So you went to Professor Cheng Man Ching and then you started Tai Chi, but did he have a school or…? He didn’t have a school, but he was teaching in one place. It was like the front yard of an office, a little space. In the morning he taught […]
Cheng Man Ching
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Professor Cheng Man Ching
Here you find articles around Professor Cheng Man Ching’s life and work. He was a poet, calligrapher, painter, martial arts practitioner, and a Chinese medical doctor. We will add articles and interviews on a regular base.
Well, Master Chen, how did you learn about Taijiquan and how and where and when did you start? I started about the age of 18, 19. And the reason I started was that I was looking to the martial arts – all these comic books and fantasies with the martial […]
Ken van Sickle on Cheng Man Ching Part V – The future of Tai Chi The future of Tai Chi, the styles, Tai Chi sword and the Dao Asked about his vision for the development of Tai Chi and about the developments he would like to be continued in the future, Ken […]
Part IV – The second generation and the beginning’s of Cheng Man Ching Tai Chi in New York In the 4th part of the interview, Ken van Sickle talks about some students of Cheng Man Ching, the “second generation”, especially about two of the older students who studied with him […]
Tai Chi goals: What to get from a master and the unique quality of push hands Speaking about the students in New York, especially with a view to the so-called “earlier six” and “later six”, Ken points out that they were different kinds and types of people who learned from […]
Asked about the motivation behind his movie “The Professor – Tai Chi’s Journey West”, Ken van Sickle recalls Cheng Man Ching urging his students to “get it out there”, i.e. to make Tai Chi practice known in the West and also to spread the knowledge about this unique kind of […]
Ken van Sickle on Cheng Man Ching Part I – Studying with Cheng Man Ching In this 5-part interview series, Ken van Sickle, photographer, Tai Chi Master and student of Cheng Man Ching in New York, talks about studying with Cheng Man Ching and his desire to capture Cheng Man Ching’s […]
Conversations with the Grandmasters During the course of the Cheng Man Ching Forum 2002 I wanted to arrange interviews with the special guests who were the lineaged Grandmasters that had been very close students of Professor Cheng Man Ching. The Gentlemen concerned were: William C C Chen, Benjamin Lo, Hsu […]
What do you think of when you think of your grandfather? I grew up hearing about one of my grandfathers through bedtime stories. He had passed away before I was born, and so my only experiences of him were through a handful of photographs and a set of colorful tales […]
My Father by Katy Cheng My father was born in the last century, well imbued with the traditional Chinese culture. But he was not weighed down by the old. He was open-minded, a tireless teacher, creating new ideas with full enthusiasm and keeping doggedly his principles in those fashion-filled times. […]
Yang style according to Professor Cheng Man Ching Professor Cheng Man Ching (1900 – 1975) learned Tai Chi Chuan in the tradition of the classical Yang style from Yang Chengfu in Shanghai. There he was close friends with Ma Yueliang, the representative figure of the new Wu style. After the […]
Professor Cheng Man Ching was a very remarkable man. He maintained the old Chinese cultural tradition whilst China was changing under the influence of the western world, Japanese warfare and communism. Cheng Man Ching still wore his traditional clothes in Taipei and even in New York City.As an artist he […]
Cheng Man Ching’s teaching was marked by underlining sameness and diversity at the expense of hierarchy and difference. This approach formed the basis of his unique way of bridging the cultural gap between East and West. “You are what you are.” His hippie students in New York – some searching […]
Our idea of meditation is mainly influenced by two aspects, the visual and the practical aspect. The mind’s uniform picture of a meditating person is someone sitting still in a peaceful environment, in a monastery or on a mountain. Concerning the practical aspect of meditation, the ideas vary. The meditation […]
The discussion about the nature of the Dantian is old and it remains unresolved until today: Is the Dantian a bodily, material reality or an ideal concept of Traditional Chinese Medicine to explain certain psychosomatic correlations? The debate cannot simply be described as a conflict between East and West or […]
Cheng Man Ching’s way of teaching (1): “I am not a guru.” Cheng Man Ching, student of Yang Chengfu, came to New York in the 60s, at first teaching Taijiquan in the Chinese community, later also teaching Westerners. Being a university professor from an educated family and deeply rooted in […]
In this video you see applications of the short form after Prof. Cheng Man Ching. The video was taking April 27th, 2007. 2-28 Peace Park Taipei, Taiwan. The linage: The teacher is Jeng Shean Chih (Zheng Xian Qi). His master is Huang Sheng Shyan. The applications in this video were […]
Cheng Man Ching on the dao of Taijiquan – a poem Cheng Man Ching is portrayed by his students as an example of total dedication and commitment to the Chinese Arts, especially concerning Taijiquan. Indeed, while also advocating the health aspects of Taijiquan and its use for self-defence, Cheng Man […]
Self-massage of kidneys, stomach, eyes and hands as taught by Prof. Cheng Man Ching Prof. Cheng Man Ching was known as a master of the five excellences. As a teacher, he taught calligraphy and Traditional Chinese Medicine as well as Taijiquan, Push Hands and sword fencing. Advocating Taijiquan as a […]
The documentary The Professor: Tai Chi’s Journey West by Barry Strugatz/Ken van Sickle can be warmly recommended. Both Barry Strugatz and Ken van Sickle are themselves practitioners of Taijiquan, the latter being a master Student of Cheng Man Ching himself – their documentary view is thus one from the inside.The […]