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Students have ‘supreme ultimate’ trip
Trip yields valuable
life experience
Isaiah Creel
Editor-in-Chief
Clackamas’ tai chi instruc
tor and 14 of his students spent
the weekend of May 13-15 in
Grants Pass, training under
internationally renowned tai
chi masters George Xu and his
guest Qian Zhao Hong (aka
r
“Chainsaw”) ... and lived to tell
the tale.
“When [Hong] hit you, it
felt really natural. It felt like
he went right through you,”
said Clackamas student Steven
Worsley, “whereas when master
Xu hit you, it would hit you and
it would spread out, but when
‘Chainsaw’ hit you, it would
feel as if he were hitting through
you, as though you just weren’t
there.”
“When Master Xu hit you it
felt like a wave,” Worsley con
tinued. “From the point of con
tact [the pain] was spread out,
and then eventually that
area would knot-up.”
Master George Xu is
B a world-renowned tai chi
B master who, since mov-
B ing to America from his
B native China in the late
B 1980s to pursue higher
B education in mathemat-
B ics, has furthered his mar-
B tial interests by bringing
the highest level inter-
B nal martial artists to the
B United States.
With exercises like
B running laps and lifting
B weights losing popularity,
B new exercises that focus
B on the mind/body con-
|||l nection, like yoga and tai
B| chi, have become more
B
Master Qian
Zhao Hong (aka
“Chainsaw”)
(ABOVE and
RIGHT) goes
through a Hsing
Yi form, while
Master George
Xu (FAR RIGHT)
goes through his
Chen style tai
chi form. The
difference in
approaches to
their respective
internal arts was
evident in their
interpretations.
prevalent in the United States.
The benefits of such a switch
mainly deal with the relative
lack of stress on the joints and
muscles and the improved lon
gevity of the organs.
“Everybody feels internal.
You have a digestion problem,
you feel inside pain; but normal
ly you never feel inside,” said
instructor Wayne Keller. ‘You
feel this energy [chi] move at
different times, but you cannot
use this energy to affect some
body else or defend against an
attack; that takes longer.”
For many years, Master Xu
has brought those masters to
Grants Pass for a weekend-long
tai chi-intensive event, open to
tai chi enthusiasts and otherwise
martially inclined folks.
“I knew that they were going
.to be good coming into it,” said
student Steven Worsley. “I don’t
completely understand every
thing they do, but looking and
feeling the things that they did
was extremely impressive.”
George Xu’s approach to
the Tai Chi is more yang (a
Chinese term meaning “aggres
sive” or “hard”) while Hong’s
approach is more yin (“yield
ing” or “soft”).
Qjan Zhao Hong is a mem
ber of the Shanghai Wu Shu
Association, vice chairman
of the Institute of Shanghai
Pa-Kua, vice chairman of
the Institute of Shanghai Wu
Dong Qigong, and Highest
level-Ninth Generation of Xin
Yi Liu He Quan (10 Animal
Hsing Yi). He has defeated
more than 50 masters, earn
ing his nickname “Chainsaw1.”
AVhile the majority of students
at Clackamas take tai chi for a
PE credit, a few continue their
study beyond the normal one
or two terms.
“Their levels are so much
higher than mine that a lot of
the things they do or explain
or talk about I still don’t fully
understand yet,” said Worsley.
“There were some concepts
that my eyes were opened up
to. It’s going to be a steady
growth; one weekend is not
going to make the difference.”
One student’s account of
the enlightening weekend
I Joe Plazzlsl
I The Clackamas Print
Learning tai chi secrets from the
masters at the tai chi seminar this last
weekend was very eye-opening. There
is everything you hold in your mind to
be real, and then there are the things that
you see on television or in movies; after
all that comes these guys. Not to say that
they are supernatural or anything, but
they are just that They are very natural,
while we are all very unnatural and set
within our movements.
In general, we are all very rigid and
mechanical in the way we move, while
the masters were very fluid and open,
flowing with their moves and allowing
them to open themselves to immense
amounts of power in rather interesting
ways.
Wayne Keller, the tai chi teacher here
at Clackamas invited all of his students
to join him at this seminar, where “Chain
DUMB: Instructor prepares by taking break
Continued from DUMB, Page 1
For the collaboration, Andersen will present a
slide show and lecture, and students from Estacada
will create drawings to formulate ideas for the
mural. From those ideas, a small group of painting
and drawing students, with
guidance from Andersen
and some Clackamas Phi
Theta Kappa students,
will create the mural.
“It’s great, because in
the end the entire student
body will be involved,”
Andersen said.
Andersen has been
working with Phi Theta
Kappa
students
at
Clackamas four years,
and is currently the co
advisor with Dave Arter.
Even on sabbatical he is
still coordinating some
of the events, because he
“couldn’t give that up.”
He has also found
time in his sabbatical to
travel to California for
the opening of his exhib
it and to lectured at Cal
Arts and San Diego State
University, Mia Costa and
San Elijo campuses.
“It was one of the most
productive weeks I’ve
spent,” he said. “I met
with hundreds of faculty and talked about assign
ments and student work.”
“[The sabbatical is] an opportunity for me as a
professional artist to go out and learn more about
the professional art world,” said Andersen. “But I
also get to reinvent my cur
riculum.”
“I love to teach,” he said.
“It’s a constant challenge to
find new ways for students to
experience things.”
Andersen first began
teaching in 1985, as a teach
ing assistant in charge of
drawing and painting classes
at BYU. He joined the fac
ulty at Clackamas in 1997.
“We don’t have a large
[art] department here, but
we'have an extremely potent
department,” said Andersen.
“I love the new building we
are in. I think it really ben
efits the students.”
Taking a sabbatical this
term is allowing Andersen
to do a lot of work that he
feels will be valuable for
Clackamas students and fac
ulty.
“I have so much new
material to deliver to my
students,” he said. “When I
come back in the fall, their
heads are going to spin.”
by David Andersen
Saw” and “George” were showings
of their techniques, fundamentalsan
for lack of better words—power sou
“Chain Saw” loved to demons
some of what he knows on pg
Throughout the weekend I had beg
tiie receiving end of a lot of his da
stratums, feeling everything from ch
kicks, blocks and ear pulls to bear r
attacks, all on a level I have never e
rienced before. If I had to describe,
it felt like to get hit by “Chains»
would have to say it feels like a fe
pillow hitting you with the press®
power of a bag of bricks. You only
die softness. The pressure and powg
just there-, very soft to the touch a
the same time very painful. “George’
more like a lead pipe coming dowi
you; an overwhelming power.
Both were very different and
effective. Seeing their quality andc
paring it to what I thought I knew
shown me I have a long way to go, I
now know what is ohtainahle.