Chen style is the most original Taijiquan, upon which all other taiji schools are based.
In the beginning this fighting art was carried over from one generation to the next within the Chen family only. Its secrets were not disclosed to the outsiders. The best taiji master of each generation was selected as the “standard bearer of the style”. Therefore, there were no side-tracks in the style because the style of the official bearer was the “correct” style and only he could develop the style further.
When teaching of the Chen style outside the Chen family started anybody who could learn well the Chen style could established his own school by modifying a bit the original style. Therefore, several new styles like Yang, Wu, Sun and Wu/Hao soon appeared. From these the Yang style is at the present time the most well known and popular one.
In Guilin Taijiquan Association we practice both the original Chen style and the Yang style.
In Guilin Taijiquan Association Ma Hong’s Chen style is practiced. It is original and reliable, because it comes directly from Chen Fake and Chen Zhaokui, the standard bearers of the style in their respective Chen family generations. Their taiji forms have not been changed from the original neither has the degree of difficulty of these forms been lowered. Ma Hong has written down all the knowledge, that Chen Zhaokui taught to him and has transmitted it to master Liu Shaohua who has transmitted it unchanged to the taijistudents of Guilin Taijiquan Association.
In Yang taiji the emphasis is on the classic Yang style taiji developed by Yang Chengfu .This style is widely practiced also in Guilin where Master Liu started the training of this style under the guidance of his father already in the age of seven years. In Guilin Taijiquan Association we practice Yang Chengfu’s classical 85 movement form as documented in the Chinese language by Zhang Hong Kwei one of the disciples of Yang Chengfu in his book Taijiquan (ISBN 7-5009-1187-4). The Yang style beginners learn first the simplified 24 movement form developed in 1956 by the Chinese Sports Committee.