Zhaoguanzou village martial arts.
Zhaoguanzou is located in Gaoyang County, Boading prefecture, of Hebei province.
Like many village styles the martial arts of Zhaoguanzou are a mixture of many of the styles historically practiced in the area. The art seems to be mainly based on BaFan Quan / MianZhang FanZi styles which are common in Baoding and Gaoyang in particular.
Unfortunately as you can see from the video none of the children or younger people in the village are learning these arts. The youngest practitioners are in their mid to late 30's and the people who still practice expect that the traditional kungfu of their village will have completely disappeared within a couple decades.
The martial arts of Hebei have always benefited from it's location next to Beijing and the many great masters who have always been drawn there. Traditionally Hebei has always produced far more graduates of the Imperial Military Exams than any other province in China, Not surprisingly given it's location and longstanding military tradition, the martial art most associated with the name Baoding is the ancient military grappling style of Shuai Jiao. The Baoding style is known for it's speed and combat effectiveness, and it is this art that Cheng TingHua the legendary Bagua master originally studied.
Aside from wrestling Baoding is home to a large number of kungfu styles. In particular it is known as the home of both the ChuoJiao and BaFan Quan / BaFan Men (FanZi Quan) styles.
Among the counties of Baoding prefecture Gaoyang is one of the best known for it's martial arts. Many of the famous styles from this region of Hebei can be found here. However there are two unique styles which originate within Gaoyang. The first is MianZhang FanZi Quan which is a unique branch of the Ba Fan Men style that is popular throughout Baoding. The second is the Duan Quan style, originally referred to as MianZhang DuanDa. According to tradition this style was originally practiced in the Jiangsu - Zhejiang area. It was brought from there during the 1700's by a master who passed it on to the people of Gaoyang. Duan Quan is not a well known style and today remains very rare. It is only practiced in Gaoyang, a couple of other small areas of Baoding and by a small number of people in Cangzhou.
