Is finding a good, open teacher in China, like finding a n..

[jfraser]

Is finding a good, open, competent teacher in China, like finding a needle in a hay stack? It seems to me that is true. I have visited several local parks in the early monring, and have seen no one that impressed me as an experienced, high level teacher. I know they are somewhere in this city, but very hard to find. There are no public phone books or what is called the Yellow pages in cities here in China. A local attorney told me, regarding this matter, that you have to know some, who knows someone, who knows someone(x6) to find a really good CMA teachers.

This area of China is famous Chuojiao Fanxi boxing, Tonglongquan, Tong Bei Quan (White Ape boxing), San Ti Based Dai Family Xing Yi Quan, and some Yang Xiao Jia. There is also known to be in this area, teachers of Tai Chi Meinhua Praying Mantis Quan.

In the parks there are many groups after 6:00 a.m. such as Yang Chenfu's large frame, some variations of Chen TC, a few small Bagua groups, and assorted others. The good teachers generally, and the students of the above mentioned styles do not come out to these park, and I am not sure where to fing them. Sometimes I get frustrated, but both my wife and I continue to ask local peopele we know, who might know someone,who knows.... That is how it goes in China, in finding a teacher, as in general. "Guan Shi" lives and is real in China, and is diffucult to understand. Some teachers in the parks that know something, but are out to take your money. Money is rarely an issue in a teacher/student relationship in China, as far as I know. Some of the teachers in one the local parks and known by the Chinese public to show off, impress students and not teach much, except showing of by knocking some of their students around for 2 hours.

Maybe, I just do not have good "karma" in locating a teacher. Some have come here with "good karma" such Tom Cartmell, Jerak of chinafromtheinside.com, etc., and have less difficulty. They do speak Chinese, and I am not good at it, but I have a Chinese wife who is very fluent in both Mandarin and English. I have been here a total of 3 years.


Anyone else had this kind of experience or other experiences in finding a teaher in China?

James

[SunTzu]

James, you should feel lucky that you can choose between so many systems to learn. All people are after money because food, shelter and education for the children isn't free. Until the world (actually the people in it) rids itself from these great differences between people's lives financially, there will always be people taking advantage of others (goodness).

Everybody is a teacher, you can learn something from anyone. But it takes a good (eager, hardworking and patient) student to make him or her a good teacher. Of course the teacher him/her self has a part in this, but a teacher can only do so much as to show you the way, the real teacher will have to be the student him or herself.

[Tarandus]

James, I agree with what Sun Tzu says, although sympathising also with your own frustration about the situation. If it's any consolation, it's no better here in the U.K. I took ages to find a suitable teacher, and even then, as he speaks little English, I had to supplement his excellent lessons on forms and applications with some background reading on the internal aspects, which I carefully selected from such things as the Tai Chi classics and treatises on meditation and breathing by genuine and reputable Chinese practitioners. In England, there are a lot of bogus charlatans teaching hippie Taiji, i.e. no applications, a lot of tree-hugging, etc. Then there are the English ex-external martial arts Taiji teachers whose forms are scrappy and ungainly and whose applications resemble karate more than Tai Chi. Its' hard to find a genuine Chinese Master here, and even then, they sometimes don't speak much English, which can make life difficult. Some of them also withold information about the internal aspects and keep it only for 'indoor' students, which is hardly very democratic and also betrays a wilful ignorance of the vast amount of printed material available in English on those very subjects nowadays. Kind regards, T.

[jfraser]

Last week my Yang Xiao Jia teacher called on Saturday afternoon to tell me, through my wife, that he would not be coming to the park on Sunday morning, because of rain in this area. She said he said they missed me. Wow, I was surprised that he called (his wife usually calls me), and he said they missed me! He also said he just arrived home from where he works, which is out of town. He is a pharmacy (TCM) researcher. It must be difficult for him to often only come home on one or two days on the week-end. So, he is not relatively indifferent, as I perceived. So, we will see what destiny presents next.

Though a Chen TJ practioneerl, with decades of experience, from Jilin that I met on the internet, I have an appointment on Saturday morning with a Chen Hunyuan TJ teacher in a park close by. I like the combination of Chen and Xing Yi in this system, founded by Master Feng in Beijing. We shall see what happens here.
This park is much closer than my usual hour ride on a bus.

Kind regards,
James