Playing with ‘peng’ in Taiji Boxing

Abstract

‘Peng’ (pronounced ‘pung’), or ‘ward-off,’ as it roughly translates, is one of the thirteen ‘shi’ or core postures/principles of the Chinese meditative, self-healing and martial art of Taijiquan (T’ai-chi Ch’uan). This paper describes a particular ‘peng’ training drill, simply called the ‘peng-drill’, created by a small group of Taiji Boxing practitioners in Australia. The analysis draws on the work of cultural theorist Paul Willis, and recent scholarship within the sociology of the body that builds on Willis’ work, most notably the work of Alan Radley. It is argued that ‘peng-drill’ evidences a particular opening out of or ‘playing with’ the ‘objective possibilities’ of Taijiquan as a practice.

‘Peng-drill’ is depicted as a form of ‘sensuous meaning making’—body-out as it were—through which practitioners generate and configure meanings and hence salient body-self-identities, or rather bodily sensibilities: as Taiji practitioners—as ‘Taiji Boxers’.