Zhang Zhun Feng and Taiwan Monkey Style

For those that don't know, Zhang Zhun Feng was the man who brought Gao style BGZ and HeBei XYQ to Taiwan. I originally came to Taiwan to learn those systems from Luo De Xiu.

 I found out a couple of years ago that my father-in-law actually studied with Zhang back in the 1950's. That came as quite a shock to me because he had never mentioned anything before and then at the dinner table one day, he just started talking about XYQ and BGZ. One of the cool things about living in Taiwan I guess.

So my father-in-law has a good friend that is a Chinese doctor. He specializes in tuina and "bone manipulation." How cool is that? I knew this guy was a kungfu man the minute I saw him. He is 65 years old and has the body of a 30-year old athelete. We take him out to eat a lot and he eats like a horse. Four bowls of rice are nothing to him!

So one day when we were out, I just asked him what style he studied. To my surprise he told me he does a version of monkey style from FuJian province and that his father was the "monkey king" of Taiwan. It turns out that there were two such "kings" and his father is not the one listed in Robert Smith's book Masters and Methods. Still, his father was highly expert at monkey style and famous for taking challengers when the Japanese ruled Taiwan.

So I asked this man about a famous local taiji teacher, Xiong Wei (he does huleijia taiji, more on that later), and showed him Xiong's book. His first reaction was "I would go right through that!" Comparing his physique to Xiong's, I don't have any doubt he was right. But the funny thing was my father-in-law's reaction. He upbraided his friend by telling him in no uncertain terms that the taiji that we see in the parks is not the real taiji. He further said that Zhang Zhun Feng was unbeatable and that his taiji was of the highest caliber. He also said that waigong (external styles) were a waste of time.

This went on for a few minutes and I just sat back amazed. I actually have few conversations in Chinese outside of IMA class that I find amazing, but this was one of them.

As the talk died down a little, I saved face by telling his friend that I don't think that neijia is always better (it's true, I don't) and that some waiji is quite good. He seemed to really like the fact that I said this and it allowed him to save face.

Needless to say, his monkey style and Chinese "bone manipulation" techniques are high on my list of things to learn. If I look half as good as he does at his age, then it will have been worth learning!