Fighting spirit

Chen Xiaowang, a 19th-generation inheritor of Chen-style tai chi, leads his disciples in Beijing. Cui Meng / China Daily

A tai chi master has struggled to promote the martial art overseas and has won more than 300,000 disciples in 40 countries. Deng Zhangyu reports.
Many foreigners believed Chen Xiaowang was insane. Some even stopped to ask if he needed help when they saw him practicing tai chi in airports decades ago.
"Many people overseas aren't familiar with the martial art," Chen explains.
"Some foreigners even thought tai chi was a Chinese cuisine."
Chen has traveled the globe, teaching and promoting tai chi, since the 1990s, when he became one of his homeland's greatest champions. He has earned more than 300,000 disciples in 40 countries.
Chen's fighting style was developed by his family 19 generations ago. It was popularized in China in the early 20th century by his grandfather, Chen Fake.
"My energy is limited," he says.
"So, I instruct my apprentices and help them spread Chen-style tai chi around the world."
His disciples have opened tai chi studios in 120 German cities and towns. Chen's oldest disciple is a 103-year-old American.
Chen innovated upon his family's traditional tai chi by developing a simplified version for mass consumption, called the "nine-posture Chen-style".
The family's martial art style was developed by his ancestor Chen Wangting in Henan province's Chenjiagou village. Nearly everyone can do tai chi in the settlement, where Chen was born in 1945.
His father required him to study the martial art from age 7. Chen would try to nap after school, but his father would make him get up to do tai chi.
Chen became enamored with tai chi after watching his father defeat a much stronger challenger.
He studied under his uncle Chen Zhaokui at age 10 after his father passed away.
He has remained committed, even in the hardest times.
"People had nothing to eat during the early 1960s," he recalls.
"We devoured tree bark and grassroots. But I kept practicing tai chi."
Chen faced a choice in the 1970s - make money at a stable job or struggle with an uncertain future while performing tai chi.
Many people then had spent years mastering the martial art but never found fame or fortune. Some even fell ill because they pushed themselves too hard.
"I told myself to not worry about the results," Chen recalls.
He made a rule that, no matter what happened, he'd do his routine at least 20 times a day.
Chen practiced so intensively that his toes swelled. But he kept doing his routines while trying to keep his toes off the ground.
He took a day job as a wholesaler and often had to spend days on trains. If this prevented him from doing his 20 routines, he would compensate for them the following day, he explains.
Chen's victories in competitions in the 1980s earned him a spot on Henan's sports commission. His 350 yuan ($56) monthly salary was much higher than the 30-yuan average.
"I kept practicing," he recalls.
"Even though I couldn't remove my socks from my swollen feet or turn over in bed, I felt happy."
He has since shifted "from quantity to quality", he says.

Chen has appeared in kung fu films and became a leader of Henan's sports commission.
His first international foray was a 1990 visit to Sydney. Few Australians knew about tai chi then, he says.
Chen continues annual consultations to tai chi studios around the world, including China.
Chen Daoyong, who has practiced tai chi for a decade and opened a tai chi gym in Beijing, says: "Chen Xiaowang is brilliant at tai chi. He seems invincible."
Every March, Chen Xiaowang brings disciples to his hometown and stages a ceremony to honor his ancestors.
Niu Lina, who started learning tai chi from Chen in 2006, says: "Chen is admirable as a moral man and tai chi master."
Under his guidance, she opened her own tai chi studio in Henan's provincial capital Zhengzhou.
Contact the writer at dengzhangyu@chinadaily.com.cn.

(China Daily 03/28/2013 page20)