25 Oct 2008 (Sat)
Our flight is at 0055 to Shanghai.
Current status: 50 routines since day of preparation.
People sending us off: Jiaolian, Shimu, Xiaoxuan, Youxun, Xiangqi and Jiece.
对我来说，其实一向来参加比赛，最重要的不是比赛的成绩或结果，而重要的是至亲好友的支持与鼓励。 这或许也是为何近些年参加比赛失去了他的意义的主原因。。。只有一种孤军作战的凄凉感。。。 或许是周遭的人对我太有信心了吗？或许是真的只有我孤军一人。。。或许是。。。还有许许多多的或许，或许。。。 这次的比赛，对我来说是一个我非常重视的比赛。也是最后一个我会认真的比赛。就跟当年一莫一样。连情绪也一莫一样。 也跟当年一样，多么希望得到某人的支持与鼓励。。。但最后还是决定了默默去面对这项极大的挑战。。。只发了几个简讯给几个“好友”谈些“有的没的”。。。或许这是我最后的决定吧。。。默默地承受这一切。。。因为我了解，那些支持与鼓励都可能变成莫大的压力。。。也可能化成莫大的失望。。。 但也非常感谢到机场为我们送行的教练一家人，捷策和祥祺。他们的出现多少都给了我们一些安慰。。。 那一刻，我才深深的体会到一个运动员在比赛前所会有的复杂情绪。。。参赛过的运动员，你们是否也有过这种复杂的情绪？
何谓“好友”？
谜语：或许你知我知，他知你不知，我知你未必知，我和他知，但你永远不一定知。。。
谜底：当你知，这就是所谓的“好友”。。。
26 Oct 2008 (Sun)
Reach Shanghai Pudong Airport. Met 师伯's student Chen Wenbiao at Loyang Rd Station and he drove us to Hanting Hotel at 武夷路。At the hotel, Kaiyu was asked to demonstrate his Xingyiquan. It was also where Chen Wenbiao demonstrated the practical usage of 钻拳劈掌，which impressed Kaiyu alot. This is just the 1st few hours of our wushu adventure in China and it was very rewarding for him. B4 he left, we wanted to thank him for the trouble of bringing us ard and gave him the bottle of 花雕酒。He refused to accept n we wanted to push it to him but we couldn't outpush him as his 功力很深。So no choice, we have to carry the bottle of 花雕酒 throughout our whole trip in China... After a short rest, we headed out to 吴江路to explore the different kind of food there... Yum!!! Yum!!! Taking into consideration the comp is in a few days time, we dare not eat too much as we afraid dat we will get stomach upset and affect our performance. How we wish we were in Shanghai after the comp instead of b4 it. The whole afternoon was spent there and until evening time, we headed to 人民广场，there we learnt a very expensive lesson... a really expensive one... b4 we headed to 外滩。Along the way, we got the 高胡as requested by jiaolian. We ended the day wif KFC b4 heading back to our hotel. It was a tiring day and we gave up practicing our routine...
27 Oct 2008 (Mon)
| Woke up early to explore the interesting places of Shanghai. In the end, we decided to go to 七浦路to shop ... Spend the whole day shopping there... Was very tiring as need to bargain alot... Well, good for Kaiyu, he managed to get a Diesel bag for 80 RMB. Initially, the shop owner quoted 360 RMB! I regretted not getting the Oakley bag as I was too lazy to bargain... In the end I only get a belt ... At nite, we headed back to 吴江路 to eat our 大闸蟹and our 麻辣小龙虾！Yum.. Yum ... 麻辣小龙虾 is something dat I wanted to eat in Beijing 4 yrs ago but in the end didn't managed to as I was too tired from the training from 什刹海体育学院, learning Baguazhang from 孙志君老师and learning 梅花桩from 王亮老师。Finally! Managed to eat it liao! |  |
28 Oct 2008 (Tues)
Early, in the morning, we went to the 中山公园to look for some "excitement". To our disappointment, we can only see many people practicing Taiji and nothing much. Juz before we were about to leave the park, we saw 3 person practicing push-hands... As we got a plane to catch, we dun have the time to "play" wif them... The flight to Wuhan Airport was ard 2hrs. When we reached there, it was around 12pm... Once we reach the airport, we met the organizing committee of the 3rd International Wushu Championship. Initially, we were told to wait until all the Singaporeans arrived then we go to Shiyan City together, which was like we have to wait until 5PM???!!! But luckily later they grow brain, once there are enough ppl to occupy the whole bus, then they proceed to Shiyan City. The trip was long. From Wuhan Airport to Shiyan City is about 400km, and the bus journey was around 5 to 6 hours... On the same bus were the Sino Wushu ppl, some Liaoning ppl, and some atheles from Canada... We reached Shiyan City ard 7 or 8pm... Once our bus entered the city, we were impressed by how serious they took the competition... There were signs and posters everywhere advertising about the competition; unlike competition in Singapore, where it seems that there's always no one knowing abt the presence of wushu comp... Everyone in Shiyan would know about this competition. It's a big thing in Shiyan and also in China. There's even a TV channel dedicated to the reporting of this major wushu event! |  |
 |  |
We checked in at the世纪百强hotel at ard 9pm. At the lobby, we saw many athletes from different parts of the world namely, Canada, Brazil, Italy, Macau, Hong Hong, Malaysia, Australia, South Africa, USA, Russia, etc. All of them are in cool windbreakers, except us! It's a rare opportunity to see so many wushu athletes from all over the world. And it is definitely rare to see so mani ppl practicing wushu in the lobby of the hotel! After eating out buffet dinner, we checked out our competition schedule. Luckily, ours is on the very 1st night (31 Oct), meaning, once we finish our comp, we can go play already! Haha... But sadly, when we saw the number of competitors competing in our event, we were rather disappointed. For the international group, there were only 8 competitors in the Xingyiquan event and 8 competitors in the Baguazhang event. There wasn't any event for the female category for both events. For the national group, there were only 15 competitors in the C divison and 14 competitors in the D division for Xingyiquan. As for Baguazhang, there were only 7 competitors in the C division. Similarly, there wasn't any event for the female category for both events! This was rather disappointing as there was only a total of 37 ppl competing in Xingyiquan and 15 ppl competing in Baguazhang. At that point of time, I was rather disappointed and do not have the mood to compete anymore! This is not why I am here for! How boring can it get?!? I was expecting at least 10 or 20 people in the comp then it would be fun... but.... SIAN! My mentality totally changed: I am here to PLAY! Not here to compete anymore! Haha... After which, we proceeded back to our room 9695 to take a rest. There, we open our competition package and realise that Bedok community centre become "Wulou Demotic Club" liao... Haha.. 1st time hearing this... funny right? But the 5 star hotel is really cool!
29 Oct 2008 (Wed)Early in the morning, we wake up to eat our breakfast, followed by a "briefing". After which, we went for a museum visit opposite our hotel. Nothing interesting in the museum except for the dinosaurs. I think the most interesting thing in the museum is the big Taiji stage. For us, the wushu practitioners, it is somewhere where almost all wanted to take a picture on, including me and Kaiyu. There were so many ppl crowding around it n waiting for their chance to take a pic so we could only gave it a pass. BUT, we are clever! We waited for everyone to leave 1st then we returned to take pics! Haha... it is also where our 1st encounter with the local volunteers namely BAN-DONG Jun Jun, Tingting and Fangliang. They helped us to take the pics... keke... and we actually regretted not getting their contacts as we wished that they could bring us around Shiyan City after our comp...
 |  |
In the afternoon, we had our welcome banquet and then we were brought to the Shiyan Indoor Stadium to familarize with the competition ground. Getting a bit worried already as I realized the competition carpet was not as friendly as what I expected it to be... N it was a bit difficult to find my directions as everywhere looked the same! After spinning a few rounds, I couldn't find my 正前方! A bit regret that I did not bring my frictionless shoes with me... *Big Sigh*... After which, we went back to the hotel for some more practice, rest, dinner and get ready to attend the opening ceremony. The opening ceremony was definitely a glamorous one in which, it really made you feel proud to be a competitor in this event. There were many splendid wushu performances. S.H.E, 任贤齐and other artistes were also there. Not forgeting the 非常壮观的fireworks display! I think they are out to blow up and pollute the whole of Shiyan City!
 |  |
 |  |
30 Oct 2008 (Thurs)
Early in the morning, we woke up and get ready for sight-seeing at the Wudang Mountain. Some of the pictures were already uploaded in the previous post. Similarly, along the way up the Wudang Mountain there were many kids lining up beside to road chanting "欢迎，欢迎，热烈欢迎！"... Heard that this is China's signature way of welcoming the foreign guests. There were also mass wushu display and performances. Looking at the numbers of performancers, we were actually wondering whether we were watching them performaning or the other way round. I believe there were much more performancers than the number of audiences. The scale of performance may even be bigger than that of our NDP!
Due to time constraint, we did not finish watching the whole performances. And we returned back to hotel before mid-noon for our buffet AGAIN! At this point of time, I am already sick of the food of the buffet already. Everyday we had buffet at the same restaurant. Though the food was good, eating it everyday was also very sian. Then we went to 2nd storey to settle our administrative stuff. There, we saw Ban-Dung and company slacking outside the admin office. So 巧and so 有缘! This time round we got their contact num and hinted that we are gg out to explore the city and asked if they are free to show us around. Haha.. it worked and then they brought us to walk ard 五堰and六堰area. We walked until around it's time for to attend the Taiji Seminar at the Stadium. But before that we went to a place where they sell tea as our dear friend 林心慧wanted to get some good tea leaves. It so happened that the owner of the shop used to be a wushu practitioner practicing Xingyiquan. His is 祖传one and his hometown was near 陈家沟so he know quite alot abt their style of martial arts. We had so much to talk about but as we were rushing to attend the seminar, we had no choice but to leave the shop. We were thinking of visiting the old man again to 研究研究一番... In the end, the Taiji talk was abit boring as it was meant for beginners... Gained nothing much from the seminar, except that this Master 李德印mentioned that doing Taiji don't keep focusing on 气. Just be natural abt it will do. And both Kaiyu and me laughed as it reminded us of Xiangqi's "good fren" - 小熊掌.
The most interesting thing happened when we reached the hotel lobby. There we saw a display of Push-hands by the 掌门人of Wudang! It looks weird though as his opponents fly out without any apparent reason. Then I moved ahead of the crowd awaiting a chance to have a taste of his skills. Later, I realized it was not people challenging him, in fact, he was there to give guidance to his 徒孙and at the same time showcasing his ability. His 徒孙s were the Italy team and they took turns to display their routines for him to comment and he also made his student perform for them to see too (Actually, I feel that the Italians were much better than his students). What caught my attention was 1 Italian who displayed his Baguazhang. The way he did it was full of 战意, and was rather aggressive as well. The contents of his routine was very complete and aggressive and stood out as compared to mine which was much softer. And he was going to be my competitor! For a brief moment, I could actually feel that I was nervous! It had been such a long time that I was affected by a competitor. He gave me the kind of pressure that I haven't experience for a very very long time. And this made me feel that doing well in this competition was not easy at all. Well, after all, it's an International event where we are expected to meet many pro ppl. All the conflicting and negative thoughts came in again! A moment of joy, a moment of sadness, a moment of wanting to compete and a moment of feeling of giving up! Wow! Cool! I was not that emotionless afterall. In that brief moment in time, I recovered many of the senses which I thought I've already lost. What a cool feeling... I never knew that I would be ever affected by a competitor! Haha...
When everything ended, we proceeded back to our room and started practicing as the comp was tomlo! In the room, in front of the big mirror, I practiced much harder and realized that I tend to make more mistakes that I usually don't. That was definitely a sign of nervousness! Haha... #!?!%#... Then I go to the corridor and do my 趟泥步for a few rounds... I got tripped n stuck for so mani times and legs got tired so fast! I understood something... I was affected already! I should juz stop my practice and 希望明天会更好! Well, suddenly I felt that I do not have so much confidence as compared to the time I saw the competition line-up. I never felt like this this before. Wanting so much to win in this competition. Probably it's because it was just before a memorable day and the medal would serve as a very memorable present... Haha... Though, i know very clearly as a competitor, I couldn't be thinking of results but all these juz flooded my mind... Well, probably that's what a competitor can't avoid no matter how experienced or how confident he/she is... Wanted to talk to many people BUT the phone bill was high and each SMS is $0.70... Somehow, taking on a competition all by oneself was tough with no one to share your burden, especially overseas...
31 Oct 2008 (Fri)
Have to wake up early today as we wanted to watch the China nationals competing in the traditional events. It started off with the Xingyiquan. After watching many of the competitors, we realized that on average, the standard was so-so only. There wasn't many who were particularly impressive. In the end, we were quite bored then. Then, we also watched the competitors doing Baguazhang. I was not impressed by them except for the ones who got first and second and I feel that they were not bad... Well, they didn't give me the kind of pressure like what the Italian did the night b4... The scores (in descending order) of the 7 competitors were : 8.73, 8.70, 8.64, 8.60, 8.60, 8.60 and 8.59. The person who gt first was from Wudang and the 2nd came from Beijing. The 2nd half of the routine of the Beijing competitor was my teacher's 子掌。Haha... 看了真有亲切感! Was actually quite disappointed with the kind of standard that they displayed... I dun mind competing with them at all... Haha... We manage to see some old uncles performing very weird weapons, like the praying mantis claws, a staff with a goat's head on it, etc, etc...
During lunch time, we went back to our hotel to rest as our competition was at night. In the end, I didn't sleep much as I was watching <<倚天屠龙记>>. Was still considering whether we should go back to stadium to attend the seminar on traditional wushu. But in the end, we agreed that rest was more important so we slack in our room. Luckily, we didn't go. Heard from the others that the seminar was lousy as the speaker was not professional at all. At ard 4pm plus, we went to the shop nearby to get some makan and get ready our costume for competition.
We reached the competition ground at ard 5plus where we waited at the holding area for the competitors. We were there early and start practicing our routines... To warm myself up, I did a 旋风腿. Then kaiyu said, "如果你跌倒，我就回笑". True enough for his 乌鸦嘴, on my next attempt to do a 720 spin, I missed cue, landed and sprained my ankle. Then sian liao ... Luckily, it was only a slight sprain... but still it was uncomfortable. While Kaiyu was doing warmup, the coach from the Russia team came over and complemented how good his Xingyiquan was. She was very impressed by the way he 发劲. Then slowly, all the other Baguazhang competitors came in one by one. Then we chatted with each other, including the Italian. Though he looked dao, in fact he was rather friendly. There was another Italian doing exactly the same routine as me BUT he included the 3 掌which I took out. Pro! So cool that there's someone doing the same routine as mine! Haha... there was another Swiss who learnt his Baguazhang from 王德明 (孙老师's student)... So cool! Basically, we are from the same lineage!
After a long wait, it was finally my turn to enter the competition arena. I dunno why, but when it was my turn to enter, I felt totally relaxed and was enjoying every moment of it. There were no fear, no nervousness or any intention of performing well in the routine. I was in a playing mood then and felt like I was going down to play... In fact, I was actually speaking to myself out rather loud during the comp. I was actually looking around at the spectators and the judges instead of concentrating on my moves... The body simply took over and I was enjoying every moment in it! Never ever felt like this before in the competition. Really, enjoying myself in the competition. After the results were flashed, I was asked to go to the head judge! I was thinking "Huh? They are trying to deduct my points again???" When I go to him, he told me to go to where the reporters were as they wanted interview me. That really gave me a relieve. I thought as always, I would get my marks deducted! Hahaha...
When I gt back to the holding area, the rest of the Baguazhang competitors gathered around me and congratulate me. Actually, I did not know how I actually fare as I did not manage to see their performances and their scores. I also did not really care abt how I did at that point of time as I felt that to be able to compete with ppl of the same standard was a happy thing already. It did not matter if I win or lose. What mattered most was that I was enjoying myself in the competition arena and got to know this group of friends. What I felt then was that these opponents were like good friends to me and we were all happy no matter who won the comp! This was definitely different from the competitions that I took part in before... We were playing, chatting and enjoying ourselves there! N we agreed to meet up in the hotel to 研究研究一番! Later when we checked the results, the results were as follows: 8.77, 8.73, 8.62, 8.59, 8.59, 8.51 and 8.48.
I would really like to thank the following people: My 教练and family, 孙老师, 戈老师, other wushu teachers, 师兄姐妹弟, my family, friends, students, supporters, other competitors, the volunteers, and all those who wished us good luck and 加油ed for us. Without your support and encouragement, I wouldn't be able to do well... I would also like to thank all my enemies, people who hated, disliked, looked down on me, ignored me, people who wished that I would fall, people who only 应酬me, 对不起me, took me for granted, and people who keep backstabbing me, etc, etc... I would like to sincerely thank all of you. Without you people, I wouldn't have the courage and energy to go so far. It was always because of the negative comments that made me stronger everytime YOU people hurt me! Really thanks alot! I promised not let you all down by becoming stronger and better! Haha... Well... being lame again...
After the competition we really feel very relieved as we could really enjoyed ourselves already. We went around taking pictures, watched others performed near the prize presentation stage. Never felt so happy before as the prize is definitely a memorable present for this big event... :)
1 Nov 2008 (Sat)
| Woke up early in the morning, but one good thing, no more competition pressure! Wanted to wake up early so that we could go to different parks to find 高手to "play". Walked for so long, but didn't see any interesting people. Only when we decided to go back to the hotel, we walked passed the Stadium where there were many people practicing Wudang quan. There was this Master 岳武, who was teaching. We managed to talk to him and he explained to us what Wudang quan is all about. I managed to 向他讨教. It was quite interesting and irritating also, as he kept attacking my left hand fingers! Well, it was fun... Haha... Back in the hotel, after the breakfast, there's a granny with her grandchildren promoting their form of Wudang quan. And it happened that this granny is Zhou Susheng Laoshi's friend. She also gave us some tips on some practical wushu... It's definitely rewarding! Instead of watching the wushu competition, we decided to go to KTV with the volunteers instead. People who were present were Jun Jun, Wu Ting Ting, Chen Jie Yin, Fang Liang, Shiya, Ruan Ruan, Me, Kaiyu, Wende, Fiona, Jiagen, etc... In the end, it turned out to be a celebration instead. It was kinda fun and that was the first time I had a celebration overseas with all these newly made frens! Thank you very much! It's really an unforgettable experience. After dat, we went out for a steamboat dinner. It was really a fun day and we put wushu all behind us. Actually wanted to pose exactly the same move as the little boy, but he chose 朝天蹬! Then I was like ..... He win liao lor... :S |    |
2 Nov 2008 (Sun)
| This was the last day of the wushu competition. Instead of watching the wushu comp, we decided to visit the Wudang Mountain again as we did not reach the top the other day. We managed to reach the top of Wudang Mountain. And I had the honour of setting my foot on the top of "武当之巅". The scenery up there was splendid. We spent the whole afternoon and managed to rush back to the hotel to attend the closing ceremony and farewell banquet. After the banquet, we went around taking pictures with athletes from other countries and exchanging contacts. And this marked the end of the 3rd Internatinal Traditional Competition.... Suddenly feel that this trip was a very short one... Just when were starting to enjoy ourselves... everything came to an end... though we only got to know the voluteers JunJun, Tingting, Fang Liang, Jieyin for a few days, we really couldn't bear to leave them... Maybe it's because of the short encounter that made everything so memorable... I'll definitely miss them... |  |
3rd Nov 2008 (Mon)
Our bus was scheduled to leave very early in the morning at ard 7.45am. We were quite surprised that Ban-Dung, Tingting and Jieyin came to sent us off! They rushed from school right after their flag raising ceremony. We were so touched by them. They also brought along kiwi fruits for us and Ban-Dung Jun Jun also handed us a hand-written letter in english. When we were about to leave, Ban-Dung was already crying... We also couldn't bear to leave... but... thanks for everything! I'll definitely be back again! 你真的是一个Ban-Dung! Goodbye!
Eh... dunno why leh... tried to upload the videos but cannot leh... May probably upload them and other pictures somewhere else in friendster or facebook...
No comments:
Post a Comment