Tag Archives: fitness

Yang-style 28-step Tai Chi Fan

Posted on by
2

This relatively new Tai Chi fan form, created in 2014, is elegant and short. It has many intricate and enjoyable movements, but no physically challenging moves, so it is appropriate for people of all abilities. It’s not very difficult to learn, so it would be a great one to start with, if you want to learn Tai Chi fan.

Above, Yang Li demonstrates the whole routine (beautifully!) in the first session of a video teaching series that used to be on a YouTube station called China Wushu. The series now resides on the Chinese Wushu Association YouTube station. The series:

Here’s the full playlist.

The name of the form is 杨氏28式太极扇:Yáng shì 28-shì tàijíshàn (Yang-style 28-step Tai Chi Fan). In my group, we call ited èr shì bā shàn (28 fan) for short. As you can see from Professor Yang’s demo, this form makes a very nice solo performance. It makes a good ensemble piece too, for group practice or a performance by three or five persons.

Here is a list of the 28 movements: PDF. Here’s my demo:

Wu-Style Tai Chi (3)

Posted on by
Reply

The modern competition form in Wu-style is the Wu 45. Like other competition routines, it incorporates the opening of the traditional form, plus many of the most important moves of the old form, but it is more left/right balanced and contains no repetition. Also like other competition routines, the Wu 45 is about six minutes long.

宗維洁 Zōng Wéi jié (1969- Beijing) is a six-time national champion in Wu-style Tai Chi competition.

Here is a list of the 45 movements (PDF).

Alas! The excellent China Wushu YouTube station no longer exists! In fall and winter of 2022-2023, I used the teaching series by Zong Wei Jie to learn the Wu 45. I have hunted down most of the videos on other YouTube stations, but I cannot find the introductory piece anywhere. In it, one of Zong’s students gives an amazing performance of the whole routine.

Here is a demo of the whole routine by Zong herself. Video quality is not the best:

Of the introductory videos on the elements of Wu style, I have located only one:

Video 4: Bufa (footwork)

I have found links to all the segments teaching the routine:

Video 7: Moves 1-5

Video 8: Moves 6-10

Video 9: Moves 11-15

Video 10: Moves 16-20

Video 11: Moves 21-25

Video 12: Moves 26-30

Video 13: Moves 31-35

Video 14: Moves 36-40

Video 15: Moves 41-45

Amin Wu (吳阿敏 Wú Ā Mǐn) (About Master Wu) is another great Wu-style Tai Chi Master. Like Zong, she studied under Master Li Bingci (李秉慈 Lǐ Bǐng cí). She offers a video teaching series on Wu 45, available on Vimeo for only $20. I have used many teaching videos by Master Wu over the years (Yang, Sun, and Wu!)—they are all excellent.

Master Amin Wu teaching Wu-style 45-step Tai Chi

And here is a demonstration of the whole routine by Master Amin Wu:

New Format

Posted on by
2

TaiChiNotebook is almost ten years old! I posted the first blog entry—on 32-sword—in July 2014. I was at the beginning of my journey, studying traditional Yang and Chen style Tai Chi at a local school. I was just discovering the modern forms, starting with 24 and 32-sword, and I had begun practicing with Chinese people in my neighborhood.

Over the years I have published more than two hundred posts on more than two dozen forms, spanning four of the five major styles of tai chi. The Notebook has become an iceberg! With nine-tenths of its content buried in the archives of the blog.

Saturday morning in the park. I am in yellow. My good friend and Tai Chi mentor Long Feng is in white at the far left.

I’ll continue the blog, but I have switched to the format of a website, with a static home page (still a bit sketchy!) and I am trying to build a more perspicuous structure.

Also, in 2014, smartphones were not yet ubiquitous, and TaiChiNotebook was designed primarily to be accessed from a PC or laptop. I’ll try to improve the way the Notebook renders on mobile.

These revisions will take a while… Stay tuned!