It is complete coincidence that our two newest books — James Counsilman’s, “Ten Animals Kung Fu: Xin Yi Liu He Quan,” and Andrea Falk’s, “Shadowboxing in Shanghai: A Memoir and a Guide to the Traditional Chen Taijiquan From Dragon Park” — have something in common: they both come from records of the authors’ experiences studying […]
Mar
16
2023
16
2023
Oct
28
2022
28
2022
ChaQuan and Its TanTui
We at Plum freely admit that we are big fans of Andrea Falk, in her roles as martial artist, writer and translator. It is this last role that we celebrate today. When we started Plum, almost 30 years ago, there were so many important texts available in Chinese that we never thought we would see […]
Jun
5
2022
5
2022
Formation of a Wushu Student: Andrea Falk’s New Book
Plum represents a LOT of books, among them some real treasures. Typically, when we talk about the best ones, they usually share certain qualities having to do with technical information: a teacher generous enough to reveal principles, methods, even “secrets.” Andrea Falk’s newest book, Beijing Bittersweet, certainly includes gems of instruction from her own teachers, […]
Oct
2
2019
2
2019
Andrea Falk’s Masterful Martial Arts Dictionary: UPDATED, Hardcovers have arrived!
10/2/19: The Hardcover editions have arrived and they are big and beautiful. Two good things: There is a price drop down to $80, AND we are extending the 10% discount for the hardcovers purchased through October 31. Discount code is DictHC Limited supply at the moment, but we will get more. Yeah! The Dictionaries have […]
Sep
5
2019
5
2019
Excerpt from Falk’s Chinese Martial Arts Dictionary
In our excitement over the arrival of Andrea Falk’s Chinese Martial Arts dictionary, we neglected to post this generous sample from the text. These pages show, among other things, the thorough approach Ms Falk has taken in putting together this important resource. Order through September 30 to get a 10% discount on either the compact […]
Jun
16
2019
16
2019
System, Not Style
We are pleased to offer this presentation—long overdue by us—of Di Guoyong on Xingyiquan, Sifu Di’s systematic explanation of that deeply loved and appreciated style, Xing Yi Quan. Contained in these three volumes is a full roster of forms along with comprehensive descriptions, from basics all the way to weapons forms and partner practice. We […]
May
26
2019
26
2019
Jiang Rongqiao’s Bagua Zhang—Now in English AND Chinese
Andrea Falk is doing wonderful translations. Actually, she has been doing wonderful translations for a long time, but now she is going back, revising and improving on some of her earlier works to make them even better. We are still awaiting the massive expansion and rewrite of her earlier Wushu dictionary (this one promises to […]
Jul
14
2017
14
2017
Major New Bagua book
I’ll be honest with you: I have not yet finished Andrea Falk’s new book, “A Shadow on Fallen Blossoms: The 36 and 48 Traditional Verses of Baguazhang,” but we were so excited about the book we wanted to announce it as soon as we received copies. I can’t imagine anyone interested in Bagua not wanting […]
May
8
2016
8
2016
Li Tianji’s Xing Yi Legacy; Andrea Falk’s Dictionary
Plum is adding another text by Andrea Falk, a translation of significance to Xing Yi practitioners: Li TianJi’s The Skills of XingYiQuan; 311 pages, with hundreds of illustrations. This is a thorough text on the style handed down to Li Tianji from his father, Li Yulin. It’s very well laid out with sections covering basic […]
Nov
16
2014
16
2014
Now You Can Look It Up
If you’ve been around in the Chinese martial arts field for a while and have tried your hand at translation, you probably will think the same thing I did on first seeing teacher Andrea Falk’s wushu dictionary: “Not only could I have written this, but I probably did…more than once.” The difference is that Sifu […]
