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Lui Wei Chang’s Take on Tan Tui

This is Part II of our series on Tan Tui. Click here for Part I of Tan Tui series.

Lui Wei Chang’s Take on Tan Tui
By Jimmy K. Wong and Patty Sun

Mr. Lu Wei Change, one of the 3 members who reopened the Chin Woo school following Grandmaster Huo Yuan Jia’s passing, emphasized the importance of Tan Tui in history books based on his own experienced. Mr. Lu was very weak when he was young, and often became sick easily. However, after 10 years of training the Tan Tui, he became strong and was even able to help protect the country.

In the beginning, his family discouraged him from training Tan Tui, telling him it was a waste of time. He refused to take their advice and instead trained very seriously for the next 10 years. Not only did he become strong, but he learned discipline and gained much wisdom. He became very alert and was able to “see” things better.

Mr. Lu noted how his first 3 days of training were the toughest. He was very sore and tired, and his family discouraged him from continuing. He refused to listened and continued to train even more seriously despite the pain. After 2 weeks of continuous training, he felt his energy become very strong. Curious, he asked his teach why this was. The teacher told him that his old weak muscles had been replenished by the new energized muscles and that was why he became stronger.

Mr. Lu did not fall sick as much as before, and his appetite improved. He not only started to develop stronger muscles, but his lungs also grew stronger, and he felt high in spirit. During his training, he found that he used a lot of force from the waist, and that he had to use his mind to control the waist and in turn to move his legs and hands simultaneously. This was the “spring” in Tan Tui. He also found his coordination improving, and therefore he was more alert – not just in training, but even in his everyday work.

Check back next week for our next for Part III of our Tan Tui series.

About JK Wong Kung Fu Tai Chi AcademyThe JK Wong Kung Fu Tai Chi Academy is a martial arts school located in Richardson, Texas. Our kung fu school offers kids and adult martial arts classes in Northern Shaolin Kung Fu, Wu (Hao) Tai Chi, and performs Lion Dance and Dragon Dances in the Dallas-Ft. Worth metroplex and cities within Texas.

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Wushu Broadsword Workshop II

Announcing: Group Wushu Broadsword Workshop, Part II
Taught by Sihing Mukund Ramesh
Saturday September 21, 2:00pm-3:30pm
Price: $25

This workshop will be a continuation of the form taught in June. The session will be geared towards those who already learned Part I of the form.

Now that the students have had experience working with a broadsword, we will be able to teach the form much more quickly. We plan on making significant progress learning the form in this workshop. Please plan on attending if you wish to be a part of the performance team during the upcoming Lunar New Year performances.

We will be reviewing Part I of this form during this Saturday’s class, so please plan on coming to train.

Please sign your name on the sign-up sheet at the Academy if you plan on taking the workshop.

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Notes from Part I:
In this workshop, we will teach a Group Wushu Broadsword Form.

Everyone is eligible to take this workshop, but the younger students will likely have a much harder time learning this form. The form will be taught relatively quickly, and students’ outside practice is expected. We plan on making a team of 4 or 6 students and turning this into a performance form which can be done during Lunar New Year shows and even in competition.

If you wish to take this workshop, you will need to have your own Wushu Broadsword. Our school carries adult sizes, but Kid sizes will need to be bought online.

The sword should be approximately one arm’s length; i.e. the length from the fingertips to the torso when measured under the arm when sticking out to the side. If you need help sizing yourself or your kids, please ask an instructor for help.

Here is a link to buy the sword.
http://www.kungfudirect.com/proddetail.php?prod=WSS010

We recommend not purchasing the “Super Grip.” It is better to buy a ‘not too sticky’ tennis racket grip and wrap the sword handle yourself. For more information, please talk to an instructor.

We will have a sign up sheet in class to see who is interested in taking the seminar.

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Gong Li Quan (Power Fist)

Gong Li Quan meaning “Power Fist” is a famous routine in Northern Shaolin and is the second routine of the ten fundamental Chinwoo routines. It teaches beginners how to correctly master the posture of various stances and hand techniques such as fist, palm and hook.

Gong Li Quan demands sturdy and proper postures with firm stances. It also requires precise release of strength. Shifting of stance has to be quick and agile, but still maintaining stability. It is good for strengthening the arms, developing waist muscles and improving stances .

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Honky Tonk Kung Fu

This year’s Legends of Kung Fu was featured in Kung Fu Tai Chi magazine.

Click on the images below to view the full article.

Kung Fu Tai Chi Magazine

Legends of Kung Fu

 

Legends of Kung Fu 2014

 

Article by Kung Fu Tai Chi Magazine

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Events Videos

Chinese New Year Show at Choctaw Hotel & Casino

JK Wong Kung Fu Tai Chi Academy was invited to perform a lion dance show at the Choctaw Hotel & Casino for Chinese New Year celebration.

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JK Wong at Halliburton Academy

JK Wong Academy was invited to perform at Halliburton Academy, 5 day global internal conference held in San Antonio, Texas. Check out the amazing performance.

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2014 Chinese New Year Shows

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Crow Museum CNY 2014

J.K. Wong Kung Fu Tai Chi Academy students along with the Chin Woo Dragon & Lion Dance Team performed at the Crow Museum of Asian Arts in downtown Dallas for the 2014 Chinese New Year festivities.

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Tai Chi And Cardiac Rehab

See how tai chi, which can help lower blood pressure, heart rate and anxiety, is used in cardiac rehabilitation.

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Huo Yuanjia

Huo Yuanjia (18 January 1868 – 9 August 1910[1]) was a Chinese martial artist and a co-founder of the Chin Woo Athletic Association, a martial arts school in Shanghai. A practitioner of the martial art mizongyi, Huo is considered a hero in China for defeating foreign fighters in highly publicized matches at a time when Chinese sovereignty was being eroded by colonization, foreign concessions, and spheres of influence. Due to his heroic status, legends and myths about events in his life are difficult to discern from facts.

Huo was born in Xiaonanhe Village in Jinghai County, Tianjin, as the fourth of Huo Endi’s ten children. The family’s main source of income was from agriculture, but Huo Endi also made a living by escorting merchant caravans to Manchuria and back. Although he was from a family of traditional wushu practitioners, Huo was born weak and susceptible to illness. He had asthma and at an early age he contracted jaundice, that would recur periodically for the rest of his life. (It is theorised that he may have had a mild form of congenital jaundice known as Gilbert’s syndrome).[citation needed] Due to his frail frame, his father discouraged him from learning traditional wushu.

Huo Endi hired a tutor named Chen Seng-ho from Japan to teach his son academics and moral values. In return, Chen was taught the Huo family’s style of martial arts, mizongyi. Against his father’s wishes, Huo still wanted to learn wushu. He secretly observed his father teaching students martial arts during the day and practised them at night with his tutor.

In 1890, a martial artist from Henan visited the Huo family and fought with Huo’s elder brother. Huo’s brother was defeated and to the surprise of the family, Huo fought his brother’s opponent and defeated the latter. As Huo proved that he was physically able to practise wushu, his father accepted him as a student. In later years, Huo went on to challenge martial artists from neighbouring lands and his fame grew as he defeated more and more opponents in bouts.

Huo joined his father at work as a caravan guard. One day, while escorting a group of monks, Huo was confronted by an aggressive bandit leader who threatened to attack the monks with his henchmen. Huo fought the bandit leader and defeated him. News of his feat spread and added on to his growing fame. In 1896, Huo went to Tianjin and made a living there by working as a porter in the Huaiqing pharmacy and by selling firewood.

In 1902, Huo responded to a challenge advertised by a Russian wrestler in Xiyuan Park, Tianjin. The wrestler openly called the Chinese “weak men of the East” as no one accepted his challenge to a fight. The Russian forfeited when Huo accepted his challenge. The Russian told Huo that he was merely putting on a performance in order to make a living and made an apology for his earlier remark in the newspaper.[citation needed]

Between 1909 and 1910, Huo traveled to Shanghai twice to accept an open challenge posed by an Irish boxer, Hercules O’Brien. The two of them had arguments over the rules governing such boxing matches and eventually agreed that whoever knocked down his opponent would be the victor. O’Brien fought Huo and lost. Huo’s victory was a great inspiration to the Chinese people and had them questioning the basis of imperialistic dominance. However, there is a lot of controversy over whether the fight ever took place. A recent article states that O’Brien[4] opted to leave town instead.

Huo died in 1910 at the age of 42. In 1989, the tomb of Huo and his wife was relocated. Black spots were discovered in the pelvic bones, and Tianjin Municipality Police Laboratory confirmed that they contained arsenic.[8] Consequently, it is difficult to ascertain whether his death was caused by malicious poisoning or the prescription of medicine. This was because arsenic trioxide has been used therapeutically for approximately 2,400 years as a part of traditional Chinese medicine.[9]

The historian Chen Gongzhe, who was also one of Huo’s students, believed that the cause of his master’s death was hemoptysis disease. Chen wrote that Huo was introduced to a Japanese physician by the judo instructor as his health declined. The physician prescribed some medicine for his condition, but Huo’s health continued to deteriorate. Huo was admitted to Shanghai Red Cross Hospital, where he died two weeks later. Although Chen did not mention that the medicine prescribed by the Japanese physician contained arsenic or any other poison, some leaders of the Chin Woo Athletic Association speculate that Huo was poisoned around the time of his death.[10]

Huo was survived by three sons and two daughters, and seven grandchildren and eleven great-grandchildren.

Huo died only months after helping to found the Chin Woo Athletic Association. Before his death, he invited Zhao Lianhe of the Shaolin Mizong Style to teach in Chin Woo and Zhao agreed. Subsequently, a number of other martial arts masters agreed to teach at the school. They included Eagle Claw master Chen Zizheng, Seven Star Praying Mantis master Luo Guangyu, Xingyiquan master Geng Xiaguang, and Wu Jianquan, the founder of Wu-style taijiquan. In June 1910, the Eastern Times announced the establishment of the Chin Woo association in Huo’s name. It was the first civil martial arts organisation in China that was not associated with a particular school or style.

During the period of the Japanese sphere of influence, the Twenty-One Demands sent to the Chinese government resulted in two treaties with Japan on 25 May 1915. This prevented the Manchu ruling class from exercising full control over the Han Chinese. With their new freedom, Huo’s students purchased a new building as headquarters for the organisation and renamed it “Chin Woo Athletic Association”. Re-organisation, publications of books and magazines, and new styles of martial arts other than what Huo taught, were accepted under the mantle of the new association. In 1918, Chin Woo opened a branch at Nathan Road in Hong Kong.

In July 1919, the Chin Woo Association sent five representatives to Southeast Asia to perform a missionary program to expand activities overseas. The five were: Chen Gongzhe, Li Huisheng, Luo Xiaoao, Chen Shizhao and Ye Shutian. They made their first stop in Saigon, Vietnam, where they opened the first Chin Woo school outside of China. Later, they opened schools in Malaysia and Singapore as well. By 1923, these five masters had opened schools all over Southeast Asia and visited nine different countries.

In 1966, Shanghai’s Chin Woo school was forced to discontinue its activities by the Chinese Communist Party due to the Cultural Revolution, whose goal was to destroy old ideas, culture, customs in order to modernise China. Those restrictions were later lifted in 1976 and activities continued in Shanghai’s Chin Woo.

Currently, Chin Woo is one of the largest wushu organisations in the world with branches in Japan, Hong Kong, Macau, Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Poland, Canada, the United Kingdom, the United States, Australia, and Switzerland.

Source: Wikipedia

JK Wong Kung Fu Tai Chi Academy is the headquarters of the Chin Woo Athletic Association in the United States.  The academy is located in the heart of Dallas, in Richardson, Texas.

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Who is Chen Zhen (fictional character)

Chen Zhen is a fictional Chinese martial artist and hero created by Hong Kong writer Ni Kuang. The character first appeared in the 1972 film Fist of Fury and was portrayed by Bruce Lee.

Since 1972, Chen Zhen has become the subject of numerous films and television series, including remakes and adaptations of Fist of Fury. Many notable martial arts film actors have portrayed Chen Zhen on screen after Bruce Lee, including Jet Li and Donnie Yen. Chen Zhen’s story varies in the different remakes and adaptations, but almost each has an ending similar to the original Fist of Fury.

The character of Chen Zhen is believed to be based on Liu Zhensheng (劉振聲), a real-life student of Huo Yuanjia, a martial artist who lived in the late Qing Dynasty.

Chen Zhen is depicted as a student of the martial artist Huo Yuanjia, the founder of Chin Woo Athletic Association (also known as Chin Woo School or Jingwu School). After Huo allegedly dies from illness, Chen Zhen discovers that his master was poisoned and the Japanese from a dojo in Hongkou District, Shanghai, are responsible for his master’s death. He seeks to bring the murderers to justice and embarks on a quest to avenge Huo and revive his master’s legacy, the “Jingwu Spirit“.

Check out a list of Chen Zhen movies in the Chin Woo Filmography page.

Source: Wikipedia.com.

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Chin Woo Filmography

Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan, Jet Li and Donnie Yen all played characters in movies about Chin Woo.

  • First of Fury (1972) – Bruce Less as Chen Zhen
  • New Fist of Fury (1976) – Jackie Chan as Ah Lung
  • Fist of Fury II (1976) — Bruce Li as Chen Shan
  • Fist of Fury III (1978) – Bruce Li as Chen Shan
  • Legend of a Fighter (1980) – Leung Kar Yan as Hua Yuan Jia
  • Fist of Fury 1991 (1991) – Stephan Chow as Lau Ching
  • Fist of Fury 1991 II (1992) – Stephan Chow as Lau Ching
  • First of Fury: TV series (1995) – Donnie Yen as Chen Zhen
  • Fearless (2006) – Jet Li as Huo Yuan Jia