Editing Tai chi (section)

== Styles ==
{{See also|Chinese martial arts#History|l1=History of Chinese martial arts}}
{{More citations needed section|date=May 2021}}

=== Chinese origin ===
[[File:Eddie Wu Grasp Bird's Tail 1998.jpg|upright|thumb|[[Wu-style tai chi|Wu-style]] master [[Eddie Wu]] demonstrating the form "Grasp the bird's tail" at a tournament in [[Toronto, Ontario]], Canada]]

The five major styles of tai chi are named for the Chinese families who originated them:

* [[Chen style]] ({{lang|zh|陳氏}}) of [[Chen Wangting]] (1580–1660)
* [[Yang-style tai chi|Yang style]] ({{lang|zh|楊氏}}) of [[Yang Luchan]] (1799–1872)
* [[Wu (Hao)-style tai chi|Wu/Hao style]] ({{lang|zh|武郝氏}}) of [[Wu Yuxiang]] (1812–1880) and [[Hao Weizhen]] (1842–1920)
* [[Wu-style tai chi|Wu style]] ({{lang|zh|吳氏}}) of [[Wu Quanyou]] (1834–1902) and his son [[Wu Jianquan]] (1870–1942)
* [[Sun-style tai chi|Sun style]] ({{lang|zh|孫氏}}) of [[Sun Lutang]] (1861–1932)

The most popular is Yang, followed by Wu, Chen, Sun, and Wu/Hao.<ref name=":1" /> The styles share underlying theory, but their training differs.

Dozens of new styles, hybrid styles, and offshoots followed, although the family schools are accepted as standard by the international community. Other important styles are [[Zhaobao tai chi]], a close cousin of Chen style, which is recognized by Western practitioners; Fu style, created by [[Fu Zhensong]], which evolved from Chen, Sun and Yang styles, and incorporates movements from {{tlit|zh|pinyin|[[baguazhang]]}};{{Citation needed|date=August 2014}} and [[Cheng Man-ch'ing]] style, which simplifies Yang style.

Around the world in the 20th and 21st centuries, some Chinese emigrants who had learned tai chi in China continued to practice it together in their new communities.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2017-07-30 |title=This Arcadia tai chi master teaches people how to stretch, fight with ‘kinetic’ style |url=https://www.pasadenastarnews.com/2017/07/30/this-arcadia-tai-chi-master-teaches-people-how-to-stretch-fight-with-kinetic-style/ |access-date=2024-11-09 |website=Pasadena Star News |language=en-US}}</ref>

=== North America ===
==== United States ====
[[Choy Hok Pang]], a disciple of [[Yang Chengfu]], was the first known proponent of tai chi to openly teach in the United States, beginning in 1939. His son and student Choy Kam Man emigrated to San Francisco from Hong Kong in 1949 to teach tai chi in [[Chinatown, San Francisco|Chinatown]]. Choy Kam Man taught until he died in 1994.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Choy |first=Kam Man |title=Tai Chi Chuan |date=1985 |publisher=Memorial Edition 1994 |location=San Francisco}}{{ISBN?}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |title=Ting: The Caldron, Chinese Art and Identity in San Francisco |publisher=Glide Urban Center |year=1970 |isbn=9780912078144 |editor-last=Nick Harvey |location=San Francisco}}</ref>

[[Sophia Delza]], a professional dancer and student of [[Ma Yueliang]], performed the first known public demonstration of tai chi in the United States at the New York City [[Museum of Modern Art]] in 1954. She wrote the first English language book on tai chi, ''T'ai-chi Ch'üan: Body and Mind in Harmony'', in 1961. She taught regular classes at [[Carnegie Hall]], the [[Actors Studio]], and the [[United Nations]].<ref>{{Cite news |last=Dunning |first=Jennifer |title=Sophia Delza Glassgold, 92, Dancer and Teacher |date=July 7, 1996 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1996/07/07/nyregion/sophia-delza-glassgold-92-dancer-and-teacher.html |work=[[The New York Times]] |access-date=February 18, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170320190321/http://www.nytimes.com/1996/07/07/nyregion/sophia-delza-glassgold-92-dancer-and-teacher.html |url-status=live |archive-date=March 20, 2017}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Inventory of the Sophia Delza Papers, 1908–1996 |date=February 2006 |url=https://www.nypl.org/sites/default/files/archivalcollections/pdf/dandelza.pdf |access-date=2014-12-24 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160616225549/http://www.nypl.org/sites/default/files/archivalcollections/pdf/dandelza.pdf |url-status=live |publisher=Jerome Robbins Dance Division, [[New York Public Library for the Performing Arts]] |archive-date=2016-06-16}}</ref>

[[Cheng Man-ch'ing]] opened his school Shr Jung tai chi after he moved to New York from Taiwan in 1964. Unlike the older generation of practitioners, Cheng was cultured and educated in American ways,{{clarify|date=July 2017}} and thus was able to transcribe Yang's dictation into a written manuscript that became the de facto manual for Yang style. Cheng felt Yang's traditional 108-movement form was unnecessarily long and repetitive, which makes it difficult to learn.{{Citation needed|date=July 2017}} He thus created a shortened 37-movement version that he taught in his schools. Cheng's form became the dominant form in the eastern United States until other teachers immigrated in larger numbers in the 1990s. He taught until his death in 1975.<ref name="Lowenthal1991">{{Cite book |last=Wolfe Lowenthal |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6ayJG1GU5Y4C |title=There Are No Secrets: Professor Cheng Man Ch'ing and His Tai Chi Chuan |publisher=North Atlantic Books |year=1991 |isbn=978-1-55643-112-8}}</ref>

==== Canada ====
[[Moy Lin-shin]] arrived in [[Toronto, Canada]], from China in 1970, where he started teaching tai chi and related internal arts.<ref name="Scrivener">{{Cite news |last=Scrivener |first=Leslie |date=September 9, 2007 |title=Marshalling praise for art of Tai Chi |work=The Toronto Star |url=https://www.thestar.com/article/254609 |access-date=2008-02-11}}</ref>

=== Europe ===
==== Italy ====
M°[[Chang Dsu Yao]] (1918–1992) was the first Chinese Master to introduce Traditional Chinese martial arts to Italy. After a military career and teaching martial arts in Taiwan, he moved to Italy in 1975. There, he began teaching Tai Chi Chuan, that he had learned from [[Yang Chengfu]], and Shaolin Kung Fu. His teachings attracted numerous students, among them [[Roberto Fassi (artista marziale)|Roberto Fassi]], with whom he co-authored several martial arts publications.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Chang Dsu Yao |first=Roberto Fassi |title=Tai Chi Chuan |date=1989 |publisher=De Vecchi Editore |year=1989 |isbn=88-412-8026-3 |location=Milan}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Chang Dsu Yao |first=Roberto Fassi |title=L'enciclopedia del Kung Fu Shaolin, Volume 1º |date=1986 |publisher=Edizioni Mediterranee |year=1986 |isbn=88-272-0016-9 |location=Rome}}</ref>

==== United Kingdom ====
Norwegian [[Pytt Geddes]] was the first European to teach tai chi in Britain, holding classes at [[The Place (London)|The Place]] in London in the early 1960s. She had first encountered tai chi in Shanghai in 1948, and studied with Choy Hok Pang and his son Choy Kam Man (who both also taught in the United States) while living in Hong Kong in the late 1950s.<ref name="geddes-telegraph">{{Cite news |date=21 March 2006 |title=Pytt Geddes (obituary) |work=The Daily Telegraph |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/03/21/db2101.xml |url-status=dead |access-date=16 January 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071204075831/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=%2Fnews%2F2006%2F03%2F21%2Fdb2101.xml |archive-date=4 December 2007}}</ref>