Someone suggested I should write about learning Taiji in Taiwan. I'm so very out of the habit of writing daily. But I'd love to share.
There are countless reasons why I love Taiji. I do it both out of love and necessity. It's fun and it keeps me physically and mentally healthy. I've had many hobbies, but no other hobby has had the effect of improving my life so much. So I'll try to write about the different reasons I love Taiji and the myriad ways it makes me a better man and can help others. And maybe I can post some stuff about being an ESL teacher and living in Taiwan too.
I feel I should point out that I am by no means a master of Taiji. I don't know if I'm blessed with the correct physical and mental gifts to ever achieve such status. But striving toward that end has put my life on a wonderful path. So far Taiji has never let me down. So I'd like to try to give back.
Again, I'm totally out of the practice of writing, so I'll just start out with posting my daily workout. We'll go from there. Partly this will help me keep track of what I'm working on. I know a lot of people practice a lot harder than I do. But here's what I do:
Daily Home
Taiji Routine:
Wake up—Tchoung Ta Chen’s
24 posture stretching form. Eddie's push hands stepping drills. Earthstone’s stepping drill. Slow TKD basic blocks, kicks and punches. Dalu left and
right. Cheng Manching Sword form.
I don’t
always do the whole thing in one chunk. I just try to get it all in between waking up and going to work.
Before bed—Cheng Manching 37 posture form (alternating days right side or left side), ward
off turning exercise work way up to four reps of 100 each for a total of 200 on each leg and 400 total. Increase
by 1 every day. Started at 25 reps. Currently on 31 per time for a total of 124.
Between each rep of between 31-100 times do an animal line stepping drill
(Dragon, Bear, Monkey, Bird, Tiger). Then stretching (sitting hip stretch, V
stretch, straight legs touch toes, butterfly, quad stretch, working up to the splits), . Standing against a
wall with two arm positions for 10 minutes, standing double weighted with two different arm positions for 10 minutes. Short four directions Peng, Lu, Ji, An form.
Practice “push” fajin 25 times per side.
I usually
do this workout in conjunction with preparing my dinner. Food is cut and
prepared before the first half of the workout. Veggies and or noodles boil
while I perform the second half of the workout. When I finish it’s time to eat!
If I do any
of my daily exercises during the day at another time (at a class or with
friends) I cut them out of my home routine.
Here's something I've been working on that I'd like to share. It's a course to help people learn the Chinese used at my Cheng Manching style Taijiquan school in Taiwan. I hope some people will find it useful. And if anyone has any suggestions for how it can be improved please let me know http://www.memrise.com/course/258075/zheng-manqing-style-taijiquan-training/
There’s a Ray Bradbury story called The Sound of Thunder about a group of travelers who
go back in time to the land of the dinosaurs. The tour guide tells them not to
dare step off of the observation platform. Well of course one of the guys does.
Then when they get back everything is a little bit different and the people
speak a slightly different language and the words look different. The guy who got off of the platform looks
at the bottom of his shoe and notices that he stepped on a moth millions of
years in the past. This caused the future to be on a slightly different track. His experience
going from the past into a different future is kind of like the experience of
moving from America to Taiwan.
Believe it or not Christmas is a huge and much loved holiday in Taipei which is currently in full swing. There are lights and decorations everywhere. It's still being celebrated right now as a companion to the Chinese New Year which is coming up around mid February. I went to eat at one restaurant that had a strange Christmas display. It was a purple manger with no baby inside surrounded by reindeer. A combination of the Christ birth story and Santa Claus.
In the courtyard in front of the enormous capital building of New Taipei I sat down to watch the show provided by a giant Christmas tree made of pure light. Holiday music poured out of a very nice sound system. Good bass tones. Good mids. Rich and crisp. Images of Christmas joy wound around the tree up to the top in time with the music. It paused on an image of Santa Claus giving the "rock and roll" hand sign. I started thinking about home. That's about when it happened. I suddenly craved a hamburger that tasted like a hamburger. I craved the salty, vaguely cardboard-like flavor of fast food French fries. I needed a coke. And it was all Santa's fault. Christmas made me homesick. McDonald's filled the void.
I can't decide if I have culture shock. Eddie was saying that with culture shock there's a gradient between people either falling in love with the place when they travel or totally hating it and wanting to leave. I definitely don't hate it. I'd say I'm way more on the loving it side. But I don't want to go too far down that path because it might blind my perspective.
Speaking of choices and perspective, I have a curious moral dilemma to propose. I had heard that people in Taiwan haggle prices. In fact I've heard that you're supposed to offer the shop owner half of what the price says and if they say no you just walk out. If they're willing to make a deal they'll stop you from walking out. I've never been much of a wheeler and dealer, but I thought I would give it a try.
So I wandered into a small shop that sold electronics and home supplies. I needed to buy a wall adapter to allow me to plug my three prong laptop charger into a two prong socket. The price said $35. I handed them a 1000 NT note hoping they would make change for me. They sort of looked at me funny and didn't take my money.
So I went home and sent a facebook message to Eddie asking what was going on. I wondered, was the price 35 units of coin money? Or was it something ridiculous like 35 dollars US in which case the 1000 NT note would have been just short of that.
Eddie said they should have just made change for me out of a 100 NT bill which is around 3.20 US. $35 NT was around 1.21 US.
Image of the front and back of a 100 NT Note
So I went back down there with an NT 100 note in my back pocket and 29 NT in change which was all the change I had. US value: exactly 1.00. I figured I would try haggling and show them the 29 NT first and just see if they would take it assuming I was a clueless american. We negotiated by writing amounts on paper. I showed her my largest coins which equaled 25 NT. She asked for 30. I showed her my last four pennies. She nodded her head and waived her hand to signify the deal had been made.
Considering that NT 35 was basically what you would pay at US prices (Price at Staples) I think she was probably overcharging and I got a decent deal by haggling. Eddie thought it was cool that I haggled, but suggested I might have taken advantage of her by implying that I was just a clueless American. He said he never haggled. He had tried, but nobody ever negotiated with him and he always paid full price.
Did I play the game well and get a deal? Was it okay for me to haggle with her? Or was I out of line trying to get the merchant to drop her price? I don't want to screw anybody over, but if you're supposed to wheel and deal then I definitely want to play that game.
Looking for feedback guys...
p.s. The shop owner actually called out to me as I left and asked me to come back. I had left my keys on the counter. Awful nice of her. I should probably keep better track of those.
SOME OBSERVATIONS:
So many weird smells. I feel like I'm living in a Chinese restaurant.
Making some food. I can't read anything on this box, but there's a picture of pork on the top. Luckily I think I have enough experience with Ramen noodles to make this edible. It came with a bag of peanuts. Nice touch.
Eating on the third floor terrace. I'm the only one staying at this hostel, so I'm basically paying 22 bucks per day for a three story house.
The garbage truck is picking up the trash. So weird. It plays a loud children's song over and over again like an ice cream truck.
American influence? There's a 7-11 on almost every street corner downtown.
At McDonald's they serve fried chicken.
And of course, there's a Starbucks in the train station.
6:36 a.m.
I think my plane to Detroit is arriving. It doesn't seem real yet. I wonder if it will ever seem real. An amazingly large amount of change in a short time. So far I've learned that when you fly it's not good to have a bunch of crap in your pockets at the baggage check. I forgot to put on deodorant this morning. I just learned that "help" and "shoulder" are the same word with different tones. Bang. Need to learn how to get to Ya Ya Hostel. Ya Ya tsai nar?
5:15 pm
Wondering what the fuck I was thinking. I'm about to land in a country on the other side of the world with no job, an inability to speak the native language, no friends, and very little money. I really need to get a nice looking résumé worked up. So far the plane ride has been sort of luxurious. They have it set up so you can watch free new release movies and listen to the latest musical releases. I listened to Eddie vedder's ukulele album from start to finish. It was awesome! Eddie Vedder - Ukulele Songs I'm watching the Bourne Legacy now. Occasionally I doze off. When I jolt awake I just think to myself, "I hope I was asleep for a while". It's almost worth a thousand bucks just to take the plane ride. In eight more hours we'll be in Tokyo. Holy shit. 1:13 a.m.... or is it 5:13 p.m.? What exactly is time anyway?
In Tokyo. So far no sign of Godzilla.
22:54 pm
I'm in Taipei on a bus heading to my hostel. I'm so fucking lost. Only white person on this bus. I certainly wouldn't call English usage rampant among the locals. I look strange compared to all the natives and we can't communicate very well. So it's not That different from back home...
I need to not be afraid to ask for help from the people I've met online. This is gonna take some work on my part. I used to have trouble finding my way around in America, so Taipei will be even more fun. Someone wrote down my address in Chinese to show to people if I got lost. Already misplaced the damn thing.
Oh yea and I'm sooooooo tired and late to check in. What if the hostel rented out my room?
So many scooters. Even the police drive scooters.Scooters. Swarms of scooters. It's like cricket season in San Marcos only with scooters.I want one really really bad.
2:49 a.m.
Met up with Eddie Kaye. He's awesome. Runs some English schools. We walked around, had some weird food and talked about Tai Chi and life in Taiwan. First friend! 5:30 a.m.
Sleep. Real sleep. At long last, sleep.
The Tao Te Ching, that Chinese masterwork attributed to Lao Tse, says that we make a pot out of clay but it is the emptiness inside which is useful. Local musician Robbie Doyen knows a thing or two about the emptiness. Within a short period of time he lost almost everything. In the process he found himself.
Doyen has been a colorful part of the musical patchwork quilt of San Marcos for 18 years. He has hosted song swaps and acoustic evenings at local music venues and has delighted his fans with his band Robbie and the Robots. The band’s video for Doyen’s song “I’m The One” was directed by the critically acclaimed Randi Nguyen at Omega studio.
A life-long Texan and graduate of Texas State, Doyen is planning a radical change in his life, moving to Taiwan before the end of the year. We caught up with Doyen and asked him a few questions about his impending life, his martial arts training and his last gig at the Triple Crown on Dec. 21.
If you go …
What: Robbie Doyen’s farewell performance
When: 8 p.m. Friday, Dec. 21
Where: Triple Crown, 206 N. Edward Gary
Cost: $5
San Marcos Mercury: Why are you leaving San Marcos?
Robbie Doyen: I suddenly found myself completely unattached. When the economy in Texas crunched, bars started canceling live music. I lost almost all of my regular gigs as a solo musician and a sound engineer which was my main source of income. Since then I’ve been scrambling to work minimum wage and odd jobs to make ends meet. Then Sarah and I split up after almost ten years together. Then my landlord sold my house and the new owner asked us to be out in a week. This all happened in rapid succession. It hurt to lose so much all at once. But the upside to losing everything at the same time was that I could choose almost any path I wanted for my future. So I’m going to Taiwan to teach English and study Taijiquan.
Mercury: I know you teach and train in the martial arts. Is that a reason you chose Taiwan?
Doyen: Yes. In fact I’d say that’s the main reason. Taiwan is like the Mecca for internal martial arts.
Tai chi is very misunderstood. Most people in America just do the slow forms for health benefits. That’s a big part of it, but Tai Chi is actually a martial art. There are two main schools of Chinese martial arts: internal and external. One of the biggest differences is that in the external martial arts which people are most familiar with like Karate, the student starts off learning how to use hard force and much later on in their training they learn to relax. In internal martial arts like Tai Chi you learn how to relax first and you actually use sinking and relaxing to make your body hard. Eventually there are faster forms and plenty of self defense applications. That part isn’t for everyone, but I love it all.
It’s extremely difficult to find people who teach Tai Chi as a martial art with proper internal principles. I was lucky enough to find a teacher like that in Sean Carney of Soft Answer Tai Chi in Buda Texas. Now that I plan to travel, the next obvious step for me is to go to Taiwan. During the Cultural Revolution many of the Martial Arts Masters of China fled to democratic Taiwan to avoid persecution. That’s how the originator of my style, Cheng Manching, wound up opening up the original school for his style in Taipei. He called it Shr Jung, which means “Right Timing” in Mandarin Chinese. That is where I plan to study.
Mercury: Is there, dare I say, some spiritual or “synchronous” reason for Taiwan?
Doyen: Well, now that you mention it, the ideas in Taoism have been the wind under my flight to Taiwan. Ninety five percent of the population of Taiwan is some combination of Taoist and/or Buddhist. I have been studying the Tao Te Ching and other Taoist texts quite a lot for the last few years. Taoism is so calming compared to most philosophies. It’s always very focused on what’s happening immediately, and it encourages you to go with the flow and let life guide you along your path. And when you meet resistance, just go around it. So often I feel like I’ve struggled against the world to try to achieve my goals. That hasn’t worked so well. So now I’m letting the world help me decide what to do.
Mercury: Explain that a little.
Doyen: I just recently became aware of how selfishly I’ve lived my life. I’ve been in denial of it. Selfishness is a filter, and I have always put that filter of “me” between myself and others. I’m trying to learn how to be more selfless—how to have a filter of “you”. It’s hard. But in Taiwan selflessness is built into the culture. I really think it will be a great place for me to learn to put others first and grow into a better man.
Mercury: What about music? Do you plan to keep on writing songs and playing in Taiwan?
Doyen: Of course. I’m bringing my guitar. Nobody will know me there, so I plan to just start playing at open mics and see what happens. One thing I think I will love about writing songs in Taiwan is being around people who don’t understand English. I’m an insecure perfectionist about my songwriting. I don’t like people to hear me singing a song before I feel ready to perform it. Usually I have to find someplace totally secluded to write. But if I’m not worried about people listening to what I’m saying and judging me, I’ll probably feel more free to create. Hope so anyway.
I also plan to take some SMTX 78666’s [ compilation CD of San Marcos musicians]with me. It’s a new market, and who knows, maybe they’ll fall in love with San Marcos music. It’s worth a try. And I also plan to try to use the miracle of modern electronic networking to make a new recording with my bandmates here in San Marcos while I’m in Taiwan. I have apps like Viber and iMessage that will allow me to talk and text internationally for free on my iPod Touch, and I can video message for free with Tango. Even though I’ll be in Taiwan I hope to still maintain an American presence with Robbie and the Robots and my wonderful bandmates James, CJ, Junior and Stan. It truly is becoming a small world.
Mercury: What is the music like in Taiwan?
Doyen: I hear that rockabilly bands are big there. I know that there were a few bands from Taiwan that played at SXSW last year. I also read that Dinosaur Jr. played there a couple of months ago. But really I have no idea what to expect from the music scene.
Mercury: Any plans to master the two string lute? Or have you done that already?
Doyen: I’ve been thinking about taking up some traditional Chinese folk instruments like the Guqin and the Pipa. The Guqin is a long seven stringed instrument that is played horizontally on one’s lap. It’s the instrument the old man plays during the imaginary fight between Donnie Yen and Jet Li in “Hero” before his strings break. The Pipa is kind of like a cross between a banjo and a guitar.
Mercury: What do you think you’ll miss most about Texas?
Doyen: You know, aside from my friends, and family and fellow musicians and martial artists, I think I’ll probably miss Mexican food more than anything.
Mercury: Where are your last few gigs?
Doyen: The gig I’d like to focus on is the last full band show I have scheduled in America. It’s at the Triple Crown (206 North Edward Gary St.) on December the 21st. The day the world is supposed to end. We’re headlining. First up is Sp_aces. Then Spilt Milk.
Mercury: Have you any final words or thoughts for Texas/San Marcos?
Doyen: Wo ai ni men. Tsai jian! That means, “I love you all. See you later!”
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Watch
Music video for Robbie and Robot’s “I’m the One (Extended Cut)”
