Yoga Body, physical culture

I found this  interesting. It includes great info from the book'Yoga Body' by Mark Singleton, an excellent read (by a yoga teacher) debunking the 'ancient pratice' of posture-based physical yoga. Thanks to Jonathan Monks last year for that book. I gave it to Sam Masich after I read it and he is also having great fun spreading the news. Oh yeah, T'ai Chi as we know it is not that old either. Sure, it has very old threads running through it, but read Douglas Wile's 'Lost Classics of the Late Ch'ing Dynasty' for more of the story.
There is yet to be such an approachable, uncynical yet probing, wide-ranging and contextualised book about how T'ai Chi as we know it now came about, along the lines of Yoga Body. Starting with the Chang San Feng myth, Taism, going via Chen Village, clan and family styles, Shaolin, Wudang, Boxer uprising, the Nationalists and the fleeing of many great masters abroad at the time of the Revolution, the Communists banning T'ai Chi and all 'backward practices', the later re-instatement of T'ai Chi after one line in a speech by Mao, the now widespread standardised Beijing (government style) Taiji, competitions, physical culture, taint of New Age-ism, T'ai Chi as big business... As well as all the interesting stuff about the health benfits, meditative states, transmissions of real knowledge, martial arts, women and men training together, measurable benefits, intangible delights, older folks regaining mobility...

There is no 'one true story'. Not about Yoga, not about T'ai Chi, not about art or jazz, or religion, or a nation, or anything else that really matters. But for me the context, the interweaving of stories, the tall tales and the underlying motives are all really interesting, if not perceived as a threat. Few things make me feel more queasy than a claim to purity :)

Off to class now...