Monthly Archives: July 2020

Huawu Fan

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Zhongji Huawu Fan is a beautiful 42-step fan form created by Chinese national martial arts coach Zeng Nai Liang and Hu senior lecturer Wei Xianglian.

Above, Sing May Chen performs Chang’e (Moon Goddess) Flies to the Moon. The form is also called 42-step Fan.

Here are three demonstration videos:

[Since publishing this post I’ve found teaching videos by Master Zeng–see Huawu Fan Review for the links.–EB]

I first learned this form from a friend from Beijing who used to join my neighborhood practice group on the weekends. When I learn a new form, I always want to know the correct names of the movements. In this case, arriving at a list was a challenge. I started with the list at the beginning of a video. But I couldn’t just copy the text, because all I had was an image.

I found a (somewhat loosely translated) English list. Using that, the voiceover of the video, Google translate, and the MDBG online dictionary (which allows me to draw a character if I can get the order of the brushstrokes right), I have arrived at a list of the moves.

Here is a printable list of the names of the 42 movements: huawufan [PDF]

There are actually two forms: a primary level form and a mid-level form. It is the latter that I practice. Huá means flowery or magnificent; Wǔ means martial. The Chinese names of the forms are:

初级华武扇初级               Chūjí  Huá Wǔ Shàn (Primary-level Hua Wu Fan)

中级华武扇                     Zhōngjí  Huá Wǔ Shàn (Middle-level Hua Wu Fan)

Zhongji Hua Wu Shan is a combined form, with elements of the four main styles (Yang, Chen, Wu and Sun). The opening to this form is clearly Sun-style.

A couple of names of movements are particularly interesting. #4, 推波助澜 Tuī Bō Zhù Lán, Push the Waves even Higher, is a saying that means something like the English “Add fuel to the fire.”  #29, 贵妃醉酒 Guìfēi zuìjiǔ (sounds like gway fay djway joe), The Drunken Beauty, is the name of a well-known Qing Dynasty Beijing opera.

And here she is, the Drunken Beauty, reeling away in Huawu fan:

That is Master Zeng’s daughter in back view; here’s the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RCK2lLQlIqA

Like many other fan forms, this one includes a number of names familiar from sword forms, with the fan movements mimicking swordplay. And where the sword forms feature Xianren, the Immortal, the fan form names Xiannu, the Spirit Woman.

42-Step Competition Form

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This form was created in 1989 by Li Deyin specifically for tournament play. It is a combined form that incorporates movements from the four major styles of Tai Chi: Yang, Chen, Sun, and Wu.

Gao Jiamin demonstrates 42-step competition form

Here is an outstanding demonstration of the form by Gao Jiamin, one of the most celebrated tournament champions of our time. Not only is this a great demonstration of the form, it also identifies the movements with Chinese/English subtitles.

You can read more about Gao Jiamin in this interview, originally published in Kungfu Magazine in 2000, republished by the US Wushu Center in Portland, Oregon, where she sometimes teaches.

Here’s another beautiful demonstration video by another great champion, Amin Wu, who teaches in the Bay Area. She also offers an instructional video which I have not seen.

Li Deyin, author of the form, instructs.

I originally learned 42 from my friend Long Feng in 2014, then again under the excellent instruction of Hu Pei Yi in 2016. For review and further instruction, I am using a 50-minute YouTube instructional video by Li Deyin, the author of the form. Gao Jiamin demonstrates each move; Li also demonstrates and elaborates on detail.

With the instructional vocabulary that I call Taijiese (much of it incorporated in this online notebook), I find I can understand most of what he says in this video, despite knowing just about zero conversational Chinese.

Here is the list of movements: 42-form [PDF].

Another very useful resource is a book by Li Deyin, available in English from Amazon, in which he details the standards for judging a performance of 42. You couldn’t learn the form from this book, but you can correct your form by referring to it in detail. He explains both important points and common mistakes.

Book by Li Deyin

I particularly like the chart that he offers at the start of the chapter on 42, in which for each move he gives the hand shape, footwork, techniques, and most interestingly, the style (school) from which the movement is derived.

Most recently (fall 2022), I have found that Qiu HuiFang offers an excellent series of four teaching videos on 42, each almost an hour long. In the first video, at about the two-minute mark, she offers a beautiful demonstration of the whole form. Instruction begins at about 9:00. Here are the links:

  1. Moves 1-10
  2. Moves 11-18
  3. Moves 19-33
  4. Moves 34-42