Yours truly….

Ahem!!! 2 of my fav poses from Ancestral Crane…

Pics taken last year in “Hok San” or “Crane Mountain” (see sign in bottom pic) – just kidding, actually, Kek Lok Si on Penang Hill.

But, did spotted some birds that looked like cranes that day

Plus d’indulgence.

Un avant-goût de Penang.

Starry, starry night, paint your palette blue & grey ……

Excusez-moi pour mon indulgence…..

Received this pic from Mark and I just could not resist…..

One for you, Mark.

Grand Master Cheong Cheng Loong, a true master and gentleman!

Pole “Saint”.

My admiration and respect for Por Suk is not easily expressed in words. The many sessions I had with him left me profoundly humbled.

If I need to pick what I like best about his many skills, I have to say the way he handles the long pole; whether it’s “6 & 1/2 pole 13 spears” from his Hay Bun Wing Chun or his “Chan Gar Gwon”, I am always mesmerized by his flow and fluidity.

Por Suk is “old school”, he would recite his “stick poem” with his execution – reminding me of my late Fuzhou Whooping Crane teacher….

Watching Por Suk reinforces, in some ways, my love of tradtional Chinese martial arts.

It’s not all about techniques, fighting and violence – it’s living art!

Support.

I was talking to some friends and students yesterday morning and wanted to share those discussions – kind of intertwined in a way…

 

First I was talking to Wayne, my student in Colorado, and found out that “Kempo First Foundation” founded by a good friend, Hanshi Ron Carlson, is facing some issues with making ends meet.

 

Well, we all know things are not great at the moment and it looks like a worldwide condition. Will be real sad to see that school stopping – I am really indebted to those folks for giving me the opportunity to teach when I was first out in Colorado….

 

So if any of you are in that part and want to pick up some Kempo or White Crane, go check out the school.

 

Back home here in SE Asia, things have been unfavorable for CKF for a while now. I don’t want to go into the reasons but rather center my energy in doing my bit to help conserve some of the styles that are fast fading out.

 

Most of you would know that I work very closely with Sifu Liew Joon Mew, Sifu Liang Ti Lien and Sifu Kong Shu Ming and it really upsetting to know that their arts are facing such impending prospect of vanishing.

 

Well folks, I have lobbied to the relevant “authorities” and will continue to do so and I am confident that someone, somewhere in the hierarchy will empathize and initiate the right course of actions.

 

On my own, I am hoping to record and archive as much as possible for the future generations, I dread to have them go through what I experienced.

 

To read about some art forms just to find out that they died out in the last hundred years……

 

And here we are quarreling about lineages and histories – shooting rubber bands at the moon to me!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wen Zhong Wu.

Ahem ! Now this piece, I painstakingly hand-painted ahem ahem….

Wen Wu.

Something else that I do, when I am not doing KF that is – paint with my keyboards.

This is morphed from a photo shot in Penang last year.

And friends say I gotta go to “Arts” school to learn how to paint……

Say what?

So it’s a Friday evening and the weekends are up next plus it’s a public holiday on Monday – Malaysia’s National Day…

Thought I take it easy, head on downtown – you know hang out and do nothing.

And what have I got to see; something that’s always there but never really paid attention to in the daytime – a neon sign.

A sign that says MASTERSKILL.

So you enter to master skill or you’re a master learning how to kill ???

More perturbing is the finer print – this is a school of nursing and health – dealing in life/death scenarios….

What, what?

Difficult world I tell you, difficult!

Thank you Mark and Sharod….

Ahem, I want to take this space to convey my gratitude to 2 persons who have stepped up to the line and graciously acted to support me.

First to Mr. Mark Wiley; someone I have yet to meet and already he has pledged to donate proceeds from seminars he intends to conduct and paid to download e-books from our bookshop. What can I say….except a big “Thank you”…

Then we got Sharod Tuell, a friend and student in Colorado, who ordered some products from cafepress put up by us.

To these 2, I want to express my heartfelt appreciation – makes my staying up late and working overtime a tinge less arduous. It feels good to know that your work is valued.

A tea break on this long and sometimes, very grueling journey…..

Xia Xia.