Kung Fu Tai Chi November - December 2015

What excites me most about this issue is what lies beyond this issue. For years now, we’ve been running exclusive additional material on our official website KungFuMagazine.com, material that runs parallel to the articles that appear here in our print magazine. Usually, as our magazine is bimonthly, we post these during the second month of a particular issue’s newsstand shelf life. This is partially in hopes of generating renewed interest in buying that issue off the newsstand for its last month on the shelves. But mostly this is because it works well with our production schedule. So in November, we’ll have quite a bit for you online that relates to this issue. First, we’ll have an unabridged version of the Yin Family Baguazhang of Wang Shangzhi by Robert Santee, Ph.D. and…

In late July and early August, the 2015 Tiger Claw Elite KungFuMagazine.com Championship partnered with China’s State Department to offer scholarships to a 17-Day Overseas Chinese Summer Camp in China. The scholarship provided for the cost of camp activities, housing, meals, domestic transportation, visits, tickets, classes, training fees, books, uniforms, and domestic travel accident insurance. All scholarship recipients had to meet the requirements of China’s State Department; they had to be between 12 and 18 years old, of Chinese descent, and possess conversational Mandarin skills. The U.S. West Team was organized by Tiger Claw, Kung Fu Tai Chi, and Joy of Kungfu (a Los Angeles-based non-profit organization under the direction of Mary Meiling Su). The team included sixteen students: Carina Chen, Jeffrey Fang, Evan He, Quincy Kumfert, Ian Lim (the…

Next year marks the 8th annual Tiger Claw Elite KungFuMagazine.com Championship and the 5th annual KUNG FU TAI CHI DAY, and we have changes in store for this year. First and foremost, the Tiger Claw Elite KungFuMagazine.com Championship is expanding into a two-day event with the second day overlapping KUNG FU TAI CHI DAY. In previous years, the Championship was held on Saturday inside the massive South Hall of the San Jose McEnery Convention Center and KUNG FU TAI CHI DAY was held on Sunday in the neighboring Plaza de Cesar Chavez. This year, it’s all going to be in South Hall. The other Tiger Claw Elite Championships for Taekwondo and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu will be held on Saturday like usual, but the KungFuMagazine.com Championship events will be split so all…

Donnie Yen to Star in Star Wars: Rogue One On August 15, the first cast photo for Star Wars: Rogue One, including martial arts superstar Donnie Yen and Chinese superstar Jiang Wen. The addition of Chinese film stars is a clear attempt to cater to the expanding Chinese film market. Meanwhile, in the tradition of British Wushu champion Ray Park as Darth Maul, Star Wars: The Force Awakens (Episode VII) has cast several martial arts experts including Pip Andersen (a Parkour exponent) and three actors from The Raid: Redemption (2011) and The Raid 2 (2014): Iko Uwais, Yayan Ruhian and Cecep Arif Rahman. Star Wars: The Force Awakens opens December 18, 2016. Star Wars: Rogue One opens December 16, 2016. http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread. php?68803-Star-Wars-Rogue-One-%28Episode-8%29 http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread. php?64710-Star-Wars-The-Force-Awakens Egyptian Wushu Champion Hesham Abdel-Hamid killed by ISIS In early July, the…

On July 5, 2015, Grandmaster Yu Chenghui (于承惠) succumbed to lung cancer in his hometown in Shandong Province at age 76. Grandmaster Yu was featured on our July+August 2012 cover in a story titled, The Two-Handed Sword Reborn. A lifelong practitioner of the martial arts, he was known for his expertise in the Chinese two-handed sword (shuangshoujian 双手剑) and his numerous film roles. He starred in the groundbreaking Shaolin Temple trilogy (1982, 1984, 1986) along with many other films and television roles over the last three decades. Yu’s first Kung Fu teachers were Li Shuzan (李书斋) and Hong Junsheng (洪钧生). He won the All-Around Champion at the Qingdao Youth Martial Arts Competition at age nineteen. Masters Ji Yanchang (纪炎昌), Sun Wenbin (孙文斌), and boxing expert Ma Wenzhang (马文章) tailored an…

Saturday, May 30th, 2015 was a momentous occasion for the Jow Ga system in America. The students and grand students of the late Jow Ga Master Dean Chin got together to remember the Father of the Jow Ga system in America with the first annual memorial banquet. Chin Yuk Din, which was the Master Chin’s proper name, first brought the system to America from Hong Kong in 1968. The original school was located on 8th and I Street North West in the China Town section of Washington, D.C. With the help of Sifu Hoy Lee, Master Chin established the first traditional Chinese martial arts school south of New York City. The school was relocated three years later and renamed the U.S. Jow Ga Kung Fu Association Headquarters. From 1971 until his untimely…