Robert W. Smith (writer)

Always written with a flair, Smith's numerous books and articles offer martial techniques, history, anecdotes, opinions, humor, and quotes from his wide-ranging personal training, research, and reading. Smith collaborated with his teacher Cheng Man-ch'ing on one of the earliest English taijiquan books (T'ai Chi, Tuttle, 1967), and with Benjamin Lo on a translation of one of the earliest taijiquan books: Chen Weiming's 1929 book T'ai chi ch'uan ta wen—Questions and Answers on T'ai Chi Ch'uan (North Atlantic, 1985). Smith's memoir, "Martial Musings" (1999) was written much as he taught taijiquan, i.e., with multiple anecdotal stories and a sharp sense of humor. He wrote, co-wrote, edited, co-edited and co-translated fourteen books on the martial arts and over twenty articles with a particular focus on the internal, martial arts of China.

Smith returned to Bethesda in 1962 and initially taught judo at the local YMCA, but later concentrated on taijiquan, baguazhang, and xingyiquan. Starting in 1962, Smith taught a popular free early Saturday morning taijiquan class at the YMCA. This continued for 26 years. During those years he worked, raised a family, taught, and wrote about martial arts. Smith retired from teaching in late 1988 and he and his wife Alice moved to the foothills of the Smoky Mountains.

While in Taiwan Smith trained and studied with many masters of Chinese martial arts (e.g., baguazhang, xingyiquan). Most importantly, he met Professor Cheng Man-ch'ing (Zheng Manqing), the "master of five excellences" - calligraphy, poetry, painting, Chinese medicine, and T'ai Chi Ch'uan ( taijiquan ). Legend has it that Smith had to keep knocking on Cheng's door for at least six months before Cheng would accept him as his first non-Chinese student. While waiting to study with Cheng, Smith studied with T.T. Liang. Cheng and his students would meet every Sunday in Taiwan for taijiquan and tuishou ("push hands"—which Smith often preferred to translate as "sensing hands"). Cheng moved to the United States in the mid-1960s and lived and taught in New York City for a number of years before returning to Taiwan in the mid-1970s. Smith and Cheng kept in close contact until Cheng's death in 1975.

From 1959 to 1962 he was posted by the CIA to Taiwan. The Republican Chinese government led by Chiang Kai-shek had fled to Taiwan (Formosa) after the victory of Mao Zedong and the Communists on the mainland in 1949. Protected by the U.S. Seventh Fleet, Taiwan became the seat of government for the Republic of China - the only Chinese government diplomatically recognized by the U.S. Government until the 1970s. Smith worked as a liaison to the Republican government.

Beginning in the 1950s, Smith wrote articles for such martial arts magazines as Budokwai Quarterly Bulletin, Judo, Strength and Health, Black Belt, and the Journal of Asian Martial Arts, and served on the editorial board for Taijiquan Journal. Smith's articles whetted the appetite of the American martial arts community, which paved the way for Asian masters to then develop followings in the US.

Robert William Smith (December 27, 1926 – July 1, 2011) was an American martial artist and writer, most noted for his prodigious output of books and articles about the Asian martial arts and their masters. Smith's writing was an important factor in the spread of Asian martial arts such as judo, pa-kua, hsing-i and T'ai Chi Ch'uan (taijiquan) into the postwar United States.

Born on a farm in Iowa in 1926, he was sent at the age of three to an orphanage due to his family's economic distress. There he became a voracious reader. In high school, he learned boxing and wrestling. He joined the U.S. Marines at seventeen. While in the Marines, Smith completed his high school requirements through a correspondence course. He was honorably discharged in 1946. Smith attended college on the G.I. Bill, eventually earning a M.A. in History from the University of Washington in 1953. Smith's interest in boxing and pursuit of Asian martial arts (especially judo) continued unabated. After a brief stint with the Red Cross, Smith joined the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency as an Intelligence Officer and moved to Bethesda, Maryland.