Oh..so you are referring to the Taiji Fan material created by Madame Wang Jurong?
Or is it the fact that her daughter also trains her students in things like aerials?
Madame Wang created several fan sets (note I said Madame Wang and not Wang Ziping…he created things like 20 Posture fist method which is similar to Tan Tui but has more things in it).
She happened to like the fan and was drawing upon its history as a backup weapon. The origin from what she said was that she had recalled stories from her father about how there were public places where it was expected that all weapons were more or less checked at the door. In such instances, it was not unheard of for a martial artist to have a fan…utilitarian but also often with metal spines - and there as a backup. She also spoke of how it was not uncommon for men to carry fans or for a gift of a fan to be made usually with artwork or calligraphy on it.
Given the fact that one of her daughters had related a story of how she was with her grandfather, Wang Ziping, going out somewhere as a young girl..and he dropped his arm and a his sleeve daggers were noticeable. She asked and he said that even though he was older and unlikely to have an issues, one must always be prepared. Now this was after 1957 and before the beginning of the Cultural Revolution.
So, she took this history and created a set of routines - 6 in total. There are 3 Taiji fan sets. One single, one double fan, and one Duei lin (2 person). She also created 3 Kung Fu fan forms. single, double, and duei lin. I believe she did this in the early 60’s but it could have been later…
The idea was to resurrect an ignored weapon and have a bit of fun. The Taiji fan has elements of all 5 major styles of Taijiquan as well as some simplifications from 24 Posture Taijiquan. She took things like Grasp Sparrow’s Tail and modified them to be what they would be if you had one or two fans in hand. The Kung Fu fan sets were very heavily based upon Chaquan.
She was the first to state that she created the sets and they were not that old. She also would point out that some moves were there for aesthetics but that there WERE applications for using the fan as a weapon (and she would also point out that it would NOT be a weapon of first choice).
In training basics, we did things like Tiger jumping, and all of the jumping techniques from Chaquan…and if a student was capable, she would encourage them to add more difficult moves. Her attitude was “Maybe not in Traditional..but good for training the body anyway…”
I am speaking of what I experienced from Madame Wang and Dr. Wu directly.