John R. Allen of Ohio had a kung fu video company that sold “rare and exotic” forms such as
circular xingyi, linear pakua, shaolin tai chi, northern dragon, and something called “white lotus.”
Can anyone elaborate on these arts? If an American sifu teches a form so rare that the chinese know nothing of it, you must 1der if it’s real or made up, yes? Now many cultures have tai chi-like forms, even the thais (see Dennis Chan teaching JCVD a tai chi like art in KICKBOXER, that is real.)
But since tai chi is a taoist art and shaolin is buddhist? what gives?
First off Shaolin is Buddhism influence by Tao and Confucianism so just to get that out of the way. And that did not prevent them from studying taichi at Shaolin or in Shaolin village. Secondly Taichi is taoist at all, that crap came later. Taichi was originally a few techniques which were devised with the intent on minimizing the force required to perform certain actions. The originator being a man who is often claimed to have been schooled in Shaolin kung fu at that.
As for John Allen, most of the stuff he reports is a joke. Now his lineage isn’t bad. Gene Chicoine was a pretty bad @$$ Shuai Jiao guy. But all that mess about forms and crap is nonsense. Most of them are made up as is. Others really aren’t all that rare, they just claim as such. They’re a bunch of forms collectors. But at least they seem to have some sense of strength training and understand you actually need those things called muscles to fight more than a wet paper bag.
What difference does it make anyways? All forms were made up by someone at some point. Is it wrong for a non Chinese to make up a form? Everyone seems to think that if someone isn’t Chinese they can’t have the necessary skill to make up a system. Those people I like to call racists. The real question should be what is the point? Forms are useless when it comes to fighting. Boxing, Muay Thai, Judo, BJJ, Wrestling, Pankration, Fencing, etc all produce highly skilled practitioners (most times better than karateka or kungfuists) and not a one needs forms to do so.
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These are rare here in the west but they are practiced in China. I am not familiar with White Lotus other than hearing the name thrown about.
I have seen Linear Bagua sets being done by Chinese practitioners in the mainland. I can’t say I have ever seen circular xingyi.
Shaolin Taiji forms are variations of the Yang Family Taiji. Taiji as well as Bagua and Xingyi has roots in both, Taoist AND Buddhist practices.
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