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Austin Texas area Yang Style Tai Chi Class in Buda, Texas, teaching the Cheng Man-Ching Simplified Yang Style and components of the Tchoung Ta-Chen Dual Sided Yang Style
 
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Tchoung Ta-Tchen
Tchoung Ta-Tchen
Tchoung Ta-Tchen 鍾大振 was born 1911 and passed away in Vancouver, BC Canada in 2000. He was born in Hunan Province in China. His Tai Chi practice began in 1942. Tchoung was among the earliest Tai Chi Chuan practitioners to bring the art to North America. Tchoung taught in Taiwan, South Africa, United States and Vancouver, BC Canada. In Vancouver he formed the Chinese Tai Chi Chuan Association in 1972. Shortly thereafter he was invited to become the Tai Chi master of the Seattle Tai Chi Association where he also taught many students.

Shoulder Stroke
Shoulder Stroke
Tchoung Ta-Tchen created the 6 section Dual Sided Yang Style Tai Chi Chuan Form in the late 1960's. He felt the standard Yang Tai Chi form favored the right side, which he considered unbalanced. He taught a two man partner set called "Section 7 & Section 8" and he created "section 9", a fast set combining elements of the Natural School, Tai Chi, Bagua and Hsing-I.

Tchoung Ta-Tchen began teaching in 1970 as the Tai Chi Chuan teacher for President Bongo of Gabon. He also established the South African Chinese Health and Self Defense Club in Johannesburg.

Having been one of his students in Vancouver, BC I can testify that he loved his Tai Chi Classes and his Tai Chi Students! He was like a father to us. He cried publicly when I returned to the club to visit after years away!

Tchoung Ta-Tchen Doing Push Hands With His Students
Teaching Push Hands to His Students
One of the best stories to exemplify the character of Tchoung Ta-Tchen and his attitude towards his students was posted by Andrew T. Dale, teacher of the Oldest School of Internal Martial Arts in the NW United States on his website entitled a "Tribute to Tchoung Ta-Tchen":

"The first few months Tchoung taught through a translator since he didn’t speak any English. He would jump up and down, roll on the floor and go through many antics as he was describing and explaining lessons. The translators would then say: “Sifu says to relax!”. When asked what else the comments would be, we were told it’s too hard to translate. One day a young Chinese man came to visit the club and after one of these translations burst out, 'That’s not what he said, he said..'. Curious, Tchoung pulled him aside and chatted with him. We discovered that the translators the elder Chinese of the club didn’t want the ‘outsiders’ learning the real art and kung fu of Tai Chi so the translations weren’t correct. Upon finding this out Tchoung began learning English. After teaching a movement he would say, “You understand?” If we said yes he would require we demonstrate the move and applications to verify we had it. Otherwise we’d start over again.

Tchoung’s passion was to teach and spread not only the art of Tai Chi but the real kung fu of Tai Chi."

Sifu Tchoung Ta-Tchen Still Doing Push Hands In His 80's
85 Years Old and Still Pushing!
My personal experience was the same. Most of the students in our club in Vancouver, BC were Chinese. Sifu really wanted to communicate with us 'westerners'. He tried hard to learn English and he even tried to teach us westerners some Chinese! Those Chinese classes didn't last very long, we didn't do very well at that. But, the characters were fascinating!

Tchoung Ta-Tchen demonstating Double Sword
Proficient with Many Weapons
Tchoung Ta-Tchen placed great emphasis on the Martial Applications for each of the postures and in the push-hands practice. He loved to "Play" with his students. And he would laugh and laugh when we couldn't push him! Even though he was in his Mid-Sixties already, nobody could even come close to pushing him out. He would even push standing on one leg to give us a chance! In fact, he would even stand on one leg and have multiple people try to push him over at the same time.

One of the most interersting experiences we had in our club was when we were visited by a hard stylist and Sifu Tchoung invited the visitor to punch him in the stomach with all his force. The visitor punched Sifu in the stomach and sifu relaxed and sucked in his stomach and the visitors hand all but disappeared. Then Sifu put one of his hands out to steady the elbow of his opponent and with a mighty exhale he pushed out his stomach and threw his attacker against the wall using only his stomach muscles. His attackers own stiff/tense arm was what pushed him out. Sifu thought that was tremendously funny! And told us all we had to learn to "Relax"

Laurens Lee Who Now Runs the Chinese Tai Chi Chuan Association
Sifu Laurens Lee
Tchoung Ta-Tchen's legacy continues as his class in Vancouver, BC is now conducted by Laurens Lee who learned Tai Chi Chuan from Tchoung Ta Tchen and is now the President of the Chinese Tai Chi Chuan Association. Laurens Lee helped Grandmaster Tchoung to translate and edit the book, "The Annotated Theoretical and Practical Tai Chi Chuan". In 1996, he organized a Tai Chi conference named "Tai Chi Chuan and Modern Lifestyles", which was jointly presented by the Chinese Tai Chi Chuan Association of Canada and the Chinese Cultural Centre of Vancouver.

Teaching Tai Chi Chuan in Greater Vancouver for more than ten years, Master Lee is currently the instructor of the Tai Chi Chuan classes at many locations throughout the Vancouver area. He demonstrates and performes in various community events. He has also presented an instructional Tai Chi Chuan television series in the program "Morning Exercise" on Fairchild Television. It is good to know that the work of Sifu Tchoung Ta-Tchen continues on in good hands!

 
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