Guan Yu: Inside the government building. A famous Chinese hero from the Three Kingdoms period and I believe he is here as a symbol of strength and protection of the building. Also notice the flag of Taiwan (don't tell China lol, they don't realize Taiwan's independance, even if they cannot declare it so).
Anyway I am here in Taiwan to study Chinese but if I can study Kung Fu all the better! Especially if the teacher is speaking Chinese: DOUBLE BONUS. So my quest for Kung Fu started out by searching for nunchucks, a seperate but related hobby. I did not want to bring mine from America, just because they are illegal in NY and I mean airport security and everything....
In order to find nunchucks I sought out the help of the foreign teacher I am replacing. He was great, had no idea where to find anything Kung Fu, but helped me search around at the night market here in Fengyuan. Then, after no luck, we went to the night market area in Taichung. Taichung is Taiwan's third largest city so perhaps we would have more luck there. Here I asked some people about where to find them, the most informative answer I got was they were available somewhere in the city, he didn't know where, but not at the nightmarket. Oh I should note, all these conversations are in Chinese, and I do not typically understand 100% of a conversation... actually if it is long enough to be called a conversation then I have yet to understand 100% of the words, but after some struggle and some patience on the behalf of the Chinese person I believe I typically get their meaning.
Shortly thereafter my white tourguide (he speaks less Chinese then me but has lived here for a year so knows his way around and was extremely helpful) thought of a couple stores that sell military gear. We drove, rather he drove in a rather scary manner, with me on the back of his scooter, and took me to the place. They had nunchucks! They kind of sucked. I mean some wicked light metal ones, I prefer heavier chucks for the balance. Then some extendable/ collapsable nunchucks!!! Exciting to see, but not very good for practice, the balance on them is too weird. That was all... and the chains on these chucks were crappy so I was dissapointed. I asked the girl if they had any wooden ones, I prefer wooden chucks with a chain, but no luck. My tour guide was browsing the store so I looked around with him. They actually have tons of stuff I woudln't expect to find in the states, since they are so much farther removed from things like the war. You were able to find a lot of German WW II paraphanalia that has so much animosity and hate attached to it in the US that... if you did find it for sale... it would be in a totally sketchy place and you'd probably start to fear the creepy man running the shop. The people in this shop, two cute and really young girls, then one older one.
After just a couple minutes the older girl (who had apparently left for a moment) came in with three pairs of nunchucks... wooden! They were all fitting, although one pair was too light, I took the heaviest pair... not particularly great but still decent. I asked how much, $300 she said. This amounts to $9USD but for some reason I was thinking it's only like $3... idiot. So I said it was cheap! Then I bought them and asked if they knew of any Kung Fu schools nearby here or in Fengyuan. They had no idea but the older girl had some interesting questions:
"Did you come to Taiwan to study some Kung Fu?" Noooo I came here to study Chinese but if I can study kung fu as well than that's good.
Of course they let me try the chucks earlier so they had asked about my experiences and now knew that I had studied martial arts in the US. They then asked if I found a ShiFu (Master) in Fengyuan to teach me. I laughed and said no, I hope I can find a good school.
Now why these questions, I have two speculations:
1. They thought my opinion as a foreigner was that all Chinese know Kung Fu so Taiwan is like Mainland and I could study Kung Fu here; ignorantly unaware of the fact that Kung Fu is really not that popular in Taiwan, especially in Taichung where I am. Note: I do not know how popular Kung Fu is here, I know Taekwondo is popular and so it Tai Chi, but neither of these are really Kung Fu... well Tai Chi is but it is very different.
2. Kung Fu actually is popular in Taiwan and they were just wondering if I was an ambitious individual who came here to study.
I still don't know the answer to this.
After leaving the shop my guide said wait a minute I want to check this other store, just one shop over. It's the same type of thing, he explained to me, although he did not know why in Taiwan, it seems that the same types of shops (be it food, t-shirts shops, shoe stores, camo stores or what have you) seem to all set up in the same general area. He was saying it tends to be set up into these types of districts and there was probably one more for Kung Fu, that perhaps I would eventually be able to find.
Anyway we went into the store, they had more chucks. I almost bought two more that matched, to have a pair. But they were a bit weird and seemed like the chain may brake on them, so I decided to save my cash. Then I noticed one just like the one I bought next door.... $390... I instantly thought this was the place the other girl brought the chucks from. This would later be confirmed when the girl working this shop would restock, the two chucks I chose not to buy in the other store. I felt like I had been ripped off but I noticed the stickers on them were $390, I paid $300. So the girl brought the chucks from this store and gave me a discount? I doubt it, more likely my Chinese was not bad, not great but certainly at the level of someone who had lived here fore a while. I mean it's much better than some who have lived here for a year, for sure, so I think perhaps she gave me the chucks for $300 hoping that I would think it was okay and not say it was too much and then start haggling on the price!!!!
Taiwan is weird, night market you should definately haggle on prices. But other stores, should you? Department stores, Nike stores, Adidas and Puma, they are all sold here and these types of legitamate business type, or chain stores... here I don't think you are allowed to haggle. But other stores I guess sometimes you can.... some are obvious but other places I wonder, should I haggle? It's a store but for example, when I bought the chucks, and this is how stores tend to keep records, the girl took out a clipboard and marked down the sale and the price all in pencil or pen, it's not like it gets rung up on the cash register and she has no say on the price... or is it?
I guess, in my ignorance I should be happy, I didn't pay the sticker price.
We returned home that evening and my guide showed me a place where people would practice Tai Chi in the morning. I resolved to run there the following morning and ask them about Kung Fu in this city myself. It turns out this park was on a road that encircles the entire city. The next morning I accidently ran past the park and saw a different place people were practicing while playing traditional Chinese tunes... it cracked me up because they were mostly older women and the music was.... perfect! I continued to run though, because, while there were a few, I was expecting more at the park I didn't realize I had all ready run past.
I ran around the entire city, on my second time around I found the park. Too late, people like to practice Tai Chi early in the morning, this is when sometihing about the air is very good for their Qi. I read that they believe this is give off by the trees and plants very early in the morning. Needless to say they were all gone, since it took me a long time, I had been running for at least 40 minutes by this time, so it was after 8. I returned to the government building I previously saw and found people there practicing Tai Qi, still. Only now there were only two people: one teacher and someone practicing:
Here we have the teacher, getting ready to leave and a middle aged woman wielding a sword outside of a government building. Imagine this in the US!? Of course here it's obvious what she's doing and it's totally cool. Man but back in the US I used to want to ask my friend Henry to be able to carry his weapons: spears, halbred, sword and staff after he trained, just because walking around Boston carrying these things is so absurd... people look, yea they do. I mean it's still okay walking from the gym to the apartment, or for him I guess he takes them on the train to get to and from his school in Chinatown, but it's rare to say the least and it's not like he's marching up capitol hill and whipping out his sword right next to the front steps! I wonder how that would be received? Perhaps it's not that big of a deal at all, I'm not sure. One things for sure, I am not afraind to bring my nunchucks the next time I go! Okay have a closer look:
I mean I feel as if this platform is for Kung Fu. That's so cool, even if it is Tai Qi.
It was awkward so I did not ask any questions about learning Kung Fu today, it was Friday. I thought the weekend would hold more promise.
I went for my run Saturday morning, through the rain. The Tai Chi people had either not come out or finished early because of the rain, I returned home determined to wake up earlier and try again on Sunday.
Today is Sunday, I woke up and went for the run. There was no one at the park!? Suprise, it only took me ten minutes to run there so I continued to the government building. Bam! One woman was there, not the same person as you see above, a different woman with a sack containing a spear, staff, short staff, and sword. She was middle aged and I quietly sat off to the side of the stage waiting for good time to interupt her.
She took a break and was sitting while waving herself with her fan, my chance. I got up and went to talk to her, I asked her if she knew where I could study? Here of course! But I don't like this type of Kung Fu... she figured out what I meant and was telling me there was a school just down the road that alot of men go to. Great, my hopes are up! I don't want to bore you all with the full details of our conversation but it was quite detailed where I told her why I was in Taiwan and so on and where I came from and actually she thought I was an "aaaa men" guy, or a missionary. NO WAY! I am not trying to impose my beliefs on anyone here. But I assume she thought this because of the way I approached her with English that, I believe, is better than most English teachers. I heard one missionary speaking Chinese, I was impressed and to be honest, jealous. I will make a post about my thoughts on Western missionaries in foreign countries later, for now I don't know that much about them and this is Kung Fu focused!
Okay so she was going to take me to the school, although I have to teach English on the weekday evenings and that was when they have class. But we would go check.... but then she was saying it's something... I wasn't getting it... then I noticed her repeated kicks and I said ooooh nooo not "Korean Kung Fu" she said yea.... I said Taekwondo? She confirmed. "I don't want to go." If any of you like Taekwondo, I'm not looking down on the sport here, it's just not what I want to study, especially not in Taiwan. Although it is immensly popular here after Taiwan's impressive showings in the Olympics 5 and 9 years ago, I don't think last year they did too poorly just not as good as before.
So we continued on, she was asking about the Kung Fu I knew. The best Kung Fu I know is what my friend, the previously mentioned Henry, had taught me... with assistance from his student Alan and our friend Sophie, many thanks to all of them. So the name for it I know I believe is Cantonese, meaning even if I pronounced it perfectly she still wouldn't know what it was.... so in full running atire I demonstrated. She was pretty impressed! I'm happy to say, although a bit embarassed, I can not do this form anything near as well as Henry and Sophie.
As time passed we continued to talk, she had almost no English so it was excelent practice for me. Her friend came by and she told me to practice again, I insisted it wasn't that good. They all liked it though, as did an older gentleman passing by with his grandchild. It was a bit embarassing, but in a good way if anything.
Later the security guard to the government building came out and I again performed the form I had been taught a year earlier. It went great, and he stuck around and added to the conversation about Kung Fu in general. He actually showed the woman some wrist locks, I had the priveladge of having a Sensei that loved wrist locks at my old dojo so I was happy to partake in this exercise!
Well I'll no longer bore you with the details of the conversation and I'll get to the point, the woman left and told me that many people come to this place from Monday through Friday and practice Tai Qi. The teachers are usually old, like 70 and they could teach me Tai Chi, but this is not the kind of Kung Fu I am looking for. Although I feel like I could ask them about a good place to go. She also mentioned something about there being some masters who know this type of stronger kung fu but they do not like to, rather they will not teach it. Interesting! Meaning they only practice? Meaning they don't take students, like in a Kung Fu movie!? Meaning they won't teach a foreigner? I don't know and I tired to inquire further but it seemed like I only got an answer saying they don't teach. My curiousity is peaked.
Okay so she left and I was going to say good bye to the security guard but he had gone inside. I found him and talked to him. He told me that there was a park in back of the building, there is a teacher that comes there, Huang Laoshi, who not only teaches TaiQi but also Shaolin fist... Shaolin Kung Fu... that sounds appealing to me. He also said he'd come by tomorrow so I will see him again when I search for this instructor.
That's all for now, tomorrow will be a big day, I will search for this new instructor and see if he is willing to teach me and if so what his teaching will actually entail. This will be at 7AM. I will need to get to bed early. Also, tomorrow I will need to start teaching classes! For sure it will be a big day.
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