Educational Media Reviews Online

Chen Village visits the rural 270-year-old Chinese town where generations of the Chen family have taught Tai Chi Chuen. An estimated 2,500 of the village’s 3,000 residents are students of Tai Chi, and people come from all over the world to study with the Chen family. The film incorporates interviews with several members of the Chen family including Grandmaster Chen Xiaowang with footage of Tai Chi students in practice and performance, and panoramic scenes of the village and countryside.

In interviews Grandmaster Chen, his brother, son and sister trace the growth of interest in Tai Chi after the Cultural Revolution (when Tai Chi was banned) to the present day with over 200 Tai Chi teachers living in Chen Village. Chen Bing, Xiaowang’s son, has taught extensively outside China and has started a new school with plans to make it more attractive to foreign students who might want to learn Tai Chi only as a sort of fashionable hobby. In contrast Grandmaster Chen says he will accommodate a student’s limited interest but eventually the student will follow him into deeper study and appreciation of the art.

Joe, Daryl and John, Tai Chi students from England, the U.S. and the U.K. respectively, talk about why they have come to Chen Village, what the discipline of Tai Chi means to them, and how different life in rural China is from their lives at home. Daryl spends vacations from his job as a bank manager in Chen village; although he laughingly admits he is “longing for a cup coffee,” he finds benefits in the slower pace and isolation of village life. Tai Chi helped him avoid knee surgery and move pain-free, and he brings the principles of balance and transformation to his managerial work at home. John tearfully describes the ceremony where he and Daryl officially became Chen Xiaowang’s disciples as the most important day of his life. Joe, after a year in Chen Village, says he is not sure how Tai Chi will impact his future but he knows he is, somehow, fundamentally changed.

The beauty and power of Tai Chi is rendered in extended footage of masters and students in class and in individual and group performances. Students do not move in precise synchronicity, illustrating Grandmaster Chen’s observation that foreign students’ approach tends to be about specific positions, where Chinese students think about the feelings underlying the movements.

The film provides some insight into Tai Chi practice, but aside from claims of general health benefits the deeper purpose and impact of Tai Chi remains somewhat mysterious. Chen Village can be recommended to Tai Chi devotees for its performance footage and portrayal of the Chen family’s impact on, and dedication to, the art.