For those of us who love Taijiquan the Chen Village is paradise. It is said that of the 3000 residents, 2500 practice Taijiquan. I do not know how accurate that stat is but I do know that at any point during the day or night you will see people breaking from their activities and enjoying a quick practice. It is nothing to see a farmer at midday put down his rake or shovel and move through his form. The dark night sky is punctuated not by blaring television but by fajin. This small Village has four schools, Chen Xiao Xing’s, where I am staying and three others. Each teaches locals, people from other parts of China, and foreigners. The shops either sell necessities or Taiji clothes. Day or night it’s all about Taijiquan and very quickly one forgets the jagged bustle of their daily life and becomes immersed in the rhythm of a special type of heaven.
One cannot help but notice that there is no childhood obesity in the Village, or any obesity for that matter. For the most part everyone here is strong. This does not mean it is some sort of elite athletic hybrid environment. The Village is like everywhere in the world, with people of all capabilities. From what I can tell, those that are not of the “mainstream” are not segregated into institutions or separate homes but included in the community. Yesterday for example I saw a small group of children who have Down’s syndrome practicing along side their like-aged mates. I also know there are people with mental and other developmental challenges that are folded right into the practice culture. It’s just great to watch this entire movement Passion play take place. My favorite exercise I have seen so far is the older teens hefting car tires, tossing them as far as they can, chasing after them and repeating, up and down the middle sidewalk. An errant tire almost flattened me the other day, veering off course and quickly rolling towards me as I tried to take a picture of the scene. Don’t worry; I won’t be requiring the students to try this down the streets of Ballard anytime soon!
As much fun as this is to watch the real fun is to simply melt right in and practice as much as you an. Thankfully my body is finally cooperating with my intention to join the practice foray outside of class. I find however the correct place to do so takes a bit of observing. There are some standard places where individuals set up but there is definitely a certain timing to be respected. Throughout the day and evening melodic bells chime at intervals; instantly hoards of kids and teens jettison out of the dorms. They set up in groups all over the schoolyard according to age and train in well-organized ways. Depending on the time of day that may be form, applications, weapons, calisthenics or strength exercises and if you get in the way of that, well, you are in the way. Last night I found myself in the middle of a teenage boy group running laps and this morning, in the midst of young kids jumping leapfrog up and down the practice area. I felt a bit self-conscious but no one actually paid me any notice. They just worked around the foreigner in yellow.
When the kids are not practicing they are eating, resting or more importantly washing their clothes, especially their shoes. They fill shallow colorful plastic tubs with well water from spigots that are in several locations all over the yard. These spigots also are used for washing dishes, brushing teeth and washing hair. Once the tubs are filled, the kids fan out on the stoops all over the yard and get to work cleaning those shoes, which must stink something awful. They use some sort of stiff wire brush and vigorously scrub and scrub with as singular a focus as I see in any of their training sessions. They leave their shoes to dry on the balconies and windows through the dorms. We wish they would also clean the communal bathrooms that populate the dorms. I think I’ll just leave that topic to your olfactory imagination.
It gets dark at 6:00 pm or so and here in Chenjiagou it is truly dark. There are no streetlights, no 56” flat screen TV’s shimmering the fall shows, no Ipads illuminating the latest status updates. There are no three-way light bulbs turned on high to light up the evening’s tasks of laundry, bills, or homework. There is only the night sky and a few low watt bulbs turned on here and there. Just inside the school there is one community television set up near the gate. The kids don’t watch it; a few of the local folks who work here, the cooks, the maintenance folk, the shop owner, pull up chairs and watch what I can only imagine is the Chinese version of Law and Order. There is certainly no Internet usage though I did see 5 years old borrowing a 14 year old’s smart phone to have a quick game I believe. Don’t think Iphone though, it was some version of something that probably wouldn’t even be sold in the states.
My body and mind have adjusted to Chenjiagou time & space nicely and day four training with Chen Xiao Xing is underway. I am somewhat sore, fairly overloaded with detailed information, but keep at it with intention and vigor. After all, it will be over before I know it. CXX continues to be incredibly generous and as he gets to know our group, increasingly more funny. I have always enjoyed his wit: dry, honest and direct. Yesterday I asked what drove a certain aspect of a particular movement and he said in Chinese, “You are not dead! It is your body’s natural expansion.” Well isn’t that the truth. I am not dead and Chenjiagou paradise is certainly one of the places where I feel the most alive.
Kim
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