Buji Quan , disappearing fighting art of central Taiwan

Taiwan is, as it was said before, due to specific geographical position and historical and political events, last safe place for long lost and forgotten kung fu styles, especially from Fujian province.

One of those styles, long lost and forgotten everywhere else and on the brink of extinction on Taiwan as well is Buji quan.” Chicken cloth” style is classic example of early 19^th century Fujianese kung fu. It is clear that Buji quan has same roots and shares many common traits with other, much better known Fujianese styles such as White Crane, Five Ancestors style, Golden Eagle ect.  Style is characterized by high stances, very agile and versatile footwork, short and powerful punches and kicks with power generation characteristic for majority northern styles. Today there are around 20 short forms while in the past forms were not fixed besides few core sets. Style uses a whole specter of traditional weapons. For outsiders it is very hard to make distinction between Golden Eagle and Buji quan.

History of the style is not clear and it remains unknown who actually founded the style and when. First mention of the style can be traced to 1831.

Buji quan was and still is exclusively practiced in one of the seven sub villages of Xiulo village a famous kung fu place in Taiwan near Taichung.

http://penglaimartialarts.blogspot.com/2014/09/kung-fu-village.html

Originally practiced in Lunbei village, one of the villages closest to the sea and always under attack of the pirates Buji quan was developed be practical and effective. There are several versions who and when developed this style. One of the theories is that Buji was just a substyle of Golden Eagle boxing brought by A Shin Shi. Other theories put the origin of the art as far as Guangdong province. In any case, great influence of Hakka martial heritage is more than obvious.

Today Buji quan is practiced only by handful of practitioners and there is a great danger that this rare and unique style will be lost in the near future. That would be a great loss for traditional martial arts heritage because this style didn’t change much form the time it was invented and represent a great source of information on Fujianese martial arts at the beginning of 19^th century. Although there are some effort to popularize this style and make it known to wider public it still stays confined to small geographical area and due to isolation and social and economical reasons style struggles to attract new generations of practitioners.

Bujiquan Teacher Liao Xianyuan Demonstrates  basic Three Steps form