Chen Xiaowang


Chen Xiaowang is an Australian-Chinese taijiquan teacher, who was born and raised in Chen Family Village, Wen County, Henan province, and is the 19th generation lineage holder of Chen-style taijiquan. His grandfather was the taijiquan grandmaster Chen Fake.

Biography

Chen Xiaowang began his study of Chen-style taijiquan at the age of seven under his father, Chen Zhaoxu, and later with his uncles Chen Zhaopi and Chen Zhaokui. Recognised as one of four "Buddha's Warrior Attendants," the four outstanding exponents of the 19th generation in Chenjiagou, Xiaowang was chairperson of the Henan Province Chen Push Hands Taijiquan Association, deputy head of the Wushu Academy of Henan Province, and technical advisor and official assessor for the standardized competition routines for the Chen, Yang, Wu, and Sun styles of taijiquan.
Chen was awarded the Chinese National Wushu Tournament Taijiquan gold medal three consecutive years beginning in 1980. He was depicted in a March 1981 Japanese documentary on Taijiquan, demonstrating the laojia form, fa jin, and escaping from various qinna holds. In 1985, he was crowned Taijiquan Champion at the First International Wushu Competition in Xi'an.
Grandmaster Chen created two condensed forms of the laojia and xinjia forms; a 38-posture form and a 19-posture form. He told inside Kung-Fu Magazine in 1991, "I have tried to do away with all the repetitions and simplify the exceedingly difficult moves without destroying the characteristics of Chen Style Taijiquan, with special emphasis to attack/defense and the chansi technique."
Ellis Amdur narrated an anecdote where he attended to a training workshop, in which Xiaowang demonstrated a move named "Budda's Warrior Attendant Pounds Mortar," an elevated foot stomp. Despite being on a stage six feet over the gymnasium floor, Xiaowang stomped so powerfully that it "the floor shook... forty feet away." Amdur checked out whether it had been caused by a tricked floor, but he could not find anything, nor could he replicate the effect by jumping stiff-legged from the stage.
Apart from his martial arts prowess, Chen is a carpenter by trade, a calligrapher, an author of three Taijiquan books, and is known to enjoy Mao Jian Cha tea.