MA Cliparts.

Don’t really know what this is about but I got an email from these guys … click here.

Arrrrrgghhh…that forest again!!!

Another “promo” clip using pics contributed by members.

All you TCMAs lovers ….

Folks, invitation is still open.

Nothing to pay, just your participations and nice manners, write :

eric88ling.rocketmail.com

and an invite would be sent to you.

Easy as 123 … or is it abc ???

Whatever    🙂

Further ado about martialforest.

Before anyone goes “oh no, he is hooked on mainland CKF materials” ……

To enhance understand the voyage of the arts, you begin at the beginning and then spread out, no?

So, from mainland to places like Taiwan, Hong Kong, the various Chinese populations in SE Asia and then the West ….

Mainland came close to obliterating the arts during the “cultural revolution” but recent spirited efforts appear promising, at least that’s what I am hearing from those I am corresponding with over there.

Well, that’s for another entry; just want to let you know that martialforest is not limited to mainland materials.

Over time, I will make an attempt to put as much of non mainland materials as possible online to share with all of you.

Cheers and in this hot weather ….  You need lots of “ying” food.

In other word, beeeeeeeeers……

Martial Forest progress.

With about 30 members, martialforest is still in the warm-up phase; members are still trying to familiarize themselves with functions like chat, uploading videos etc etc…

The Curve …….   🙂
 
In the midst of all that, we still managed to get some discussions going.

Connections between Wing Chun and White Crane, Wuzu, Ven Sek’s Saolim, Baji and so on.

I love the ambience; everyone there to share and learn and not one up the rest.

I am uploading an average of one pdf book and one video clip every 2 days, so give it some time, the vault should be loaded.

My plan is to steer discussions towards the lesser talk about styles like Emei for example.
 
This is one topic – Emei Crane Fighting System.

Cheers.

The new “Martial Forest” site.

Folks, I am just a couple of steps away from operating the new networking site. Trying out videos, pdf files and photos uploading functions in there.

Posted a opening topic  in the discussion forum already and I like to encourage you to contirbute your views.

Remember the Lau Gar Kuen book I mentioned earlier, well, found a site to host pdf files for private viewing and you can find it here.

View this document on Scribd

After this, only members will be able to access books uploaded so if you wanna join in, just write with a short note about yourself – no other requirement.

Except maybe a photo when you sign in, the photo uploading feature is very user-friendly.

Don’t want to deal with faceless words you understand ……   🙂

For those of you who have already written in, invitations will be sent out to you before the week is over.

Let the good times roll ……….

Simple – The Best !

 

So after a hard day’s “work”, quick dinner and equally quick shower, I am now staring at this monitor and trying to decide what to post ….. hmmmmm …….

 

Robin gave me a couple of his Hungga books, I brought back about 10 KF books from my Singapore apartment and some 20 Dvds – nope all these needs scanning and converting before I can upload; tonight is not the night to do any of these.

 

And this brings me to an email I received whilst I was away in Kuala Lumpur; is there another site to download some of the books and pictures that I am posting?

 

Well the answer is yes and no; for some of them, there are mainland sites that you could go to do just that but most of the books are from my private collection. Some might be online already, I am not sure but these are books that I scan and then upload to this blog.

 

So I am paced by time; how fast I am able to scan them – a real monotonous task unless you stop every now and then to read and then it’s going to take forever to get through the entire book.

 

The good news is that I’ve got most of my magazines digitalized and it’s just a issue of uploading them.

 

Which brings me to the next topic; Sarawak is not exactly known for her IT capability – translated – we don’t have the fast connectivity that you obtain in places like Singapore. I am fortunate if I get 100 Mbps and that fluctuates with, believe it or not, the weather.

 

Thunderstorm, its strict no no. Got our modem zapped a couple of times, protector or not!

 

Raining and not lightning, the connection starts to drag. Why? Me got absolutely no clue.

 

And certain hours, you can forget about meaningful connection ….. someone told me it’s due to constricted gateway …. whatever….  I am too simple to bother with such modern days’ intricacies.

 

“Simple is the best” is my mantra.

 

Or in Kung Fu, we say “faster, stronger and more agile than my opponent”.

 

Or to put it simply “Just better than anyone fighting me”.

 

Now that line to me is “Simply the Best”.

 

A couple more pics from one of my books.

 

Enjoy.

 

 

 

 

The “Crane” has landed.

So after a short whirlwind trip that saw me meeting with Shah, the President of Malaysia Amateur MuayThai Association and Robin Leong, I am now back in Kuching.

I will elaborate in my next couple of entries about these meets but for now, I just wanna talk a little about Robin.

Most of you must have heard of John Leong, a Hungga pioneer teacher in the US. In some of my CKF magazines published in the 70s, GM John Leong was often mentioned; performing his Hungga, hard qiqong, lion dancing etc etc. I remember a well-built powerful looking man in many of those pictures – like so many Hungga exponents of the day.

Robin is GM Leong’s son and these days, Robin calls Singapore home. He was with the local TV station and currently operates a CKF studio in an upmarket part of Singapore.

Also a film producer, his work includes “Dance of the Dragon” that I spoke about briefly in one of my earlier entries.

And this is so funny, when I was in Seattle last year training with Chas and his guys, we needed sticks and Chas brought me to this school in Chinatown that also sells KF equipment.

Guess what? This was GM Leong’s school – talk about coincidence !

Anyway, it’s getting late and tomorrow I got a full day lined up so ….. a pic first from the trip.

You got Tina, my boss lady and Robin posing at the reception area of Robin’s studio.

Silat and China minority tribes’ fighting.

畲族

“She”ethnic minority group 

Scattered in China’s southeastern Fujian, Zhejiang, Jiangxi,Guangdong, Anhui Province,  more than 90% living in Fujian, Zhejiang, the broad masses of the mountains. 

They called themselves “Shan Ha.” However, this name is not recorded in history books. 

Tang Dynasty – lived in Fujian, Guangdong and Jiangxi provinces, including the border area, including ethnic minorities

Southern Song dynasty – the history books began to appear on “She-Min” and “boxing people” Tribe said. 

 After the liberation, renamed as “She.”  in accordance with the fifth national census statistics, the population number of 709,592

“She”is Miao-Yao languages Sino-Tibetan languages, closer to the Chinese dialects of Hakka language, 

Got to get back to Roberto on this topic – he wrote in asking for possible Chinese roots of Silats. After some email exchanges, my interest in this matter got stirred up all over again.

I’ve heard elders’ accounts of how Chinese Kung Fu reached the shores of Malaysia and Indonesia and the roles it went on to play in the birth and evolution and on many occasions, I had to opportunity to view Silats and detect these connections; especially in the more “traditional” streams.

Apart from Moslem Kung Fu in the Northern parts of China, many Southern styles, those found within minority non-Han folks also had a big hand in beginning of Silats and fighting arts of Indo-China.

A few entries ago in this blog, I wrote that I’ve only got one big encyclopedia cataloguing these minority fighting systems; well, I was wrong.

I do have a few; “She” tribe fighting and “Miao” tribe fighting systems are 2 I found here in Sarawak with me….

I’ve got the “She” tribe book converted into pdf format for Roberto and Here are a couple of pages from that book…..  

The technique with the punching to the inner calf of opponent’s leg is something I see frequently in many Silats and Filipino fighting arts.

All my bags are packed…..

Now that my trip is confirmed; air tickets and hotel accommodations booked and all that, I just want to leave you with more pictures of some of the books and magazines being prepared for the new site.

Will be on the road for about a week starting this coming Thursday, first to Kuala Lumpur to meet with folks from Malaysia Muay Thai Federation and World Muay Thai Council and then a short stopover in Singapore before returning.

This Singapore trip, in addition to calling on my White Crane, Taizu and Zhou Jia families, we will also be discussing with some players from the Singapore movie industry.

 A leading movie production company and Robin Leong, a Hungga exponent originally from Seattle USA;Robin is the main man behind movie like “Dance of the Dragon”…..

Now that movie has Fann Wong in the leading lady role so maybe …… well we’ll see…..

Got to remind myself – look at the moon and not the fingers pointing at the moon.

Say what?

Another one of those oblique “Zen” sayings; me? I will look at both the fingers and the moon.

Like to leave you with this:

“I do, therefore I am”

“I am, therefore I do”

“I think, therefore I am”

“I am what I am and I do what I do”.

“I think I do and sometimes I am what I think”.

“I am what I think and sometimes I do what I think”.

“Don’t think, just do”.

I think I am very confused now and I will go Do what I like!

Where’s my Carlsberg?

Here’s to Fann Wong   🙂

And don’t forget, write to me if you want to sign up for the new site. For those who have already done that, you will get invites when I come back.

Got another pdf file ready for those interested : “Lau Gar Kuen”. Not the form they do in Hung Gar but Lau Gar, as in the style.