About the Author

Barbara Davis, M.A., has a master's degree in East Asian studies from the University of Minnesota. She trained with senior students of the late Zheng Manqing. Donald Davis, Ph.D., earned a doctorate from Michigan State University. He teaches taiji Tidewater Tai Chi Center, carrying on the teachings of Robert W. Smith and Ben Lo. Michael DeMarco, M.A., received his degree from Seton Hall University's Asian Studies Department. In 1964 he began studying martial arts. Since 1973 he has focused on taijiquan. He founded Via Media Publishing Company in 1991, producing the Journal of Asian Martial Arts and books. Lawrence L. Mann (d. 1997) founded the Tidewater Tai Chi Center in 1974 in Virginia Beach, Virginia, where he carried on the teachings of Robert W. Smith and Ben Lo. Russ Mason, M.A., TESL, received his degree from Oklahoma State University. He began training in Yang style taijiquan in the 1970s in the lineage of Professor Zheng Manqing. His primary teachers were Robert W. Smith and Liu Xiheng. Robert W. Smith, M.A., received a master's degree from the University of Washington in Seattle. From his late teens he trained in various martial arts and finally taiji under Zheng Manqing. Smith shared more than fifty years' experience in martial arts practice and research in Martial Musings, A Portrayal of Martial Arts in the Twentieth Century. Nigel Sutton, M.A., has studied martial arts since he was thirteen years old and has trained with teachers in the Zheng Manqing branch of taijiquan in Malaysia.