Where does the time go? (No, seriously, if anyone has an answer for that we’d like to know.)

We seem to be busy all the time, then realize we have not posted any of the new material that stacks up here at Plum. So here is a rush of new and revised material for your edification.

Lu Style Xinyi Liuhe Quan (Chinese/English)

Ten Animals Xin Yi Liuhe (Revised)

Zhang Wenguang’s Chaquan Volume 2

Fujian White Crane Kung Fu (Revised)

OK, first of all, let’s talk Xinyi Liuhe. This is a style that is relatively under-respresented in English, so to be able to have two announcements is special.

The first title, Lu Style Xinyi Liuhe Quan, is remarkable: it is a comprehensive volume on the Shanghai Lu Family XYLH, and is presented in both Chinese AND English. Even if it were just in Chinese, the book would be generous in its efforts to present the system — from theory to fundamentals to form instruction to usage — but the well-done translation into English makes it that much better. And it comes packaged with a VCD!

The next gem on the Ten Animals XYLH is one that we have represented for a while, but this revised edition adds well-received photos of movement instruction to round it all out. While Counsilman’s text is well-written, movement instruction benefits tremendously when photos are added.

Andrea Falk (admittedly, one of Plum’s favorite authors and translators) has fulfilled her promise to one of her teachers by presenting his Chaquan system in English. This second volume of Zhang Wenguag’s Chaquan adds the further styles within the Chaquan System — Hua, Pao, Hong and Tui. As always, the details, personal experiences and fine hand of Falk’s translations add so much to our understandings of the systems she profiles.

Finally, another classic, Lorne Bernard’s 2005 Fujian White Crane Kung Fu book (formally titles Shaolin White Crane) has gotten a facelift in the way of updated and corrected text, MANY new photos, and even a newly-designed cover to be more in line with his more recent book, Authentic White Crane Kung Fu. Sifu Bernard’s two books on Fujian White Crane are key texts for this Southern style, recommended to all who practice.

More to come, ALWAYS more to come.