Kung Fu Tai Chi Spring 2019

When we converted to quarterly last year, the question I received most was ‘Will there still be Shaolin Specials?’ Well, here we are - Shaolin Special #17. I was tentative about dedicating the entire Spring to Shaolin. Even though it’s just one more month, it’s a larger commitment than our old bimonthly schedule. Originally I planned to have only 2/3rds of this special be Shaolin. The remaining third was going to be other styles, like Tai Chi because it’s part of our title. Plus when I first started on this issue, I only had one Shaolin story - the cover story. But loyal readers know about this unique space I’ve dubbed ‘the Shaolin Zone’. Monks appear and rainbows, a symbol of Chinese Buddhism, follow. Within two weeks of my decision…

I know I say it every year, but the Year of the Dog has scampered away fast. The scary part is that as I get older, the years just seem to fly by quicker and 2018 was no exception. They say the end is what counts and Tiger Claw ended last year on a positive note. Holiday Sales were strong so we were able to really enjoy back-to-back four-day weekends with family and friends. And after the rush of the Holiday Season was over, it always feels like a calm moment to reflect upon the previous year and plan for the upcoming one. My two top priorities for this year will be to launch more new products and push our Tiger Claw Elite Championships to the next level. For Modern Wushu…

http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?66588-Chinglish&p=1311190#post1311190 Jiayou added to the Oxford English Dictionary Jiayou (加油) is a common chant of encouragement for athletes at competitions. It has become a battle cry at Modern Wushu tournaments, so much so that many Wushu enthusiasts have adopted it as their own, which is somewhat ironic because it is believed to have originated in Hong Kong in the 1960s. Hong Kong speaks Cantonese, so if true, the original term was gayau. Wushu, being a mainland Chinese invention, uses the Mandarin jiayou. Jia means ‘add’ and you (pronounced like ‘yo’) means ‘oil’ although it can also mean ‘fat’, ‘lard’ or ‘grease’. The Oxford English Dictionary chose to translate it as ‘add oil’. http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?20652-24-Simplified-Set&p=1311303#post1311303 Simplified 24 Tai Chi required to graduate High School China’s Fujian Province has made the Simplified 24 Tai Chi routine a requirement for…

On Saturday, October 13, 2018, the 3rd Annual Ohio Kung Fu Tai Chi Day was held at the beautiful Scioto Park in Dublin, Ohio. This event, put on by the Ohio Kung Fu Tai Chi Association, saw a big increase in both participation and attendance this year. With more than a dozen Chinese martial arts schools and performance groups, as well as cultural and musical performances, the day was filled with interesting and exciting displays. The day started beautifully with the sounds of a guzheng ensemble presented by Joanna Li and her students. They also accompanied Ohio Wushu Academy in a Tai Chi performance that set a peaceful tone for the morning. After that came more than 24 different performances of world class martial arts and cultural performances. The large audience…

The Chinese Wushu Sports Cultural Festival and U.S. Challenge X was held from October 6–9, 2018, in Gaithersburg, Maryland. Hosted again by Coaches Christopher Pei and Zhang Guifeng, this year the Chinese Health Qigong Association (CHQA) had a larger role, beginning with a free event, the first Washington Health Qigong Forum. The CHQA delegation was led by Xing Shu (邢姝) with Professor Su Ying (苏颖) and Master Ma Jian (马剑). Professor Su is the Director for WuyunLiuqi Research Institute, Changchun University of Traditional Chinese Medicine (长春 中医药大学五运六气研究所所 长) and Chairman for Changchun and Shijiazhuang (石家庄). He presented “The Core of Traditional Chinese Medicine: The Relationship in Health Qigong with Five Elements and the Law of Climate Change in Nature (健 身气功与五运六气).” In 2003, the CHQA officially standardized Muscle-Tendon Change Classic…

ON October 20, 2018 International Traditional Kung Fu Association (ITKFA) – Brazil hosted the 10th ITKFA Chinese Martial Arts Championship in Sao Caetano do Sul, Sao Paulo, Brazil. Master Daniel Tomizaki and his wife, Sifu Steffani Tomizaki brought 2 students to compete, their school’s senior instructor Sifu Yas Yamamoto to judge, and an old friend, Don Gee (who studied under the late Grandmaster Wing Lam), who also judged. The team arrived in Sao Paulo on October 18 with little time to rest. That evening, Master Tomizaki taught a seminar for kids at Master Marco Serra’s school in the city of Sao Paulo. Master Tomizaki enjoys working with kids a lot. After the seminar, he gave a talk about bullying, as this is National Bullying Prevention Month in the United States. Unfortunately,…