Kung Fu Tai Chi May - June 2017

publisher’s corner

There’s been a lot of news about ‘fake news’ lately. As a publisher, I’d say it is the inevitable outcome of self-publishing. Modern technology has made selfpublishing easy so anyone can publish anything at any time. With no editorial control, no standards of loyalty to the outlet name brand, and no journalistic integrity, the news you read could’ve been published by a serious reporter, your drunk next door neighbor, or a Russian hacker. And with the democracy of social media, it’s not about what’s right or what’s alternative or what’s parody or what’s straight-out fake. It’s all about what grabs the most eyeballs and what goes viral. News outlets don’t write headlines anymore. Web publishers write click-bait. In this era of short-twitterattention spans, few readers read past the today’s headlines…

claw marks

Things really start to pick up here at Tiger Claw as Spring has sprung. With the holiday hangovers long gone, martial arts schools across America are now in full swing. In addition to steadfastly processing and shipping orders, this time of year is an essential planning period for our own yearly event as well as hitting the road for another exciting tournament season. You might assume that going to the same events every year would get monotonous, but for me, this is far from true. It’s a great way to see you, our customers, face to face. Getting feedback on our products and customer service is the best way to keep tabs on how we are doing as a company. Oftentimes, some of the best input for new products will come…

web fu

Jade Egg Jade Egg is an esoteric qigong practice in which women insert egg-shaped jade into their vaginas to cultivate qi. Jade Eggs started trending recently for two reasons. First, the practice was showcased on the Bravo TV show, Real Housewives of Atlanta (Season 9, episode 8) aired on New Year’s Day. The housewives took a ‘yoni egg’ class, which is essentially the same practice. It quickly descended into reality show hijinks when they try to lift high heels suspended from the yoni egg strings. Then a few weeks later, Gwyneth Paltrow’s popular women’s alternative health and beauty site, GOOP.com, began selling Jade Eggs and Rose Quartz Eggs. A seven-year practitioner of Jade Egg named Shiva Rose was her spokeperson. Dr. Jen Gunter, a gynecologist blogger, posted a rebuttal calling the…

2016 world hung kuen international tournament

Hung Kuen Kung Fu is being celebrated far and wide for its legacy and renown. If that doesn’t excite you, imagine this: bone-crushing kicks, punches, and throws, similar to MMA. This is what the 2016 World Hung Kuen International Tournament offered for Kung Fu fans in Xiqiao, China. November 19, 2016, marked the second World Hung Kuen Association International Tournament at the Grand National Arts Studio Palace. The Checkley and Chinese government sponsored this extravaganza. Together, they graciously provided food and lodging for the competitors at the National Arts Hotel. The tournament was open to all practitioners of Hung Kuen. Competing were grandmasters, masters, sifus, and students from countries around the globe – the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, Greece, Italy, and the Czech Republic and of course Hong Kong,…

tai chi, baseball & travelling – new ways to promote tai chi

Master Ren Guangyi continues to take an innovative approach to Tai Chi marketing. Master Ren has graced the cover of Kung Fu Tai Chi several times: December+January 1999 with Grandmaster Chen Xiaowang, August 2000 with Shaolin Monk Shi Guolin, May+June 2004 with student Stephen Berwick, September+October with the Godfather of Punk, Lou Reed. Now he’s promoting Tai Chi through baseball and travel. Master Ren kept up a busy touring schedule last fall, travelling between China and the United States doing Tai Chi demonstrations and networking. His latest venture is Tai Chi tourism. On September 3, he demonstrated Tai Chi at CITI field in New York City for a Major League Baseball game between the New York Mets and the Washington Nationals. This was in conjunction with an event called “Charming Beijing:…

on the set of into the badlands

Just prior to Thanksgiving, I visited the set of Into the Badlands as they filmed Season Two. We featured the breakout AMC martial arts series on the cover of last year’s January+February issue. The lead actor and executive producer, Daniel Wu, was someone I had wanted to interview for years. A San Francisco Bay Area native, Daniel was an early pioneer in American Wushu. In 1994, he founded the University of Oregon Wushu Club, one of the very first collegiate programs in the United States. After graduating, he was discovered in Hong Kong, and early in his career he worked with Jackie Chan on several films, a dream role for any martial artist. But to avoid being typecast as just a martial artist star, he took on a variety of…