Indonesian Taijiquan or "Thay Kek"

[Trent]

Being a student and instructor, I've practiced what Donn F. Draeger refers to on page 81 of his book, "The Weapons and Fighting Arts of Indonesia" published in 1972 as "Thay Kek" to the Cantonese and "Tai Chi Chuan" in Mandarin. It is acknowledged and taught by Bapak Willem "Uncle Bill" de Thouars as well. Obviously, this art migrated down with the Chinese to Indonesia, and as arts do, absorbed the influence of the various kun tao and pentjak silat styles already in the area. I've seen Mas Reeders' version and it is very similar to Uncle Bill's.

I've also been exposed to some other taijiquan (thay kek) from a different Indonesian source, and quite frankly, it was terrible and completely lacked any internal components while having poor external movement, too. It was nothing like what I've been exposed to on a long term basis.

Has anyone else been exposed to Indonesian Taijiquan, and if so, what were your impressions?

 

[Xue Sheng]

Sorry, no.

I have no experience with Indonesian Taijiquan. My experience is with Chinese styles Yang, Chen, Wu and a little CMC.

And I have seen a lot of Chinese Taiji practiced without internal, not bad Taiji just bad practice. Could this be what you are seeing with the Indonesian Taijiquan?

 

[Trent]

Thank you for the reply Xue Sheng. Your answer leads me to another question I'll start another thread with as I'd like the replies here to be narrow in response.

If anyone else has seen some Indonesian Taijiquan, please chime in.

 

[wadokai_indonesia]

I am Indonesian, in Indonesia (Jakarta) and I learned Taijiquan from Mr. Adipranata who learned Taijiquan initially from Mr. Li Lianjin.

Mr. Adipranata teach Taijiquan in the standard way, these days he is using the 10 step as beginning exercise, the Beijing 24 step as the regular exercise for intermediate students, and to advanced students he taught the Yang style 40 step competition form and the standarized Wushu 42 step form. He also teach the 88 step form to very advanced students. As additional training he teaches push hands and lots of Qinnashou for practical self-defense.

My exposure to Chinese martial arts is very limited, I only learned a bit of Kuntao (of tiger and crane style) before learning Taijiquan with Mr. Adipranata. My strongest base is Japanese Jujutsu (Hakko-ryu and many other styles) and Japanese Karate (Wado-ryu and Goju-ryu).

But I must say that the Taijiquan of Mr. Adipranata is not "Bad Budo" or "Bad Taiji" in any way. He can certainly use "softness" to unbalance an attacker, just like what we can find in any good Jujutsu technique.

Please, if you are visiting Indonesia one day, come to Indonesia Wushu Headquarters (PB WUSHU) in Jakarta, and meet many good Taijiquan teachers. Or you can also contact the PORPI (Persatuan Olahraga Pernapasan Indonesia) people, who teaches non-competition Taijiquan and Qigong. Another good bet is the Jingwumen group in North Jakarta, they teaches standard Taijiquan along with Baguazhang and some other traditional CMA. The head teacher, Mr. Ko Ching Ho, is very skilled and a nice person.

All of the major teachers of the above-mentioned groups are 3rd or 4th generation Chinese-Indonesians, so almost all of them understands both older Kuntao forms and newer Wushu forms.

 

[tellner]

There have been Chinese people and Chinese martial arts in Indonesia for a long time. One of those martial arts is Taiji. How good is it? That depends on the particular instructor. I'd venture to guess that most Taiji taught by most instructors from Beijing to Benin lacks strength and body mechanics and doesn't understand how to use the old training methods effectively. And probably less than one in a hundred of them can use it to fight.

But in all of those places you'll find a few who know what they are doing and how to teach it. I can't imagine Indonesia is any different.

 

[hoksangar]

in Makassar Sulawesi there is a great teacher who teach Thay Kek his name is Lie Tjing Yan. He has had several students who are spread in Sulawesi and in Surabaya, East Java.
He born at 1889 and died at 1972.
He became famous in Sulawesi because he has never lost in the fight.