Vol 7, Issue 1/2002

Taijiquan between tradition and peoples sport

Interview with Huang Kanghui

In China as in contrast to Europe Taijiquan is regarded primarily as a sport. As a sub-discipline of chinese martial arts it is taught in chinese sports universities. Huang Kanghui is assistant professor at the Beijing sports university where he also teaches Taijiquan to foreigners. In the interview, he describes what training possibilities exist for foreigners and how the current development of Taijiquan is progressing in the Peoples Republic of China. Officially, mainly the newer and shorter forms are promoted and also, as with all of Wushu, a graduation system based on the example of Japan and Korea has been introduced to aid propagation. Nevertheless, Huang Kanghui considers that the training of traditional forms and particularly of Tuishou are indispensible for an advanced level.

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