Chen Style Taijiquan and Hunyuan Taiji email: practicalmethod@qq.com

An unseen thread brought Hong Junsheng, a frail young Confucian scholar, to the doorstep of Chen Fake, then a little-known master from rural Henan. Years later, in a quiet park, circumstance placed a university freshman before an elderly man whose modest bearing concealed a lifetime of depth. The meeting itself may have been chance.

What followed was not.

The young student returned. He listened. He practiced. In doing so, Chen Zhonghua stepped onto a path that would gradually define the course of his life.

From his early years with Hong to his later studies with Feng Zhiqiang—the last disciple of his grandmaster—Chen’s journey unfolded within a living chain of transmission. Yet lineage alone explains nothing. At each stage he had to decide: whether to endure, whether to continue, whether to accept the weight that accompanied genuine instruction.

This article seeks the person inside those decisions. We follow Chen Zhonghua across countries and cultures, watching how a Chinese-Canadian martial artist confronts uncertainty, opportunity, and moments of real danger—including a journey marked by a once-in-a-lifetime volcanic eruption.

Again and again, the same question emerged: how should he honor what he had been given?

The answer was never automatic. It took shape through long practice, private doubt, sacrifice, and persistence. Ultimately, it led to a turning point that would redirect his entire future—the choice to devote himself fully to preserving and advancing Hong Junsheng’s Practical Method, and through it, a living current of Chinese history.

Adapted and translated from the article:
“Chen Zhonghua’s World Tai Chi Road.”
by Xu Jiaqiang and Xie Yan
太极天下 — 许家强 谢岩
published in 2019年5月17日