Edward Hines

I was born in London in 1968, I live in Paris now and it is 2015. At the time of writing I’ve been practising Baguazhang for twenty four years since I first met my teacher Luo Dexiu in Taiwan in 1991. That is another story. My interest in Chinese martial arts got serious in 1983 when I started to study Taiji in London. Again that’s another story, but it was the one that took me to Taiwan. For years martial arts were pretty much everything to me. Though I’ve kept Bagua as my martial ‘home’ I’ve studied many other arts and traditions over the decades. I used to compete in sanda. I’ve largely lost my taste for being punched in the head and thrown on the ground, I think that can happen with age, but I do know what it’s like. I don’t write from a flowery or idealistic perspective. For years martial arts were pretty much everything to me. Now I see them as part of something bigger, part of being human. It’s not so easy to be a healthy human today, urban living, diet, culture all tend to create various distortions. Animal vitality is smothered in domestic settings, childlike curiosity, absorption and play are discouraged in the controlled settings of school and workplace. This is a big subject. A huge one, it encompasses the entirety of our culture and our biology. I am only scratching its surface. So these days Baguazhang and martial arts are tools, a practices, a cultural gifts that I offer to help the walk the fine line, or broad circle from domestication to wildness and back again. It’s not the only tool I use, but it is a very beautiful one and I am grateful to the people who came before and the ones who will come after. I’m happy to hear from you! You can write to me at edward @ i-bagua.com with your comments, suggestions and requests.