing’s sub-zero temperatures must be a bit of a shock to his system. Even more of a shock I’m sure was training outside in the shade… at 9am on a Saturday and Sunday morning on the whole other side of town (there go his weekend sleep ins)

After today’s workout i spoke with him and he made some interesting comments:

“I like Shuaijiao, I can hardly stay standing up and it is such an explosive and aerobic sport… it’s a great workout” he told me in flawless English. Pedro’s eyes have been opened to some interesting training methods here with Master Li. “There are so many great ways to train and condition your body being practiced by Shuaijiao guys. I really like the sandbag training, it is really useful for BJJ too”.

Pedro also opened my eyes to something that i hadn’t considered before. “Shuaijiao’s rules are much stricter that BJJ’s, in Shuaijiao you cannot touch the ground with your knee or hand… it is fine for Shuaijiao competition, but i think that has created some bad habits for Shuaijiao and Sanda fighters wanting to fight in MMA. Because they can’t touch the ground, they shoot for the single or double with their head down and bent at the waist. I see many of my guys at work doing this and it is very dangerous and easy for anyone with a good sprawl to defend against.”

Well, I’m sure Pedro will open my eyes to even more as we continue to train with Master Li and Coach Ma. I will be sure to let you all know

Keep Smilin’

Michael

Chinese New Year is a busy time for many Shuaijiao groups in China. Of course, it is a time of celebrations with your mates and coaches, but also a time for displaying feats of strength and agility at the local temple fair. This is a tradidtion that has existed for hundreds of years if not thousands.

This year our club put on a demo at the Dongyue Temple Fair - the most famous temple fair in China.

Dongyue Temple is known as The Temple of Hell. It is filled with cells occupied by colourful sculptures of demons serving time for the  haneous crimes they have committed. I guess the temple functions as a reminder to all who visit the temple not to engage in sinful acts because of the painful punishments inflicted if caught. But i think they need to update the temple and add things like “selling fake DVDs”, “taking illegal substances” and “giving shady massages”….almost sports here in Beijing.

Here is a 2007 video of some of the fun had by the locals at the Dongyue Temple.

Here are some photos… and bear in mind that todays highest temperature was zero degrees… it was more like minus 5 when these photos were taken!!!!

Enjoy!

Another bit of fun that i haven’t seen before is one-man puppet opera. Here are some snaps. It was the highlight of the fair for me - apart from our demo of course!

Some other photos:

Hope you are enjoying your Chinese New Year where ever you are!

Keep Smilin’

Michael

One of our Shuaijiao friends in France who comes to train with Master Li every year - Christian  - just let us know of an interesting event planned for March 29th & 30th, 2008.

It is the 8th Shuaijiao and Shoubo International Tournament run by Shanghai Shuaijiao expert living and teaching in France - Yuan Zumou.

If you dont know what Shoubo is watch this video. It is a derivative of Shuaijiao… i have posted about it before, much to the displeasure of some in the Shuaijiao Community abroad.

But regardless, I am really happy to hear about this, and the fact that the event is being run for the 8th time. I believe that we need more consistent events, so that Shuaijiao athletes have a competitive calendar and can gauge their training and competition in such a way that their game and the sport develops  faster and more efficiently.

Here is a link to the event’s rules. They are in French, but i dont suppose they are too different to normal Shuaijiao rules…if anyone can read them please feel free to post a translation.

I’d love to post photos from the event too… so Shuaijiao friends planning to compete, please remember to send me a couple of your most interesting shots and i will share them with every one.

Here is one that i love from Yuan’s site…

Keep Smilin’

Michael

ps. If you have an event you think that Shuaijiao athletes around the world would like to know about then mail me here: michael@shuaijiao.tv

Most of you know that I have been uploading Shuaijiao-related content onto Youtube at a Channel called ASHWIX for a while.

Well, it hasnt just been me. There are plenty of people out there sharing Shuaijiao and Shuaijiao-related video.

I have sorted through all my favorites Youtube clips and created a Shuaijiao Playlist of all the videos i have come across that are Shuaijiao or Shuaijiao-related.

It’s a mixed bunch of videos with conditioning from Freestyle Wrestling, footage from Judo tournaments, MMA throw clips, and Shuaijiao demonstrations from practitioners around the world. I haven’t weeded the good from the bad, the professional from the amateur.. it is just a playlist of things Shuai. I think most of them should all be of interest to people who throw in general.

If you have seen videos not in the playlist by all means share!

Post links to them in the comments section of this post.

Enjoy

Michael

The Year of the Rat is here.

We all know rats are small… but this year is going to be mammoth in China.

Not such a good start though, as you might have seen on TV. Central and southern China have been hit with big snow and ice storms ravaging and ruining the Spring Festival for many.  We wish them warmth and reunion.

Back to the Mammoth:

Instead of rambling about the Beijing Olympics in August, I thought I’d let you know something practical and important.

We have a very special Shuaijiao occassion in 2008:

The anniversary of Master Li Baoru having taught Shuaijiao for 50 years.

Quite an achievement. And he is still as passionate as ever about throwing people on their heads

We have some plans that I want to let you in on early… not all the details are finalized but these are too good to be kept secret!

1. Master Li will run a Shuaijiao Training Camp this year for serious Shuaijiao practitioners and anyone looking to train genuine, recognized, and practical Shuaijiao
2. Master Li will publish a Shuaijiao Encyclopedia this year. I am working on translating the English version right now.
3. China will release and implement a national Shuaijiao Certification System - certification will be incorporated into Master Li’s Shuaijiao Training Camp for those looking to take their Shuai to the next level.
4. There will be a celebration and tournament for Master Li - this is planned at this stage to coincide with the Camp too

Stay tuned to Shuaijiao.tv over the next weeks to get more information.

In the mean time, warmest New Year’s greetings to you and your family.

Gong Xi Fa Cai!

Michael

We have moved!

We are now back in our original training site in the Xuanwu District Sports School. Xuanwu Sports School is a government sponsored school for local children with potential for becoming elite athletes in Olympic sports.

Coach Ma Jianguo leads the Taekwondo, Judo, and Wrestling there. His Taekwondo program has won several team championships in All-Beijing competition, and the Judo team is also very strong.

The training area consists of 2 halls. One is a Taekwondo Hall, the other is a Wrestling/Judo hall. Our training place of choice is of course the wrestling area. Right now they are making some final repairs to the wood under the Tatame so we are training in the Taekwondo area until they are finsihed.

I love this location and wish that every Shuaijiao school had access to such professional facilities. I certainly haven’t seen such a spacious training area for a long long time. Cool thing is that there is an Olympic swimming pool next door, a track and man-made grass Soccer pitch on the other side, fully equipped weights room downstairs, and every other kind of sporting equipment you could imagine within 5 minutes walk.

You are going to love training here when you arrive!!!

The surrounding area is quite interesting as well. For those of you not familiar with Beijing, Xuanwu is an ancient district with a long and colorful history. Outside the city walls in the old days, Xuanwu has a very high Muslim polulation. Xuanwu’s Niu Jie or Cow Street being the cultural center for Muslims in Beijing. If you don’t know this, it might be a surprise: there are plenty of Muslim Martial Arts in China. Bajiquan, Tongbeiquan, etc. Baiyuan Tongbei being taught in the courtyard out the back of the Niujie Mosque - video tour here -  at 7am each morning. Wrestling of course is very popular and indigenous among Muslims too. In days gone by Niu Jie became known as a hotbed for Shuaijiao and other fighting arts.

Even today, after training - Xuanwu Sports School is two or three blocks from Niujie - i have people approach me on the street when they see me carrying a Da Bangzi and ask if i am a wreslter. Of course they usually are too and are always happy to have a laugh and show you what they know.

Check these photos out

Keep Smilin’

Michael

Originally broadcast on China’s Olympic Channel, posted with permission

I meant to post this long ago… right after the opening actually.

It is all my Apple MacBook Pro’s fault: i got it to edit videos and it sucks… I just got Final Express HD, and it still sucks.  That is my excuse, but im learning slowly how to make these things, so i hope you can bare with me.

Tianchi is a great place to visit. Professional Shuaijiao fighters train there 6 days a week, 2 or 3 times a day. It is quite a distance from central Beijing, but it is on a major bus route and is always worth the trip. Master Li Baoru is out there every few days to supervise the training and help the athletes improve their game.

In this video, you can glimpse a demonstration of the Zhong Fan. Zhong Fan is a local tradition that was bought to Beijing by the Manchus of the Qong Dynasty. They adopted it from the Mongolians. It weighs about 15kgs and with it’s flags that catch the wind, it is quite a challenge to bounce around and do tricks with like they do… I have only tried it once and I was afraid of it falling and smashing into parked cars.

Anyway, I hope you put Tianchi on your list of places to visit in Beijing. There is no better place in Beijing to learn Shuaijiao.

Keep Smilin’

Michael

Shuaijiao.tv’s photos have been release from Photobucket purgatory!

And I have some beauties to post today!

Keep Smilin’

Michael