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This page holds details of what activities Lu Yan has recently been involved in.
Reviews given by her students of her teaching are also presented here. Other
pieces of news that are related to her, the Beijing Wushu team or about Wushu in
general that may be of interest to the reader are also presented or linked to
here.
Note that on older pieces of news the links to external websites may now be
redundant.
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This month we decided to take a few weeks out to enjoy the festive season. We flew over to the UK and had a well earned rest over Christmas
and New Year, celebrating with family and friends.
 We also
managed to catch up again with one of Lu Yan’s old team mates, Xue Xingfu. Xue Xingfu is still teaching Wushu in Singapore, recently
taking on two new coaches to help him with his teaching load. He was only over in Beijing for a couple of weeks so we were lucky to catch him!
As ever it was a real pleasure to catch up with him, enjoying a long lunch as the snow fell on a frozen Beijing.
We would also like to wish all of Lu Yan’s past and present students a very Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year – we hope that your training
in 2007 goes from strength to strength!
2007 promises to be a busy year for Wushu here in Beijing. This year sees the Beijing Wushu Institute’s competition come round again, along
with the World Wushu Competition. So there’s plenty to look forward to!
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As the cold weather begins to creep into Beijing training becomes harder. Motivation drops as the cold sets in, so it’s important to maintain
focus and set reasonable goals for your own personal Wushu development. So if you are a feeling a bit down about your progression,
don’t despair, set some goals and keep up the training!
 For the
past month Lu Yan has been running a beginner’s class in Chaoyang. This is open to anyone who would like to join in but places are
currently limited. We are hoping to move the class to a new, larger venue shortly, but this will probably not be finalised until the end of
January.
If you live in Beijing and are interested in attending this class then please contact us.
Since the class started Lu Yan has been focusing on the Wushu jibengong (basics) and has taught the students the 3rd Duan Chang Quan form, which
is the basic form that all Wushu students will learn. She is very pleased with how the class has been going and hopes to start teaching some basic
weapon forms next year.
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After a relaxing month last month we were hoping for another rest this month, but those persistent guys from Canada East Wushu just wouldn’t let up, so we
just had to welcome them to Beijing! It was great to see three of the guys again and as usual, Lu Yan put them through their paces.
 Andrew, the Head Instructor of the
school, wanted to study a couple of different styles in the time that he had in Beijing – Lu Yan had to work him hard in order to ensure that he went back
to Canada with what he wanted.
Andrew spent the first week learning a Tongbei taolu, turning his legs and arms black and blue from all the repeated slapping
that Tongbei is renowned for. He then went on to learn a Nandao taolu, concentrating on performing each move with the correct use of power for this southern style.
This was a lot to learn in 3 weeks, but Andrew’s determination and attitude to training made this achievable.
 This was the first time that Alex and Aaron
had come to Beijing and they certainly made the most of their stay.
Alex wanted to train Eagle Claw (Ying Zhao) for the 3 weeks that he was here. This is a complex
style, requiring precision and power in equal measure. The taolu that Lu Yan taught Alex is also physically very demanding, with a lot of jumps followed by low
stances.
Alex’s hard work and focus in class allowed him to learn the taolu quickly, and to get a good understanding of how to perform the moves correctly.
Lu Yan hopes that Alex will keep practicing the style, as he should gradually get more and more of a feeling for how to exercise his power correctly during the set.
 Aaron had decided to train Spear, which is
commonly recognised as probably the hardest weapon to learn.
He’d not done any training with Spear before, but in the 3 weeks that he was here he picked up the main
Spear basics and was already beginning to add some of the flavour of Spear into his moves.
Lu Yan taught Aaron the first 2 sections of the old Compulsory Taolu,
emphasising proper execution of each move as she went along. In this way Aaron was able to practice his Spear basics, and learn a section of Taolu as well,
giving him something to concentrate on when he returns to Canada.
Aaron put a lot of effort into every class, and it was obvious to all of us that by the end of
his time here his Wushu basics had improved a lot, so Well Done!
We also welcomed another student this month, Matti from Finland. Matti described himself as a senior citizen but his moves were far from an old man’s moves! He
worked hard every lesson, doing lines of kicks, stances and stretching, and generally putting all our younger students to shame. Matti studied the 3rd Duan
Chang Quan Taolu, which is the basic form that Wushu students all start with. He learnt it very quickly and Lu Yan was really pleased with his progress. We
look forward to welcoming Matti back to Beijing soon!
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Lu Yan was extremely pleased this month to see all her students progress so quickly, and we all enjoyed the frequent trips to the restaurant after training
for some food and pijiu!
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After all the hard work we put into moving house and organising the wedding we felt we needed a rest, so September we did exactly that. We took time out
to arrange our new pad and also to acclimatise to the training centre in Chaoyang.
We also spent some time scrutinising the website and looking at how we could best improve it. We have a few ideas, which we’ll hopefully be able to put in
place for the new year, which is now only a couple of months away!
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Summer has come to an end here in Beijing now, with the wind beginning to pick up, and the hot, humid evenings being replaced by cooler, temperate nights.
So as we say goodbye to the Summer, we also have to say goodbye to our Summer students, and wish them safe journeys home and continued improvement in their training.
 Dung came over in May and
since then has worked tirelessly to improve his Wushu skills. Everyday Lu Yan would encourage him in his jibengong, ensuring that he
stretched properly, concentrated whilst performing his kicks, and focus on the techniques that he most needed to improve. By the end of his 3 month stay Dung had
managed to get full splits on both sides as well as get the head-to-toe stretch – no small achievement in this very short period.
Focusing on Chang Quan and Jian, Dung’s balance, co-ordination and stances all improved considerably, his movements beginning to become more integrated and
fluid as time went on. This is testament to his perseverance and willingness to keep training throughout his stay in Beijing.
 Andy arrived in Beijing a
few weeks after Dung, and after a few days jetlag slipped right into the training schedule. Andy wanted to train Chen style taiji, and his first few weeks were
spent conditioning the legs, as the Chen style footwork and stances require massive amounts of stamina. Andy was extremely diligent, every day doing several
hours of Chen style jibengong, all in preparation for learning the competition form.
Before teaching Andy the competition form, Lu Yan first taught him the 36 Step form as an introduction to the style, so that he could get an idea of the flavour of
Chen style.
It was only after Lu Yan could see that Andy’s movements were beginning to show an understanding of Chen style’s hard and soft actions that
she started intensively teaching him the competition form.
Lu Yan would like to thank both Dung and Andy for their hard work over the Summer, and hopes that they will continue to practise what she has taught them.
So ‘Jia yo!’ guys, keep working hard!
 We were also very pleased
that another of Lu Yan’s students, Ray from W1F, came over for a few weeks training. Ray popped over to ask Lu Yan to help him hone his individual Chang Quan
routine, which she did willingly. As usual Ray showed off his sick Wushu skillz, reminding us that we were just mortals in the presence of a Wushu God… good job Ray!
And finally, one piece of non-Wushu related news. On August 26th Lu Yan and I were married here in Beijing. We would sincerely like to thank everyone that made it
along to help us celebrate – family, friends and students – it was your happiness and enthusiasm that made the day as fantastic as it was.
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 Well the wet
weather hasn’t let up yet, with there being torrential rain more or less every other day. There’s been so much rain in fact that Beijing has
issued a Yellow alert, meaning that more wet weather is on the way. Just as well we train indoors!
This month one of our buddies Shane came to train with Lu Yan, and he brought along one of his students, Thai. Shane has been living in China for a while now and
mostly training Bagua, but decided to spice things up a bit by learning some Fanzi Quan with Lu Yan.
One of Shane’s students from Canada, Thai, came over to China for the Summer. He took this opportunity to train with Lu Yan and not only hone his Chang Quan
and Qiang, but also to learn a Shuang Dao routine.
Thai is Shane’s student from way back and has some very good skills, so was able to pick up new moves very
quickly. He learned a lot in his six weeks training with Lu Yan, and his improvement in the basic techniques was noticeable.
This month Ho Huaikun popped in to say hello and also demonstrate some of the skills that recently took him 3 Gold Medals at the Tianjin University Wushu competition.
Lu Yan has arranged for him to go to Hong Kong and teach at The Wushu Arts Centre with Wang Yanghai for 2 weeks, so he dropped
in to see us before he flew out.
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We’ve also been very busy this month organising our move from Haidian over to Chaoyang. We are hoping to be in our new place ready for the end of August,
beginning of September, but still have a lot to get done before then!
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 Although summer is here now,
Beijing has been enjoying an unprecedented amount of rain this month. This has made the air a lot cooler which has offered us a bit of relief during our hot
summer training.
This was good news for the second of our Summer students, Andy L from W1F, who has just arrived from the UK where a rainy summer is the norm! This is Andy’s
second trip to China to train with Lu Yan, this time training Chen style Taiji for 3 months.
In only a few short weeks Andy has made excellent progress in learning the basic 36 step Chen routine. He is beginning to understand the moves more and more
as the days go by and as Lu Yan says, his moves are ‘beginning to get the right flavour’. Both he and Dung are working hard to make the most of their time
here with Lu Yan.
 This month we also welcomed Silvester
Roos from Holland for a couple of weeks Bagua training. Silvester was on the Dutch team that went to Baltimore in 1995 for the Wushu World Championships, but now
predominantly teaches and trains Taiji.
Silvester was a very diligent student, and managed to learn a lot in his short time with Lu Yan. She was very impressed at the ease with which Silvester picked
up the intricate twists and turns of Cheng style Bagua.
Silvester can be contacted through his website, taijiroos, which we’ve added to our links page.
Away from training we were also lucky enough to see two of Lu Yan’s old team mates this month. We met up with Ge Chunyan, who now lives and teaches in Singapore,
and Mi Jinpei, who lives and teaches at Huai Rou, for lunch at the beginning of the month.
Ge Chunyan only occasionally comes back to Beijing now so Lu Yan was especially pleased to see her. Although Huai Rou is not far from Beijing we also very rarely
get to see Mi Jinpei as well, so it was a really happy reunion. Lu Yan was obviously very pleased to see her old friends and enjoyed several hours of chatting
about old times.
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One final thing to add is that we have now added the interview that Mike Chen gave us last month. It’s a great read for
coaches and students alike so please go check it out!
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 The first of our Summer students
has arrived now and his training is well underway. Dung will be training Chang Quan, Qiang, Jian and Sanjiegun with Lu Yan for the next few months.
Dung has been training for about a year in the US and has already got some good wushu skills – he recently attended his first competition and came in the
middle of his division which is impressive for the first time out.
Dung is very conscientious, always training hard even though his muscles are obviously still sore from the hard work that he put in from the previous day’s
training. With this sort of attitude he will definitely make great improvements during his time here.
This month we also received an article from one of our friends, Mike Chen. Mike interviewed Lu Yan at the end of last year for his Masters Degree and he has very
kindly agreed to let us put his dissertation up on the site. It’s an excellent interview in which Mike asks Lu Yan questions about her Wushu experiences.
It’s going to take us a bit of time to format the document for the site so please bear with us until we get it sorted!
Lu Yan would also like to congratulate Canada East Wushu on their recent success at the Quebec Wushu competition,
held in April. One of their students took the Gold medal with the Fanzi Quan form that Lu Yan taught there last year.
Another one of Lu Yan’s Chinese students, Ho Huaikun, recently also took 3 Gold medals in a University competition here in China.
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After spending February and March on the road it was nice to have a month here in Beijing. This year Spring has come later than usual, with it still being a bit
chilly even though we are nearly in May.
This month has been a month of consolidation. We have now moved onto a new server so we can offer more content than we could before. This includes more pictures,
more videos and hopefully more articles.
So we’d like to ask you – what would you like to see more of on this website? What do you enjoy reading and downloading? Let us know
and we’ll do our best to add it for you!
Lu Yan has been busy preparing for this summer’s students. We have several booked in now, wanting to learning styles such as Sanjiegun, Chen Taiji, Qiang and Chang Quan.
It promises to be a fun packed summer of serious wushu training!
One last thing to mention. In February we had a visit from one of Lu Yan’s old team mates, Xue Xingfu but in the rush to get to the UK we didn’t get a chance to
update the website. I have now updated the February details – go check it out!
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After a short stay in the UK it was off to Hong Kong to catch up with two more of Lu Yan’s friends, Lin Quan and Wang Yanghai, both of whom you may
remember she caught up with last year at the All China Games.
Wang Yanghai runs a very successful Wushu school in Hong Kong. Students of his school, the Wushu Arts Centre,
always do well in the Hong Kong Wushu competitions, regularly taking Gold Medals. Lin Quan is one of the top coaches at the school, with Liu Zhenling,
the Guangdong Wushu team head coach, also coming down to help from time to time.
Wang Yanghai invited Lu Yan to take a seminar which was very well attended with more than 20 youngsters thoroughly enjoying the day. Lu Yan was impressed
by the group’s enthusiasm for learning and hopes that they continue to go from success to success.
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Another one of Lu Yan’s friends, Zheng Zhihao, also made the trip down from Guangzhou to meet her. Zheng Zhihao used to be a stuntman and stand in for Jackie
Chan and now runs his own business as an events organiser.
By chance, another of Lu Yan’s old Wushu friends, Huang Huizhen, is also teaching in Hong Kong. Huang Huizhen used to be in the Guangdong team and was a Chinese
national champion with her Nanquan. Her Nanquan is still considered to be the best that there is.
Lu Yan hadn’t seen either of them for a number of years so they had a lot to talk about – what was expected to be a brief lunchtime catch-up turned into a
thoroughly interesting seven hour discussion about wushu, competitions, and Hong Kong action movies, all mixed in with plenty of reminiscing!
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Lu Yan would like to particularly thank Lin Quan for helping her organise her trip to Hong Kong and for looking after her so well whilst she was there. Without
her help the trip would not have been as smooth, fun or successful as it was!
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Most of Lu Yan’s old team mates from the Beijing Wushu Team now live abroad, only coming back to Beijing occasionally. This month Xue Xingfu, who now lives in
Singapore, made a fleeting visit to Beijing for a few weeks. Lu Yan hadn’t seen him for quite some time so she was really happy to catch up with him.
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It was a doubly happy occasion as Xue Xingfu had just got married, so we had the chance to meet his new wife and offer our heartfelt congratulations.
Xue Xingfu’s speciality is Xingyi Quan, which he now teaches alongside the competition wushu styles in Singapore.
Lu Yan left for the UK mid February and managed to catch up with her friend Huang Ping and her students from
Dreaming Dragon based in London. Lu Yan is always especially pleased to catch up with her
old students so she was really happy that Andy, Ray, Dipen and Max all made it along to meet her. Unfortunately I haven’t got any pictures,
as I forgot to take my camera along, sorry!
Huang Ping has been very busy recently getting her students ready to enter the British Nationals in Summer. Lu Yan would like to wish all
of Huang Ping students that compete this year the very best of luck, so ‘jia yo’!
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We would like to wish all our family, friends and students a prosperous and
successful Year of the Dog. May this year bring you everything you ask for! We
have a lot of things in the pipeline for this year, so there’s plenty to look
forward to.
This last year Lu Yan was teaching at a middle school in Beijing, and her
students have gone from strength to strength. Last year in Beijing competitions
her students picked up 26 Gold, 20 Silver, and 13 bronze medals. She is very
pleased with how they have progressed and wishes them every success in their
future training.
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On to site news now, and we’ve just added a new article to the
Articles section. Last August I did an interview with Andrea Falk of the
Wushu Centre and Antonio Flores of the
Wushu Exchange. I wanted to ask what they remembered about training Wushu in
China when they first came over in the 1980’s, and how they thought the training
may have changed over the last 20 years.
It was a great interview, with Andrea and Antonio discussing what it was like in
China then, and how they managed to survive their training! It dawned on me
after the interview that they really were some of the very first Westerners to
come to Beijing to train Wushu at University. In essence, they were pioneers…
hence I named the interview Wushu Pioneers.
We have also just sorted out a new hosting contract whereby we will be able to
have a bigger and better server. This means that we will be able to offer more
video and picture content in the future. It will probably take some time before
we get into production on the new machine so please bear with us, it may be
awhile yet!
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Want to learn more about Wushu? Visit the
Articles pages
Want to learn more about Lu Yan's Coaching Career? Visit the
Coaching Career pages
Want to learn more about training with Lu Yan? Visit the
Train with Lu Yan pages
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