January 4, 2008
When YouTube first came onstream, I was a sceptic. Where was the demand for something like this, where was the audience, and who had the bandwidth.
It seems now that most of us DO have the bandwidth, and after the phenomenal success of the website, there is no denying the demand.
However it was only recently that I became a convert! Youtube has opened up a whole new world for me, the world of tai chi online.
I've been a tai chi player for about 15 years, performing and even teaching a set of forms that I picked up on my travels. Unfortunately, after learning the routines and practicing avidly for years, I found myself in a position that I had lost touch with the teacher who taught me. And in the world of tai chi, almost no two teachers teach the same thing. And no-one had ever seen the form I had been practicing for all these years.
But through the reach of YouTube, I've been able to study the hundreds of other tai chi forms, and was able to trace the lineage and antecedents of this particular form, right back to dear old Yang Chen Fu, whose classic form isn't really all that different. The clip above is the infamous Yang Sau Chung video. Yang Sau Chung was the eldest son on Yang Chen Fu, so it is fair to say that he would have practiced what his father taught.
I still haven't found my teacher though, or his master, but probably have their granddaddy now.
It's been a bit like a genealogy exercise, finding your family, so from now, you'll hear nothing but praise from me for the joys of YouTube!
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