Masters of Tai Chi: The Interviews

Interviews with leading teachers and experts of tai chi chuan. Film director Jon Braeley spent more than twenty years traveling across China, recording interviews with well known figures in Chen style, Yang style and Wudang Mountain style tai chi. Interviews include Chen Xiaowang and Chen Xiaoxing of Chen style tai chi, Cui Zhongsan of Yang style and grandmaster Zhong Yun Long of Wudang Sanfeng tai chi. Step inside Chen Village tai chi school to learn details and facts about the history and changes of Chen style that made tai chi into a formidable fighting art.  The masters are asked penetrating questions on the theory of tai chi, of yin and yang and five elements, and the health and self-defense aspects of tai chi. Their own personal stories and tai chi practice are revealed with some remarkable answers, like the famous tai chi master who gave up his schools to practice tai chi in seclusion, living in a remote mountain cave for many years. 

The second half of the book, Masters of Traditional Chinese Medicine, is packed with interviews of China’s top experts, doctors, pharmacists and professors. Ground-breaking interviews during doctor-patient examinations and diagnosis, reveal how traditional Chinese and Tibetan medicine is practiced inside the doctors clinic. Doctors and pharmacists of traditional Chinese medicine explain how and why their methods work, such as acupuncture and herbal remedies, and why foreign methods do not. A ‘bonesetter’ demonstrates the sensitivity of his hands as he applies acupressure to his patients. A Tibetan doctor explains how feeling the pulse of the wife or husband will identify illness in any family member. A professor at Beijing University of Traditional Chinese Medicine explains the history and channel theory, together with yin and yang, five elements and the movement of life-giving Qi. These interviews, complete and uncut, have not been published until now, and answer many questions about China’s most esoteric and mysterious healing arts. Masters of Tai Chi: The Interviews, at 242 pages, include behind-the-scenes stories by the author and 150 photographs.