A SHORT HISTORY OF TAI CHI, ITS FUTURE AND THE CONNECTION TO BEAN CURD BOXING

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Today, we trace the background and origins of a relatively unusual application of Tai Chi called Bean Curd Boxing - the 21st Century version of Tai Chi that is changing the way Tai Chi is taught, spelt and even understood. We look back on how things have changed (or not) for these practitioners - these Bean Curd Boxers - since those early tumultuous days and how this soft and yielding philosophy is spreading across the known universe (and unknown universe too).

ORIGINS 1: THE ERA BEFORE BEAN CURD BOXING

Grandmaster Pot showing a fragment of the ancient tai chi scrolls.

Back in the hazy, unruly days of the 1980’s when the Eastern arts had finally settled down in the West, martial arts teachers were under an unspoken obligation to imitate the sage-like expressions and postures seen in early Kung-fu flicks. They grew long, grey and wispy eyebrows; they sneered (or even snarled) were anyone to ask the point of wearing a tunic from 17th century China. They seethed when anyone pointed out the arthritic consequences of bad squatting techniques and developing callouses on the knuckles, forehead and on the eye-lids. They stomped their feet when asked why students should learn to absorb a front kick to the solar plexus, or head-butt an assailant in the buttocks. "Surely", students asked, "there are other life-skills were more demanding in the era of Thatcher and Reagonomics? Surely", they continued, "in the run up to climate breakdown and Trump we should be equipping ourselves with  more relevant tools?"
But the Sifu's of the 1980's merely adopted an aloof gaze and warned of the dangers of revealing “truths” too early to those that were clearly not ready. 

The Era of Monotheism
Yet, for western students, it was not an easy jump to go from wearing drain-pipe jeans and leg warmers,  to bright silky and baggy uniforms. It was a follicle  challenge to wear eyebrow hair at such lengths and it was an unusual request to only receive cryptic answers to direct and practical questions. Even when considering which school to train with, they felt confused if each teacher claimed to offer an exclusive truth and authenticity; an indisputable lineage and an unbeatable system of defence. How was it possible, they whispered to themselves in the changing rooms, that every school and every system could be equally true?

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ORIGINS 2: LIMITED TRAINING RESOURCES 

The 1980's was a confusing decade for those forced to live through its turbulent years. resources were limited in this analog era, an era for those born in the digital age difficult to conceive. There were no online resources to check out, no Youtube videos to search, and as for publications, Tai Chi books followed a standard pattern: A chapter on family histories and lineage, some old photos of wispy beards, a few vague health claims, even more vague martial applications and an endless list of sketches of men with numbers below them and training instructions such as: 

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“16d: Now let us move on to the posture called Extract the Stale Loaf from the Bison’s Bladder: Begin by raising your right elbow and place it against your left ear-lobe. Breathe out twice whilst spinning 360 degrees to land with 29% of your weight on your right big toe.
16f: Look North, to North-East, but don’t turn your neck whilst both hands remain in your pockets. Recite thrice  “I am plucking the monkey’s knee from the moon”. “

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ORIGINS 3: THE ARRIVAL OF THE BEAN CURD BOXER 

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Against this backdrop of cultural confusion and teaching by geometry, teachers felt the need to explain through the western fashion for defining things. The more a subject could be analytically deconstructed, the more it was hailed as a "scientific" fighting art. And so, definitions were lusted after as enthusiastically and as importantly as someone today may lust over a shiny new mobile phone or an influential and good-looking follower on Instagram.  Styles that previously had been happy without a grading system or belts, began offering certificates, sashes, braces and instructor master classes. Teachers decided to adopt odd-names, rather dubious histories and began wearing even brighter coloured uniforms to help define themselves and it all got very fragmented and very silly. 

​SILLINESS
After having trained in the martial arts since I was knee-high to Lao-Tzu’s Yak, and having taught Tai Chi since the end of the 80’s, silliness was, for me, part of the what defined a 21st century warrior, but this was not just silly, it was devoid of meaning. Frequently, a new student would arrive at class during these difficult times and ask:

Classical Student: “ Excuse me, I want to to learn a style of Tai Chi".
teapot: Uh huh.
Classical Student: "Yes, a style that is Classically-Authentic, Real and Genuine, Traditional-yet Modern, Uniformed and vertically structured. What style do you teach SIfu-Master-Guru-Sensei teapot?” 
teapot: I have learnt different styles over the years, If I have to come down on one or the other, I would say I’m drawn to the softness and and non-knee dislocating stances of the Cheng Man-Ching style. Much as the poor guy has been poo-poohed for his pushing skills and his eyebrow length, he offered something substantial to westerners, something less esoteric, something less anatomically questionable. 
Classical Student:“But, his styles was not real Tai Chi (turns and spits on floor), his was just a poor westerners version of the real thing taught by a Chinese immigrant to New Yorkers. That’s not real Tai Chi  - real Tai Chi has proven lineage back to the Chen village, back to Lao Tzu, back to the Big Bang! What you are suggesting is not Tai Chi  - it's more like... Bean Curd Boxing! 

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BEAN CURD BOXING AND HOW TO YIELD TO INSULTS
Although thrown as an insult, it occurred to some of us, that Bean Curd could be seen as the ultimate yielding material. In fact, a Bean Curd Boxer was the perfect description for someone who could absorb anything thrown at him/her. 
A Bean Curd Boxer could fight with other weapons than clenched fists, perhaps by Softening Their Glare, Banishing Frowns and Slowing Down when asked to speed up. Perhaps a Bean Curd Boxer would refrain from tossing shurikens (hidden circular blades tossed like Frisbees at approaching enemies) but instead toss smiles, and perhaps, when backed into a corner come out fighting with well-aimed tales of nonsense and contradiction wrenched from the dungeon of Taoist mythology.

I began to write down some some these ideas about how this art might resonate with a wider group of people (other than the seekers of definitions) and in 2009 I published the first edition of The Manual of Bean Curd Boxing. ​​

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​THE BOOK RELEASE

I learnt over the years that most new students came not to learn a specific style nor Form, but simply to discover what Tai Chi was all about. So, instead of trying to “teach exclusively the moves from the Form” I attempted to extrapolate not only the most salient points, but also the most useful in today's ever-changing, ever-shrinking global village. It would not be a book of "How do we do this", rather a book of "Why do we do this". 

It was first released as a paperback in 2009 but it soon became apparent that the future of these books would be best served by digital publishing, with its ability to rapidly update material, its promise of instant global distribution and a vastly reduced retail price. This form of publishing would reflect a new vision for 21st century Tai Chi. In 2014 it was updated and in 2018, the audio version was released. A special Bean Curd Bundle was made available for the first time that included early sketches and histories. 

Listen to a sample below.
The Bundle includes...
Audiobook
Ebook and Mobi
Sketches from the Original Version
​And this article. 

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AND NOW?

So here we are in 2020, and looking around, I’m not convinced things have changed so much. There are some positive signs that different Tai Chi schools have begun to reflect the place and time in which they live, but others still seek refuge by “dangling dangerously” as Chuang Tzu wrote, from threads of lineage, sash colours, certificates and secrecy, uniforms and uniformity. 

Even as we slide blindly into this amorphous digital landscape, it is clear that our tools for imparting "knowledge" need updating as well as the skill/mind-set of those that are teaching. It is now, the medium needs to move beyond the traditional formats of class locality, class leadership, and beyond the anachronistic definitions of “Masters”, "Gurus" and the terminology of other times. It is now, new technologies can offer the study of Tai Chi - with all its colourful philosophy and inherently supple and flexible nature - in a more interactive, transparent, fluid, accountable and a less hierarchical structure.
Rising to this challenge and after 25 years on the merry-go-round of giving classes locally, I stopped teaching this way. I began to move around and travel more and in the process explored the notion of teaching an online Tai Chi course based on the ideas from the book.  
Interested in the ideas and soft philosophy of Bean curd Boxing? Check out the links here for more details and explore the range of courses from Sword to Form, Breath and more with the mOnk. 

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