2009 Maple Ridge workshop review by Bill Vanderhall

by: Bill Vanderhall
Well, to start with, the first time we met Master Chen Zhonghua ( we know him as Joseph Chen ) was at a Martial Arts Tournament in Vancouver, about eight years ago, 2001.   My friends and I help out with judging the Taiji section, so we had seen quite a lot of good and poor Taiji.  At the end of the tournament, Joseph gave us a demonstration of his Chen Taiji and blew us away.
We set up a weekend workshop right away.  On the Sunday of that workshop, Joseph suggested setting up a years’ worth of workshops.  He wanted to have a minimum of ten participants for the ten workshops in the year.  It was an experiment that he wanted to try.  With friends added to the original group, we started with fourteen paid participants.  The dynamics of the group changes every year, but there is a core group of eight, that have been there from the start.  In our group now, we have ten disciples that come regularly.
We are now in our seventh year and still going strong.  When new participants show up, we all pitch in and help and make them feel welcome.   We have a wide range of ages in the group. Quite a few are retired.  We are not young, but we are in very good shape.
We are all still working on Circles, Yilu, Erlu, push-hands and weapons.
The Hall has a nice kitchen and we make our own renowned lunches.  Everyone pitches in by bringing food. It works well.
I hope to be going to many more years of Master Chen Zhonghua’s workshops in Maple Ridge.

Tagged as: Maple Ridge