Musings from "The Master"
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If you haven't kept up with the comments at Student Corner, you might have missed the latest story in writing from LaoMa. In responding to Garry's comment on Fa Jin Ball Post (here), he remembers a couple displays of gigon and rebar! We're reposting them below. To understand the context, you'll want to look through the comments on the original post. There is some interesting dialogue there!
““Mind Method,” Gary, or do you mean “Torso Method”...? If MrJou said he never witnessed an exhibition of Mind Method, I doubt we’ll get to see it on a Facebook post either (or in person as far as that goes, and know what we were seeing!). I did see a qigong demo in an Orlando Florida tournament in mid-90s one time where a Chinese teacher had 6 or so of his American students circle around him with long ribars placed on his neck like spears. They pushed on the ribars slowly and the rebars just bent in big arcs.
Now that was a feat to witness, and a feat to perform as well (takes a lot of training) that I enthusiastically applauded. What came to my mind, however, was a Ferry ride across the Yangtze River from one part of Wuhan to another and a family of young peasant kids who would put on shows for the captive audience sitting in benches on the fantail. They had an extensive repitoire of gigong and other Martial Art skills they’d put on in hopes of receiving appreciative tips. The one that came to mind with the above Orlando demo was also with a long rebar. The smallest kid, looked to be 4-5 years old, would assume mabu and two bigger kids would hold either end of the rebar on back of his neck and then they’d slowly walk it around him until he ended up with a big iron collar, looking like one those old National Gerogaphic photos of an African lady with a stretched up neck on stacks of brass rings, having two little ends poking on either side his neck! He stood there in mabu his strained face the color of spaghetti sauce until they collected some change, and then go and rewind that rebar off him! That group, especially the little ribar kid, always got a big tip from me. Can’t say they impressed the rest of the passengers too much though. I guess China’s just too saturated with KungFu demonstrations.....!”