Hi Matthew, I would like to make a comment if I may, on the originality of the Yang style. I am a practitioner of the long form taught by Fu Zhong Wen 85 form, although I began learning the long form, from the Yang Family of Yang Zhenduo's 103 style. They are both ''original'' but interpreted differently by the disciples of Yang Che Fu. There's another direct disciple of Yang Che Fu, by the name of Dong /Tung Ying Jie, who interpreted the long form with variations on the transition foot pivot. There are some fantastic performances of this style of long form by the son of Dong Ying Jie, Tung Hu Ling 1953 and 1960's on RU-vid, you might like to see and compare the variations. I would like to say that I do enjoy immensely, practicing both mentioned variations of the long form. So, I would not personally go as far as calling one variation of Yang long form as more original as another. Yang Chen Fu's disciples interpreted the form as was taught to them by the master, but somehow put their own identity on the form with regards to certain transitional movements and perhaps applications of movements. The form evolves through the times, and I would think that the form taught by Yang Luchan has been altered, to what we have today available as knowledge that has passed down to us by his disciples or members of the Yang family. I would say that Yang long form of 85, 103, 108 is the foundation together with the Chen, Wu, Sun styles of the modern short forms of the Yang Beijing competition forms.
Thanks for the message. I am just going by what Fu zhongwen told us, that he basically never changed the form (85) from what Yang Chengfu taught him. There are other people that felt Yang Chengfu changed the form (to 103) for the public as well in 1930's.
