I attended the International Yongnian Taijiquan Festival in 1997 and did the tour of Yang Lu-chan's house, Wu Yu-xiang's villa and the Chen pharmacy. It was a veritable smorgasbord of TCC.
This two disc package was put together by Dick Watson, doyen of British TCC, from footage taken by him at the first Yongnian Festival in 1991. As he plainly states on the cover it is amateur filming. While Dick may be no Zhang Yimou, the material is priceless for it shows long dead masters in action as well as some, then young turks, who are now established elder statesmen of the TCC world.
Disc 1 shows Yang style spear training with 3 metre poles. Interestingly the spearmen all have the left hand forward which is also the way I usually practice. There is Chen style Tui Shou training which appears to use something like the Nine Palace stepping of Wu lineage.
As I watched Fu Zhong-wen, aka "Mr. Push Hands", in action I thought of the terrible story told by Yang Zhen-duo of how Fu gave Yang Cheng-fu 'Hong Kong Foot' ointment to treat "eczema" of the penis (with disastrous consequences).
Ma Yue-liang is seen performing Nine Palace step and Da Lu; this is followed by free Tui Shou and a ludicrous display of "empty force". It is sad to see a skilled person go down that dead end road. His wife, Wu Ying-hua, then demonstrates what is purported to be Wu Jian-quan form. While her postures are perfect, there is almost no coiling and very little centre line rotation. It is hard to believe that her father couldn't do it better than that. Ma and wife both lived long and are now both long dead.
One of the eternal debates in the TCC world is whether when in a front stance one should lean into techniques. Yang Cheng-fu's son, Yang Zhen-duo, leans into every thrust in the Yang sword form; unlike other Yang exponents, he seems in no doubt.
Other luminaries include Sun Lu-tang's daughter, Sun Jian-yun, who showed her father's blend of Nei Jia Chuan now referred to as Sun style TCC. I saw her demonstrate in 1997 when she was clearly unwell. Now she is gone also.
A young Chen Zheng-lei is seen in action, lithe, fast and sudden. I bumped into him in 2006 when he was filming at Chen Village, still bent on world domination. In contrast to him there is a demo of the rare (in Europe) Zhao Bao form. Zhao Bao is a village close to Chen village which has its own martial tradition. I visited the village in 1994. They claim that their TCC comes from Chang San-feng and Wudang Mountain. It is, however, clear that their forms owe much to the Chens, though their performance is somewhat softer and the sequence is different.
Disc 1 concludes with a demo of Wu Yu-xiang form; light with high stances.
Disc 2 features a variety of "losed door" demos , invitation only. Probably the most interesting performances are Yang Zhen-duo, sporting a natty waistcoat, giving a detaled explanation of postures such as Single Whip and Brush Knee Twist Step and Feng Zhi-jiang of Chen Style. Feng is interesting on two counts, he was top student of Chen Fa-ke and he it was who was selected to teach an obstreperous Bruce Frantzis a lesson many years ago. Frantzis later asked to be accepted as Feng's student; he was rejected. "Many are cauld, but few are frozen" as we say in Glasgow.
This DVD set is a must buy for the serious practitioner; it contains a wide-range of rare and unusual material featuring what is now largely a dead and dying generation of masters and is only £18 including pi&p see longfei-taiji web site for details.