“Through Martial Arts We Will Become Friends”: Taijiquan as Master Symbol of Modernity

Abstract

Outside the basketball stadium in the city of Zhengzhou, capital of Henan Province, the Seventh Annual International Shaolin Wushu Festival was about to begin. Surrounded by a small crowd, an old man hunkered low to the ground. At his feet lay several small bundles of old martial arts magazines that would be of interest only to serious collectors. Those of us who thumbed through his selections commented to one another about styles or about particular famous martial artists we recognized. Bruce Lee figured prominently in some of the magazines from the seventies, even though he had never been very popular in the mainland. I bargained a little and finally paid him for a handful of magazines that feature articles on taijiquan or other internal martial arts. Soon, a policeman strolled by and told the man to move on: he was not one of the official hawkers and was therefore not allowed within the stadium gates. Nor, for that matter, did I have any official status. I had briefly spoken to one of the tournament organizers, a Mr. Xu, on the phone before heading to Henan, but I had so far failed to track him down. He was out, I was told, preparing for the opening ceremonies.

VIII

I know noble accents

And lucid, inescapable rhythms;

But I know, too,

That the blackbird is involved

In what I know.

—Wallace Stevens, “Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird”

VII

O thin men of Haddam,

Why do you imagine golden birds?

Do you not see how the blackbird

Walks around the feet

Of the women about you?