LEARNING TAIJI / TAI CHI?

Are you kidding me? As a grandson, I have always follow grandma to her taiji / taichi classes in Rejang Park, Sibu early in the morning. We used to go as early as 3am but subsequently changed to 4am. In the darkness of the early morning, I will always see the teacher coming with his radio cassette player playing some English oldies for warming up and later basically a voice recording of 'breath in, breath out'. I have never really joined in the class with her.

Now, my martial arts-craze bro wants me to join him for taiji /taichi class in the university! I told him I will be as slow as a snail / tortoise after mastering this art! After I master this martial arts, I will be slow in everything I do -work, speech,movements! He told be in order to be fast, you need to master slowness. In other words, you must learn the Matrix's bullet time technique so you can slow down the time! OK, that was pure crap from me! Haha! Basically, he says it takes more concentration and it is more difficult to do slow movements. Well, we'll see how it goes. I am considering taking it up since people have been saying it is good for health and you will have balance of the Yi, Qi, Shen (mind, breath and soul) in your entire body.

Who is going to teach us? I wish it will be Jet Li, then every single human will be scared of you. Of course you need a grandmaster! I mean an experienced teacher. He is Mr. Rennie Chong Hien Choong. Mr. Chong is 66 years old to date (2005) and he is both an experienced Taichi instructor and a life long learner of the art. Mr. Chong started his Taiji lessons with his father at the age of 16. At the age of 18, he learnt Taiji from Taiwan’s famous Master Hwang Shien Xian, disciple of Master Chen Man Ching. In 1984 Mr. Chong learnt Chen Style Taichi from Master Choo Tian Chai for 9 months when the latter came to Singapore to conduct classes that year. My mom told me Master Hwang Shien Xian settled in my town, Sibu and even have a medical hall there!

NUS Taiji Sub Club