There is a Renaissance going on in martial arts, and it is not purely physical. We are talking about the quantity of high-quality martial writing in English, which includes translations of Chinese origin. This unexpected level of cogency delights us. We are seeing the maturity of an art, along with the rooting of well-planted seeds from earlier teachers.  The considered and well-tested appreciation of traditional skills and principles have found voices in both newly written texts as well as translations of older material, a good deal of the latter coming from the previous martial literary ..read more

Click to see books and DVDs from Sifu Chen We wanted to announce Sifu Chen Zheng Lei’s 2023 Summer Camp In Las Vegas this year, taking place from June 30 – July 5. Please click the READ MORE link below to see all of the information. There is an EARLY BIRD DISCOUNT if you enroll on or before May 31.   Agenda 日程   Date 日期 上午9:00 am -下午12:00 pm 下午2:00 pm- 5:00 pm 下午6:00 pm – 9:00 pm June 30, Friday 6月30日，星期五   Registration 注册 Registration 注册 July 01, Saturday 7月1日，星期六 Opening Ceremony, GM Chen Taichi Theory Class, Old Frame One 开幕式，大师理论课，合练老架一路 1. Old Frame One Intensive C ..read more

During the quarantine, we have been doing some cleanup around Plum and are finding some interesting items that, for one reason or another, we never catalogued. The items below are a great example: out of print VCDs from famous Tai Chi Sifu Li Deyin. We have EXTREMELY limited quantity on these: in many cases, only one copy. We’ll try our best to remove those that sell out, but it’s possible that we will get simultaneous orders…we’ll do what we can. Click image(s) to ADD to the shopping cart. All VCDs are in Chinese only, and the price is $7.95 each. They are all brand new and unwatched. If you ..read more

Lao Jia Internal Practice A quick note to let you know that we have a couple of returns back in stock…sort of. About a year ago, two of the VCDs from the popular series by Chen XiaoWang went out of print, one on Lao Jia and one on Internal Practice. Well, we have finally restocked those two, but in DVDs this time. We only have a few each, and you can click on the images to get to the page for ordering. And don’t forget! The January 10% off sale (for the entire site) goes until January 15, using the coupon code January21.   The post Chen XiaoWang Tai Chi DVDs appeared first on KaiMen ..read more

This is an excerpt from Andrew Townsend’s The Art of Taijiquan: An Examination of Five Family Styles. You can find this and several other books from Andrew on the Principles and Practice of Taijiquan by clicking the book image. Plum represents 6 of his fine volumes on Taijiquan, Martial power and Applications, Pushing Hands and Auxiliary Training.         The Similarities Among the Various Styles of Taijiquan As the various family styles of taijiquan evolved and diverged from one another, each family style developed its own distinctive defining characteristics. While some p ..read more

We have three new books for you, all in Chinese and well presented. The first book, Wu Jin, starts us off with an historical and cultural text so old we have no knowledge of its author. Among unnumbered pages is presented authentic military strategy, along with close hand combat. This is a general’s text with battlefield formations, down to the blood soaked soil, and with illustrations that probably helped win the world in its time. The next text on Chen Style Tai Chi Chuan adds another volume written by and photographed with the famous Ma Hong, one of the top Chen Tai Chi masters of the last ..read more

At least monthly, we discover that Kung Fu books and videos that were previously abundant and available are now out of print. Unfortunately, we rarely hear about these things BEFORE they disappear. Back in the day, Unique Publications was one of the two main American publishers of martial arts books, along with Ohara (Kodansha and Tuttle were the other two, with Kodansha headquartered in Japan). Unique was purchased by another company, APG, then APG was purchased by Beckett, a large publisher but not in the area of martial arts —they are one of the leading producers of trading cards. Their int ..read more

When we think of Kung Fu and its long history, we tend to think of its venerable age, lineage, and established methods. But everything in Kung Fu was new once — VERY NEW — and innovative. Responding to environment, population and, most influentially, technology, these impulses sparked revolutionary changes, as well as temporary (and sometimes, embarrassing) fads. Now, martial arts has inspired its fads. That doesn’t necessarily mean the material is bogus, but rather that the appeal to public interest eventually moves along, leaving behind a dedicated contingent of practitioners who, publicly o ..read more

At Plum, we are always seeking the best of the best and rejecting those that really don’t have all that much to offer. Sadly, there are more than a few from that batch. But today’s offerings are already classics in their field—solid, innovative, in some cases path-defining. Click each image for much more information about each item and, of course, to order. Dr Wen Zee’s insights into Wu Style Tai Chi Chuan Chen WeiMing’s classic treatise on Yang Style Taiji Sword Liang Shou Yu and Dr Yang JwingMing’s comprehensive approach to Xingyiquan George Xu’s exhaustive Basic and Advanced Training ..read more

Although we represent several books in Chinese on Sifu Feng Zhiqiang’s Hun Yuan Chen Taijiquan, (there are a couple on this page) we are a bit scant on material concerning his style in English; most of it has gone out of print. But we were able to source a few long-out-of-reach items, so we thought we would annouce them all at once. The first is a book, Special Taoist Taiji Stick and Ruler Qigong, imparted by Feng Zhiqiang and compiled by his disciple, Wang Fengming. Presented in both Chinese and English, it offers a detailed instruction on all aspects of this ruler system, including photos ..read more