Chen Xiaowang (born 20 October 1945) is an

Australian Australian(s) may refer to: Australia * Australia, a country * Australians, citizens of the Commonwealth of Australia ** European Australians ** Anglo-Celtic Australians, Australians descended principally from British colonists ** Aboriginal A ...

- Chinese

taijiquan Tai chi (), short for Tai chi ch'üan ( zh, s=太极拳, t=太極拳, first=t, p=Tàijíquán, labels=no), sometimes called " shadowboxing", is an internal Chinese martial art practiced for defense training, health benefits and meditation. ...

teacher, who was born and raised in Chen Family Village (Chenjiagou, 陳家溝), Wen County,

Henan Henan (; or ; ; alternatively Honan) is a landlocked province of China, in the central part of the country. Henan is often referred to as Zhongyuan or Zhongzhou (), which literally means "central plain" or "midland", although the name is al ...

province, and is the 19th generation lineage holder of

Chen-style taijiquan The Chen family-style (陳家、陳氏、陳式太極拳) or Chen-style Taijiquan is a Northern Chinese martial art and the original form of Taiji. Chen-style is characterized by silk reeling (纏絲勁; chán sī jìn), alternating fast an ...

. His grandfather was the taijiquan grandmaster Chen Fake.

Biography

Chen Xiaowang began his study of Chen-style taijiquan at the age of seven under his father, Chen Zhaoxu, and later with his uncles Chen Zhaopi and Chen Zhaokui. Recognised as one of four "

Buddha Siddhartha Gautama, most commonly referred to as the Buddha, was a wandering ascetic and religious teacher who lived in South Asia during the 6th or 5th century BCE and founded Buddhism. According to Buddhist tradition, he was born in L ...

Warrior A warrior is a person specializing in combat or warfare, especially within the context of a tribal or clan-based warrior culture society that recognizes a separate warrior aristocracies, class, or caste. History Warriors seem to have be ...

Attendants (''Si Jingang'')," the four outstanding exponents of the 19th generation in Chenjiagou, Xiaowang was chairperson of the Henan Province Chen Push Hands Taijiquan Association, deputy head of the Wushu Academy of Henan Province, and technical advisor and official assessor for the standardized competition routines for the Chen, Yang, Wu, and

Sun The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. It is a nearly perfect ball of hot plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core. The Sun radiates this energy mainly as light, ultraviolet, and infrared radi ...

styles of taijiquan. Chen was awarded the Chinese National Wushu Tournament Taijiquan gold medal three consecutive years beginning in 1980. He was depicted in a March 1981 Japanese documentary on Taijiquan, demonstrating the ''laojia'' form, ''

fa jin Fa jin, or fa chin (, ), sometimes misspelled as fajing, is a term used in some Chinese martial arts, particularly the neijia (internal) martial arts, such as xingyiquan, t'ai chi ch'uan (taijiquan), baguazhang, bak mei, and bajiquan. It means ...

'', and escaping from various qinna holds. In 1985, he was crowned Taijiquan Champion at the First International Wushu Competition in

Xi'an Xi'an ( , ; ; Chinese: ), frequently spelled as Xian and also known by other names, is the capital of Shaanxi Province. A sub-provincial city on the Guanzhong Plain, the city is the third most populous city in Western China, after Chongqi ...

. Chen created two condensed forms of the ''laojia'' and ''xinjia'' forms; a 38-posture form and a 19-posture form (Shi Jiu Shi – 十九式). He told inside Kung-Fu Magazine in 1991, "I have tried to do away with all the repetitions and simplify the exceedingly difficult moves without destroying the characteristics of Chen Style Taijiquan, with special emphasis to attack/defense and the '' chansi'' technique."

Ellis Amdur Ellis Amdur (born March 27, 1952 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) is a writer, an American practitioner of martial arts and a crisis intervention trainer. He has published a number of books on martial arts, on crisis intervention, hostage negotiation, ...

narrated an anecdote where he attended to a training workshop, in which Xiaowang demonstrated a move named "Budda's Warrior Attendant Pounds Mortar," an elevated foot stomp. Despite being on a stage six feet over the gymnasium floor, Xiaowang stomped so powerfully that "the floor shook... forty feet away."

, ''Hidden in Plain Sight: Esoteric Power Training within Japanese Martial Traditions'' Amdur checked out whether it had been caused by a tricked floor, but he could not find anything, nor could he replicate the effect by jumping stiff-legged from the stage. Apart from his martial arts prowess, Chen is a carpenter by trade, a

calligrapher Calligraphy (from el, link=y, καλλιγραφία) is a visual art related to writing. It is the design and execution of lettering with a pen, ink brush, or other writing instrument. Contemporary calligraphic practice can be defined as "t ...

, an author of three Taijiquan books, and is known to enjoy Mao Jian Cha tea ().

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Chen, Xiaowang 1945 births Living people Chinese tai chi practitioners Sportspeople from Henan People from Jiaozuo