Watching others act more often is a good way to learn. In the past, when some old-timers such as Ma Zihong (Li Yunting), Lu Shunzi (Gao Buyun), and Gao Tianxi were acting, as long as we had the opportunity, we would stand behind the board and watch it. The main thing is to comprehend the spirit, and then practice and apply it in combination with your own conditions, so as not to just learn the skin of others.
In the past, many people learned from Mr. Li Yunting, but they couldn't understand the strengths of others, and they couldn't melt their advantages into their own. And some people actually learned his shaking his head (Li Yunting had difficulty speaking after "reversing", so he often shook his head because of force when singing), and as a result, he learned a problem. When it comes to Li Yunting, I still have a joke, everyone knows that he squatted well in "Demolishing the Book". I didn't understand the truth of this movement at that time, just practicing stupidly by myself, squatting the chair in order to practice squatting, and it was still not good to squat. I went to Mr. Li to ask, at that time he was still a little conservative, he said: "You are short, so you can't squat well." "Later, I found a low chair to practice, but I still couldn't squat well, so I asked him again, and finally he told the truth. In fact, it's not squatting at all, but "slapping the legs", slapping the thighs because of anger (I didn't want to tell people about this before liberation), using a lot of force when patting the legs, bringing the body up, and naturally bringing the "leaning flag" to swing, so it looks good.
Excerpt from Liu Yuzhong's "How I Practice and Act".
Editor/Liu Jun