Around the corner ……

I spoken about this so many times; I work for a company incorporated in Sarawak here that is primarily into the business of researching and publishing about culture, specifically Traditional Martial Arts and healing.

Not confined to the Chinese, Sarawak is home of 100 over different silats and other native fighting systems, she also has one of the world richest biodiversity potential; there are many current projects by the government in this area.

My background is, for the most part, in the Chinese arts and it’s from there that I will start.

Fuzhou Cranes and Sarawak has a very intimate relationship given her huge Fuzhou immigrant community and this is exactly my springboard.

In terms of dialect composition, the Hakkas and Fuzhous are, more or less, the 2 principal groups and therefore it’s no mystery where my efforts would be concentrated on.

To further zoom in, we are about to launch 2 books real soon….

The first is exploring Fuzhou Singing Crane and Karate; this is a joint effort between Russ and us here.

In order to do a comprehensive job, you really got to look at the various lines of Fuzhou Singing Crane, both Fuzhou and Fuqing. And on the karate end, we have to consider the major ryus that are purportedly associated with Fuzhou Cranes.

Here are couple of pages from an old in-house manual from one such line of Fuzhou Singing Crane and the form is Babulien.

And I got lot more of materials like this to pore over before I filter out what I need to go into the book ……..

精武體育會 Chin Woo Athletic Association.

I am sure most of you are familiar with the background of “Chin Woo Athletic Association”…. Or at least seen the Jet Li starring movie “Fearless”…….. or Bruce Lee in “Fists of Fury”, the one in which he fought the Japanese …or the many Hong Kong and Taiwan produced TV drama series …..or ……..

Really needs no intro.

But just in case you just came out of hiding in the jungle (hey buddy, the war is over) or been surviving on top of some remote cloud covered mountain surviving on nothing but water and wild plants seeking your “satori” ….. click here and here.

From wikipedia:-

Chin Woo Athletic Association (traditional Chinese: 精武體育會; simplified Chinese: 精武体育会; pinyin: Jīngwǔ Tǐyùhuì; lit. Elite Martial Athletic Association) is a Chinese martial arts association founded inShanghai on July 7, 1910, but conflicting sources also cite dates in 1909. It can be found spelled in many ways – Jing Mo, Ching Wu, Jing Wo, Jing Wu etc.

Many sources say that Chin Woo was founded by Huo Yuanjia^[1] (霍元甲), the famed challenge fighter who died within months of its establishment. This gives the false impression that only one person founded the entire association when in reality it was founded by a committee of people. Due to Huo Yuanjia’s popularity and recent death, the committee had decided that he should be the “face” of Chin Woo, resulting in his strong association with it.

Because Huo was widely admired as a Chinese national hero, a series of other masters agreed to teach at the school including Eagle Claw (鷹爪派) master Chen Zizheng (陳子正), Seven Star Praying Mantis (七星螳螂拳) master Luo Guangyu (羅光玉), Xingyi (形意拳) master Zhao Lianhe (趙連和), and Wu Jianquan (吳鑑泉), the founder of Wu style Taijiquan (吳式太極拳). Master Chao Lianhe, a master of Northern Shaolin Bizong Style became the Chief Instructor after the sudden death of Huo.

And here are some pages from a Chin Woo commemorative magazine that I think some of you might like :-