These changes allowed Cheng to teach larger numbers of students in a shorter time. His shortened form became extremely popular in Taiwan and Malaysia, and he was among one of the earliest Chinese masters to teach tai chi chuan publicly in the United States. His students have continued to spread his form around the world.
It should be noted that Cheng rejected the appellation "Yang Style Short Form" to characterize his tai chi. When pressed on the issue, he called his form "Yang-Style Tai Chi in 37 Postures."
Cheng's changes to the Yang style form have never been officially recognised by the Yang family and (perhaps partly because of the continued popularity of Cheng's shortened form) his style is still a source of controversy among some tai chi chuan practitioners. From Cheng's own point of view, the approval of his elder brother disciple Ch'en Wei-Ming was all the recognition he needed, since by that time Yang Cheng-fu was deceased, and all of the current generation of Yang Cheng-fu leaders were junior to him. |