Kung Fu Tai Chi September - October 2017

Welcome to our 25th Anniversary issue. Our September+October issues are always self-indulgent because we report on our annual tournament, the Tiger Claw Elite KungFuMagazine.com Championship. This year was extra special because we crossed our quarter-century mark, so the tournament expanded into the Kung Fu Tai Chi 25th Anniversary Festival. However, you’ll read all about that in this issue, starting on page 10 and going through to page 36. The benefit of being a publisher is that we have the luxury to cover our events more extensively than any other martial arts gathering outside of China.. For the rest of the issue, we did something uniquely related. All of our authors in this issue were present at the Kung Fu Tai Chi 25th Anniversary Festival. Benny Meng, our Cover Master from September+October…

A quarter-century might seem insignificant in the grand scope of the thousands of years of Chinese martial arts history. However, modern times are accelerating at an alarming rate, so a lot has happened in the past twenty-five years. In 1992, when Kung Fu Tai Chi magazine began, Bill Clinton defeated George W. Bush and Ross Perot for the U.S. Presidency and Yang Shangkun was the 4th President of the People’s Republic of China. Hong Kong and Macao were not under China’s sovereignty and it was only the third time that the People’s Republic of China participated in the Summer Olympic Games. The World Wide Web had just been opened to the general public. There were only three Star Wars films and Michelle Yeoh made her return to filmmaking after a…

Grandmasters LIVE! was a grand showcase of past Kung Fu Tai Chi cover masters at the historic California Theater in downtown San Jose. Originally built in 1927, it went through many changes and owners over the decades, and eventually went dark in 1973. Renovation began in 2001 with a $75 million restoration project funded by the Redevelopment Agency of the City of San Jose and the Packard Humanities Institute. Now restored to its former glory, the 1100+ seat theater preserves its original ornamentation with opulent ornamentation and decorative painting. Most martial arts demos take place in venues that are smaller than the California Theater lobby. Grandmasters LIVE! was a unique opportunity to showcase the Chinese martial arts on such an opulent stage. The official DVD of Grandmasters LIVE! Part One was…

IT was a sweltering day in downtown San Jose and the Tiger Claw Elite Championships drew its largest crowd so far. There were over 1200 competitors, well over 600 for the Tiger Claw Elite KungFuMagazine.com Championship, and some 3500 attendees. The preregistration competitor cap was expanded from 400 to 450, and just like it has been for the last few years, that criteria was met well before deadline. Additional competitors were allowed for those travelling great distances to attend, as well as for supporting schools that had already registered a significant number of entrants. Like last year, there were eight rings for the Tiger Claw Elite KungFuMagazine.com Championship, one being a Wushu carpet. The Tiger Claw Elite Taekwondo Championship expanded from six rings to eight this year, which began to feel…

GRAND CHAMPIONS Tiger Claw Elite’s KungFuMagazine.com Championship had 42 Overall Grand Champions. To qualify for Overall Grand Champions, competitors competed in three divisions: 1 Empty Hand Form and 2 weapon Forms (each weapon Form must be of a separate division). Overall Grand Champions earned points for placing in each of these three events: 3 points for each 1st place, 2 points for each 2nd place, 1 point for each 3rd place. The top three point earners competed in a Grand Champions Empty Hand round to determine a winner. GRAND CHAMPIONS TRADITIONAL KUNG FU CHAMPIONS Intermediate 7-8: Audrey Young 9-10: Aston Wu 11-13: Kyle Lin 14-17: Lawrence Nguyen 40+: Ebert Kan Advanced 9-10 F: Jennifer Liu; M: Brandon Liu 11-13: F: Krystal Lan; M: Max Lwin 14-17: F: Kaitlyn Tran; M: Ean Bennett 18-39: M: Brandon Wong 40+: F: Vivian Tam; M: Ryo Eguchi MODERN WUSHU…

The 5th Annual Tiger Claw Elite Taekwondo Championship hosted six different competition types: Open Poomsae, Traditional Poomsae, Synchronized Poomsae, Weapons Poomsae and Sparring. In addition, there was an obstacle course competition for children and Individual Sports Poomsae using the same format as USA Taekwondo Nationals. Those last two competitions were unique to the Tiger Claw Elite Taekwondo Championship and are not held at any other local tournaments. The Tiger Claw Elite Taekwondo Championship was managed and judged by certified USA Taekwondo and World Taekwondo Federation referees. The Tournament Director was Grandmaster Kwang Il Bae, Co-Tournament Director was Master Tony Merafuentes and Event Director was Master Taeho Kim. Grandmaster Bae’s school, Palo Alto Martial Arts, played host. The 5th Annual Tiger Claw Elite Taekwondo Championship was sanctioned by the California Unified…