Jet Li just signed a contract to promote Tai Chi worldwide

Xue Sheng

Xue Sheng

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First saw this on Dragon's List

Jet Li just signed a contract to promote Tai Chi worldwide

Action star Jet Li started his Wushu career at a very young age. He was famous for his superb Shaolin Kung Fu. He also learned Tai Chi later and played the role of Zhang San Fang in a famous Chinese movie. Jet Li said that he has witnessed the health benefits of Tai Chi and also appreciates Tai Chi’s profound cultural background. To him, Tai Chi is not just an ordinary martial art but also a product of Chinese culture of thousands of years of history. He firmly believes that Tai Chi can improve people’s health. With this, he and Chinese e-commerce and telecomm business Tycoon Jack Ma jointly founded Taiji Zen International in April, 2011. The goal is to promote health and happiness through the practice of Tai Chi. Taiji Zen International also wishes to bring balance and harmony to people’s life because of Tai Chi’s philosophy background.
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Don't get me wrong, I like Jet Li but......

Call me a cynic, but based on this next paragraph I tend to think Taijiquan's health benefits have very little to do with it

It is reported that Taiji Zen International will invest and build Tai Chi Centers in high-end major international hotels to promote a healthy and balanced life style. In August, Jet Li announced in Washington D.C. that he will simplify Tai Chi so more people can learn it easily and enjoys its benefits. There are reports in China that Taiji Zen International is planning to build a huge Tai Chi garden near Beijing and a new Tai Chi movie starred by Jet Li to portrait the life of Grandmaster Yang Lu-ch'an will be filmed in 2012.
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Simplify it to what? There are ready exist simplified routines. Something tells me there will be Taiji Zen schools around the world teaching this like the Taoist Tai Chi society. Have you ever seen those real bad Taiji books were the form is simplied into maybe 6 movements I wonder if it will end up like that.

You could be Jet's personal assistant and maybe talk him out of it.
http://www.alivenotdead.com/alfredhsing/Now-Hiring-Assistant-to-Jet-Li-profile-1226282.html
 
Lets see.... depending on style

There is 48, 24, 19, 18, 10 and 8....so I am guessing Jet's version will be 6 or less

I signed up to be kept posted of things Zen Taiji....this should be interesting
 
Hm. Branded, endorsed Tai Chi centers. Franchise opportunities!

Ka-ching.


(Heh. Ka Ching style Tai Chi.)
 
you know...i wouldnt mind learning tai chi in this way. its interesting to me and i think jet li is a great actor and what he is trying to do for tai chi is great (at least in my opinion lol)

hmmm if i wasnt concentrating on Xingyi and 7 Star Mantis i would love to learn it.
 
mograph,

Ka Ching Taiji!!!! I love it. Unfortunately I think this has already been adopted as a pseudonym for the Taoist Tai Chi Society!!!!

Very best wishes
 
Cool. Now we just need to invent a mythology, with a Taoist sage who was sickly as a youth ...
 
While I have minimal experience with taiji I do consider ol'Cannon Fist to be one of the greatest masters of all time, not just of CMA but of martial arts in general. I hold him in higher esteem than Yip Man or Chan Heung.

I'd really hate to see him played by Donnie Yen or Jet Li. Ropes and harness don't express humbleness or subtle expression of great power.

As far as daoist taiji, they've watered down the standards plenty already. Can't knock his hustle though, let Jet make his money.
 
I'm guessing that the big push is maybe to attract those who aren't attracted to the "full class study" environment. I've had people come through my studio to try Chen style but were not interested in Tuishou (a few actually had issues with physical contact) or other partner work. Just from what I've seen, there's a trend for people trying to bring spirituality into their busy lives (not in a religious sense though), and some of the stereotypes that the uninitiated have, include Taiji, Yoga, Reiki, Qigong, etc.

Personally, I'm all for Taiji in helping others find its benefits, whether or not they choose to practice it as a martial system or not. I don't know how much more "simplified" Jet Li can make it (4 form? 6 form?) but all the power to him. But the building of health centers in hotels and such, kind of sounds over-commercialize to me, but who knows.... Maybe it take off like wildfire. I guess we'll have to wait and see.

-Restita
 
I agree, how much more simplified can it get? I always though the 24 short Yang form was the form that beginners to Tai Chi always start learning, and franky I don't see any justification for simplifying it more than that. The other day we had a new student in class who claimed he knew an 8 or 12 form which he learned from a DVD and one of his amateur friends. He showed it to us, and it basically involved moves that looked like Tai Chi, but mostly involved remaining in one place (i.e. it's meant for beginners who want to practice in a small space) without actually moving significant distances.

Our Sifu always goes on about how destructive modern society can be to man's health, or as he puts it "if you give a cat a fish, it doesn't need to catch a mouse". I personally try to push myself, despite my surroundings and occassional bouts of laziness, but I never for once wished for such a beautiful and genuine martial art like tai chi/xingyi to be watered down to make it easier for me to learn, and it makes it all the more shocking and dissapointing that a martial arts icon like Jet Li would use his fame to promote this destructive trend. How disgusting. :tantrum:
 
Hmm ... simplification isn't always bad, especially if the simplification is the reduction to the essence of an art. Consider the possibility (which may or may not be true) that taijiquan began as more a method -- the idea of receiving an opponent's force, then redirecting it. After that, and a lot of practice, the accomplished student may be able to improvise moves based on the situation. I am concerned that some believe that 108 moves are carved in stone as the only way to express taijiquan, since this idea leads some students to forget the importance of improvisation.

I do see the concern with simplifying taijiquan to the point where it is no longer taijiquan, but I have to ask: where is that point? If someone doesn't know the long form set, but is an excellent push hands and free-fighting practitioner, totally rooted and healthy, is that person deficient? Or if someone knows all sets, short and long, Chen/Yang/Wu/Hao/Sun/Cheng but can't push hands, is that person deficient? Where lies the essence?

If Jet Li teaches the essence, producing students that are totally rooted, healthy and able to improvise and sense an opponent's intention and act on it in a yin-yang sense ... I'm signing up, no matter how many moves are in their set. :)
 
There are different styles, Chen, Zhaobao, Yang, Wu, Wu/Hao,Sun, CMC, etc. And the number of postures in the form all depends on how you count.

If you are talking Yang style you need an understanding ofthe 13 postures and Yang Chengfu's Ten Essentials or, IMO, it is not Yang Taijiquan. All styles have their basics and being good at push hands and free fighting is not a judgment of whether or not you are doing Taijiquan since push hands and free fighting can be found in just about any CMA. Bagua is not Taiji, Xingyi is not Taiji, Yiquan is not Taiji, Wing Chun is not Taiji, Changquan is not Taiji and all have a form of push hands and free fighting. You can only shorten a form so much until it becomes a dance and nothing else, no basics to be found.

I do not think you need to do 108 forms to do Taiji.... youdo however have to understand a whole lot of connections, energy (power), rooting and applications and I do feel if you train 24, with more traditional postures, that you can be good at Taiji.

However I honestly do not feel the betterment of Taiji or making it more available or the proliferation of it has anything to do with what Jet Li is doing. However I do feel movie promotion and money have one heck of a lot to do with it. And he is expolitiong the general population’s lack of understanding of Taiji to do it. He is not trying to educate as to what Taiji really is or was, he is not trying to change a misconception he is simply selling a product. And this will just be another nail in the coffin of Taijiquan as a Martial Art.

And lastly my flavor of yang style has a lot more to it than the long form, push hands and free fighting; 3 empty hand forms, 4 weapons forms, various types of push hands, qigong, etc. However not all styles of Yang train the same. But doing a couple of Chen/Yang/Zhaobao/Wu-Hao/Wu/Sun/CMC postures is not taijiquan IMO
 
Expect to get phone calls asking if you teach the "Jet Li Style". I remember when David Carradine was pushing his Tai-chi videos (not that I'm comparing Carridine to Li in any sense). The company that sold his videos used them as the "hook" and when a customer called to order, the company "back sold" my Tai-chi videos with his, as a package. I used to be angry that Carradine claimed to be teaching Tai-chi when there are so many legitimate teachers - that is, until I started making money.

While Li is certainly a legitimate Tai-chi practitioner, he is also a great business man. My worry is that his "simplification" will do what has already been done - getting people to think that Tai-chi can be learned in 6 lessons - 8 if you want to become a master. We used to say that if someone passed by a video rental store that had a Tai-chi video in it, he would instantly become a master (a grandmaster if he walked by slowly).
 
Perhaps a celebrity endorsement may not be such a terrible thing? Those who know what they see, will be able to see the difference and decide then. But if he is sincere in his dedication and respects what he has learned, he may inspire a younger generation to try something different then what they see being promoted by cage fighting. When I was growing up, Bruce Lee, Chuck Norris, Jackie Chan, and yes even for a while Steven Seagal were positive role models for martial arts for me that drew my interest to martial arts in the first place. I understand where you are coming from - but I'll wait to see what this looks like, and how it grows before I label it a weed in the garden.



"I LOVE Kung FUuuu ...." - The Dragon Warrior
 
grumpywolfman said:
Perhaps a celebrity endorsement may not be such a terrible thing? Those who know what they see, will be able to see the difference and decide then. But if he is sincere in his dedication and respects what he has learned, he may inspire a younger generation to try something different then what they see being promoted by cage fighting. When I was growing up, Bruce Lee, Chuck Norris, Jackie Chan, and yes even for a while Steven Seagal were positive role models for martial arts for me that drew my interest to martial arts in the first place. I understand where you are coming from - but I'll wait to see what this looks like, and how it grows before I label it a weed in the garden.
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Segal was no roll model for me when I started...but then no one even knew who Segal was when I started.... didn't know who jet Li or Jackie Chan was either...but hey...Chuck Norris was a fighter and Bruce Lee was still alive ;)
 
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