| Jianquan Taijiquan Association | |||||||||||||
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| Traditional Chinese | 鑑泉太極拳社 | ||||||||||||
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The Jianquan Taijiquan Association (also spelled as Chien-ch'uan T'ai Chi Ch'uan Association, Chian Chuan Taichi Chuan Association and in Chinese: 鑑泉太極拳社) is a well known school teaching Wu style t'ai chi ch'uan.
It was founded in 1935 by Wu Chien-ch'üan (Wu Jianquan, 吳鑑泉, 1870-1942) in Shanghai, and in the beginning operating out of the Shanghai YMCA. The Association went underground during the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945) due to the ban on Chinese martial arts instituted by the Japanese. In 1942, when Wu Chien-ch'üan died, his oldest son Wu Kung-i became head of the Association, eventually moving its headquarters to Hong Kong where it has continued uninterrupted to this day. Wu Chien-ch'üan's daughter Wu Ying-hua and his senior disciple Ma Yueh-liang took over leadership in of the branch in Shanghai. The Shanghai school fell under the ban on "feudalistic practices" with the beginning of the Cultural Revolution. Only in 1980 was the Shanghai branch officially reopened.