The 42 Form tai chi, also called Competition Form or Mixed Form,[1] is the standard Wushu competition form which combines movements drawn from the Chen, Yang, Wu, and Sun styles of traditional tai chi.
It was created in 1989 by Professors Men Hui Feng from The Beijing Sport Institute and Li De Yin from the People's University for the Chinese Sports Committee.
The 42-form has been subjected to criticism for being a hybrid form, but in actual practice it has received a lot of positive attention as well, for being a challenging, fluid form which loads the body with qi.
Today it is a popular form for competition as well as for personal health benefits.
At the 11th Asian Games of 1990, Wushu was included as an item for competition for the first time with the 42 Form being chosen to represent tai chi.