Before I begin, for those of you subscribers who received our September+October 2017 issue, you already got Part 1 of our free exclusive DVD of our Kung Fu Tai Chi 25th Anniversary Festival show Grandmasters LIVE! And you'll get Part 2 with your November+December 2017 issue as long as you stay subscribed. For anyone not yet subscribed, subscribe before Friday, September 22, 2017, and you'll get both Part 1 and Part 2 and see exactly what I've been talking about in this KFTC25 AF series. The bottom line is SUBSCRIBE!

Now back to our story. For Part 2 of 2017 KFTC25 AF click here.

Showtime!

If you’ve ever done anything with live performances, you’ll know what I mean when I say things got more intense every minute we got closer to raising that curtain for Grandmasters LIVE! As the masters and grandmasters filed in over the course of the day (at random times, of course), we struggled to get them up on stage so they could at least familiarize themselves with it. The California Theater has a grand stage, far grander than most were used to performing upon. So there was no actual dress rehearsal, not even a complete run-through, and a lot of moving parts. Leon, Jim and Mimi were my saving graces with coordinating the performers and stage crew, getting everything lined up. On top of all that, Mimi performed too. There’s something amusing about being rescued by Mulan. I was doing a lot of running around, desperately trying to tie up any loose ends that might lead to everything coming undone. It was like juggling axes, and despite my fondness for ancient cold arms, I’ve never trained with those.

Balloon Dragon Sculpture by Lea Beck (from The Balloon Man), Lion Dance by Yau Kung Moon (柔功門)

 

Just prior to show time, we held a VIP reception in the theater courtyard. Patrons could attend via a premium ticket that granted early access, and all of the masters and grandmasters were there, including our biggest celebrity, Daniel Wu. While American audiences are just getting to know Daniel through AMC's Into the Badlands, he is a major star in Asia, so our Chinese news reporters were hounding me about when he was going to arrive and how much access they would have. Actually, everyone was all over him because almost all of the VIP attendees were tuned into Daniel’s celebrity status and everybody wanted a selfie with him. He arrived on time, just as he said he would, and I greeted him on the street and got him in efficiently.

Daniel was very gracious and obliging, delighted to see so many old friends from his Wushu days. It was really heartwarming to see him reconnect with his dear friends, Masters Phillip Wong and Zhang Hong Mei, and meet their son Phillip Jr. for the first time. I put some of my Dragon Crew on him, just in case any sort of crowd frenzy happened (and a small one did break out during intermission, but Daniel was moved out of it quickly so it wasn't a major issue). Alongside the masters and grandmasters, all celebrities in their own right in the martial world, the VIP reception went very smoothly. We passed out our commemorative stoles and there was a scrumptious spread of hor d'oeuvres, but I was hardly able to eat any of them, despite not eating well all day. It was like being at your own wedding reception. You plan all this great food and you don't really get to enjoy it. There was just too much to do with greeting everyone while coordinating the show for me to be able to indulge any of that. I took a few photos and said some quick "hellos" then rushed backstage to make sure that everything was progressing as planned.

L-R: Daniel Wu, Phillip Wong, Robin Leong

 

Gigi and I opened the show with short speeches. Neither of us are that fond of public speaking but duty called. It was here that Gigi originally planned to announce her retirement. But when we stepped out on that stage, the spotlights were blinding. We were struck like deer in headlights. Despite getting everyone else on stage, we never tried it ourselves, not with the spotlights on like that. Gigi struggled through her notes, but omitted her announcement. I got through my part and didn't even notice her omission. Only after did it occur to me that we should have rehearsed that. We were so focused on everyone else in the show that we forgot about ourselves.

Beyond Gigi's inauspicious opening oversight, which really only affected me personally, the show itself came out alright overall. There were a few mishaps, but nothing show-stopping. Somehow, Master Peng Wen's Zhaobao Tai Chi demo got shuffled to the Bagua section instead of the Tai Chi section. That got misplaced in our run sheet during one of the revisions long before the show, and I never noticed it until he was actually on stage performing after the Tai Chi portion had finished. There were some lighting issues because the light crew wasn't familiar with the tempo of Chinese martial arts. Dr. Yang Jwing Ming's demonstration had the lights cut out unceremoniously before he was done. And Grandmaster Benny Meng's demonstration had the spotlight on the wrong person at first. Timing is such an issue with any Kung Fu demonstration. Just because any given master is skilled in the martial arts, that doesn't mean they are consummate performers by any means. Some are, but most aren't. I was backstage with Phillip Wong, where Daniel Wu had retreated after getting mobbed at intermission. Master Phillip is an old friend, and offered some consolation as he could see I was stressed. He was shaking his head with me over the inability of so many Kung Fu masters to stay on schedule. It puts the whole show off and reflects badly on all of us when someone can't stay within the time parameters because a minute overtime here and a minute overtime there adds up quickly. “My demos are timed out to the second,” said Phillip, “to the second!” And sure enough, he and his family were precisely on time with their performance.

To be honest, I didn't see very much of the show at all. I was running around backstage, working with Leon, Jim and Mimi, to make sure everyone got from the green room, several floors up, to the stage on time. The first time I actually saw it was when I was reviewing the free DVDs for our subscribers and watching the videos on our YouTube channel, so professionally provided by Bad Ass Bunny Productions. It's important to record such demonstrations. After all, this might be the last gathering of the old guard. Many of the performing Grandmasters had already retired from demonstrating, and only came out because it was our 25th. That kind of respect reaffirms my loyalty to the martial world. For some, Kung Fu Tai Chi 25th Anniversary Festival Grandmasters LIVE! show may well have been their last stand.

However, I'm a huge fan of live performance as opposed to recorded performances. While I was as present as I could be for it, personally, I couldn't really watch it. It's an ironic twist in my life. I get to witness some of the greatest Kung Fu demos on a regular basis, but I see them through the lens of a camera or, in this rare case, just in glances as I hustled to keep the show going on schedule. That distorts my view. It masks some of the qi. Qi is very hard to catch on camera. Granted, that's a subjective opinion of mine, but even with our professional camera team, it's hard to capture the scope. Not only is the majesty of the magnificent California Theater completely out of shot, we had put a lot of work into our backdrop videos. They featured magazine covers, background settings like Shaolin Temple for the Dashanmen scene and CG animals for the WildAid Tiger Claw Champion finale. All of that was lost in all of our videos.

In the end, the audience said it was good, and I'm going to take their word for it. If you were there, I hope you enjoyed it. If you weren’t, well, I hope you subscribed and got those free DVDs.

 

The 9th Annual Tiger Claw Elite KungFuMagazine.com Championships

Saturday actually started after midnight on Friday. After the show, Chris Lewin and I were among the last to leave the California Theater and made our way back to the hotel. If you’ve followed the saga of my previous Tiger Claw Elite blogs, Chris enters the story at TCKFMCIII in 2011. Now Chris is a full-time employee at Tiger Claw. We share a room for all the Tiger Claw Elite Championships so he has to put up with me more than anyone, not only with his responsibilities to Tiger Claw, but also to keep me on track. We are Kung Fu brothers through two different schools, plus Tiger Claw, and we’re longtime whiskey drinking buddies, so there’s a deep bond there.

At this point, I must give massive props to my crack volunteer team, the Dragon Crew. Like with every year, I call on my friends, my Kung Fu siblings and a few random accomplices to help me out with this. And I'm ever grateful that they respond because it is so much work and there is no way I could do my job here without them. This year’s Dragon Crew were Rich Anderson, Paul Blair, Lucas Cendejas, Wilbur Chang, Stephen Chew, Jeff Ferreira, Nick Hancock, David Hardy, Elena Hung, Jeff Hung, Ron Karrien, Shawnie Ledbetter, Chris Lewin, Edgar Puga, Hoel Rainier, Jason Raimondi, Mark Rodriguez, Hieu Tran, Manh-Tong Tran, Wes Vara, and Lori White, plus the additional Bad Ass Bunny Productions team under Greg Lynch Jr. including Greg Chow, Gary Shockley and Michael Schmidt. I have to give special props to Rich, Ron, David, Chris, Edgar, Hoel, Mark, Wes, and Greg Lynch Jr., because they went the distance and worked all three days. I nicknamed them as my "Seven Star Dragon Crew." So after Grandmasters LIVE! was all cleaned up, the Seven Star Dragon Crew got together for some after-party libations. I was prudent and got in by 2 AM (which is why this counts as Saturday), but then someone texted me about KFTC25 AF matters at 4AM (srsly?), and I was up by 6AM to grab breakfast and get over to South Hall.

To be honest, after all that, Saturday was a blur. The Tiger Claw Elite Championships are always a blur because I'm pulled so many different directions, but this one was particularly blurry because I had put it all out for Grandmasters LIVE, and there wasn't too much left in the tank. I was gassing out. Thankfully, the rest of the crew really stepped up. The Tiger Claw staff were at their best and the visiting Masters and Grandmasters were helpful. Christopher Pei did another exemplary job of MCing. I wasn't even given a microphone for the early part of the day and was very grateful for the respite. Perhaps my harried countenance kept the whiners at bay, as I had less complaints than usual, or so it seemed. After Grandmasters LIVE!, the tournament seemed easier, or at least charted ground with which I was quite familiar and comfortable. The weirdest moment was when a young competitor peed on himself despite the youth division managers always providing potty breaks. It was handled as discreetly as it could have been, to the satisfaction of the parents. There was a more embarrassing pee episode when one of the judges, a Shaolin disciple no less, abandoned his chair to pee without the Head Judge's permission, which required that division to be done over for fairness. That situation – should I say it? – pissed me off.

I actually got to cut out early, before Saturday was done, because I had to get to the banquet.

 

Kung Fu Tai Chi 25th Anniversary Festival & IWSD 30th Anniversary Celebration Banquet

The banquet was held at Dynasty Seafood in Cupertino, which is coincidentally in the same ghost town of a shopping mall where the AMC Cupertino Square Theater is. That's a major outlet for Chinese films, second only to Metreon in San Francisco for our Bay Area. Ever since Wanda Dalian took over AMC theaters, Chinese films have been premiering. It's a long way from the Pagoda or the Great Star, but I find myself there as often as I go to Hollywood films in the theaters so I know that location really well. But I never went to Dynasty before that night.

The restaurant is about a 20-minute ride from downtown San Jose, which was a little awkward for our out-of-towners, but we managed to get everyone rides. I was honored to chauffeur two of our top freelance contributors for Kung Fu Tai Chi, Williy Pang and Peter Pena. It's always a delight to chat with them as we're all huge Kung Fu aficionados and can talk for days about Kung Fu. Coincidentally, the issue on the newsstands at that time was our July+August 2017 in which they both had articles: “Fighting in Metaphors: 7 Hands of the Dragon” by Peter Pena and “The Hakka Rattan Shield” by Williy Pang. Both articles featured Peter demonstrating the techniques, and I usually avoid having that much exposure for one individual in a single issue; but given the pressure of KFTC25 AF production happening simultaneously to the production of that issue, I didn't have the bandwidth to glean another feature article, plus both submissions were very solid, exactly what I've come to expect from Peter and Williy. I dubbed that issue as "the Big Peter issue." Perhaps it's due to the year – 2017 is still the Year of the Flaming Cock. You don't have to be fluent in Mandarin to understand the connotation. The Big Peter issue embarrassed Peter a little as he's a humble man, but he found the humor in it. I suppose we could do a sequel if Williy ever appeared in two articles.

Chinese banquets are always crowded noisy affairs and this one was packed. There had been a great deal of pre-planning fuss about a red carpet, which I didn't understand at first. I thought they were talking about a red carpet like at the Oscars, a runway were paparazzi could take their shots. I thought that was silly because the only "paparazzi" would be our Kung Fu Tai Chi crew, plus some eager students. I was wrong. This red carpet split the room as a ceremonial walkway to the stage to receive honorary awards, more of a feng shui decorative touch. It went under a red archway that read “wulin men” or “martial forest gate.” It was quite spectacular, but it also took up a lot of space, pushing the tables and chairs into an even more congested configuration. Getting around was a test of Kung Fu in and of itself, like a giant game of Tetris but with round tables, harried waiters and Kung Fu masters.

L-R: Li Siu Hung, Michelle Leung Jimmy Wong, Gigi Oh, Sam Ng, David Chin, Gene Ching, Chris Heinzman, Dennis Brown.

 

The proceedings were primarily in Mandarin. I had the delight of being seated with the Cantonese-speaking masters, some old friends including Dennis Brown, promoter of the Capitol Classics, David Chin and his student Chris Heintzman, Li Siu Hung and his lovely wife, Sam Ng, father of movie star Philip Ng, and Jimmy Wong, promoter of Legends of Kung Fu, my favorite Texan tournament. It was great company, especially sitting next to Dennis. We are both pescatarian, which is a vegetarian diet plus seafood, and Chinese banquets are such gluttonous gatherings, so it was good to have the support of someone else with some dietary discipline, plus the others seemed to enjoy it as it left more meat for them. Here’s a tip – if you’re a meat eater at a Chinese banquet, sit with the vegetarians…or the pescatarians. Either way, you’ll get extra helpings.

Everyone was given an award. It was a lot of awards, well over a hundred. Fortunately, the food was being served, so it didn't demand too much attention. When my name was called, I struggled not to step on someone as I made my way to the red carpet, and on the way, some other dude went up and almost snatched it. WTH? I got there in time to claim my plaque before that dude ran away with it. Apparently it was just an honest mistake, but what bugged me was that a similar thing happened at another IWSD event. In 2013, Gigi and I attended “The First World Renowned Martial Artists Chinese New Year Celebration and Performance” at the River Rock Casino in Richmond, Vancouver, Canada (I wrote that up in our July+Augst 2013 issue). They were giving out recognition awards for that too and there was a misfire with mine. Maybe it's just coincidence, but I'm going to be more vigilant at IWSD events when it comes to accepting awards from now on.

My personal pinnacle for the banquet, indeed for the entire KFTC25 AF, was Gigi's speech. She gave it in Mandarin, and she was speaking quite eloquently judging by the audiences’ enthusiastic response. I could only follow portions of it, but I understood when she announced her retirement, and when she officially passed the Publisher's torch to me. For many attendees, it was a complete surprise. There was a palpable moment in the room as all eyes turned to me.

Like standing in the spotlight the night before, it was something that I knew was going to happen, but didn't really think it through beforehand. I’m not really a spotlight kind of person. In fact, it’s my job to shine the spotlight on others. But there I was, surrounded by many of the world’s top Grandmasters and Masters, inheriting the legacy that is Kung Fu Tai Chi. It was a surreal honor, especially to have it happen at that gathering, and it was a moment I will forever hold dear to my heart. When I think of the honors I’ve received over my martial career – advancements in rank, my disciple vows at Shaolin, my few tournament victories – nothing really compares to that Saturday night.

The wake of the announcement was even more surreal. Of course, the old friends at my table offered hearty congratulations, along with toasts, as did many others. What got weird were the masters who formally gave me very little face. A few Mandarin speakers have always preferred to go through Gigi, and I certainly don't blame them for that. Gigi has a far greater grasp of Chinese etiquette than I do, although I'd argue that my martial etiquette is stronger because I've been in the martial world beyond just the Chinese circles. Many aspects of martial etiquette are universal, and for good reason. And it's different than social etiquette because the martial world assumes that everyone is armed, or at least potentially dangerous. But beyond the language barrier, there were some masters that have become chummier with Gigi because she’s more obliging than me. Again, I don’t blame them for that either. Now, they realized they had to scramble to get into my good graces. They were coming up to me, hugging me, one even tried to dance with me. Again, WTH? When it comes to my work, I’m American born, so I really don't care as much about "face" as some native Chinese. Just have good Kung Fu and don't be an ass. That last point seems to be getting harder and harder lately. Once again, I blame the Year of the Flaming Cock. You don't have to be fluent in Mandarin to understand the connotation here either.

Regardless, please don't think that I take the raise in my position lightly. I've been toiling at our publications for years and already oversee much of the role of Publisher. Gigi's retirement is soft – she still comes into the office regularly, particularly to check on issues in Mandarin. We've been a solid team for nearly eighteen years now, balancing each other’s fortes and foibles, and I'm grateful that she still wants to stay involved. As for me, I will do my best to uphold Kung Fu Tai Chi as it negotiates the continual erosion of print publishing. The time will come when we'll have to discontinue print, but hopefully not for a little while longer, and I plan to keep developing our web publishing for that inevitable transition.

 

KUNG FU TAI CHI DAY

Like with Saturday, Sunday’s tale must start after midnight, to be fair. I'm not exactly sure when we got back to the hotel – not that late – and like always, there was a small after-party happening there. Like every year, the Dragon Crew along with some masters and competitors had gathered to decompress. Just a handful of the after-partiers made it to the banquet so the rest were blissfully naive to the personal transition I had just undergone. I would have preferred to be non-social actually, to ruminate on what my new position really entailed, but again, with the after-party, duty called.

Fortunately, I was rescued once again by Mulan. Remember in part 2 when I said “Jamaica will come up again later in the next installment of this tale”? Master Mimi Chan was the only female to show up to the after-party (on my invitation, mind you – just got to get that point in there for all the Dragon Crew and others who said they'd be bringing wushu hotties there). It wasn't awkward for her as she's surely been in that situation before and quickly took command of the room. Now the 2013 Songshan Shaolin Champion and my dear Shaolin Rasta bredren Chris Shepard has been a stalwart attendee of the Tiger Claw Elite Championships for years, and never misses the after-party. Being Rasta, he's fluent in Jamaican patois (my patois is only a little better than my Mandarin). Master Mimi is fluent too and I had mentioned that she had to chat patois with Chris when we had dinner on Thursday night. Watching Chris' expression as Mimi "run di road" in patois was as good of a friendly Kung Fu smack-down as I've seen. She got him to confess that he had yet to see her documentary, Pui Chan: Kung Fu Pioneer, and he humbly stayed up even later after the after-party to watch it and make amends. I was at the after-party until about 3:30 AM, still pretty wired from the Banquet. But after that, I was fading, and there was one more day, and I really needed a few hours of downtime in between. Chris Lewin minded the after-party until it shut down, but I'm not sure how much later that was.

KUNG FU TAI CHI DAY has a tradition now of opening with a mass recital of the Simplified 24 Taiji Routine. In previous years, I reviewed our video to get the pattern of the form. This year I completely bailed. Nevertheless, I rallied some of the Dragon Crew, the real martial arts practitioners, to participate, which committed me to doing it too. This time, instead of being saved by Mulan, it was a Shaolin monk. There in the back of the crowd, I found Shi Yanxing of Shaolin Temple Dublin. He was very close to Shi Yantuo, who I trained directly under for a few years at the now defunct U.S.A. O-Mei Academy until he moved to set up his own school, Shaolin Temple San Diego. Both masters came to Shaolin Temple from Shandong as children together and remained close. Like many Shaolin exponents, Yanxing had picked up some Tai Chi along the way and was more than obliging to let me follow along behind him, as did the rest of the still-standing Dragon Crew that had the martial fortitude. That being said, one of these days I really should commit this form to memory. Or not. Perhaps it’s a better story if I don’t. Anyway, until that time…

I shouldn’t dis the Kung Fu Dragon Crew that failed to join in for the Simplified 24 recital too much (it’s a martial thing amongst Kung Fu siblings – those familiar with martial etiquette understand). By Sunday, our volunteer base was waning, but the Dragon Crew was stalwart. Greg’s Bad Ass Bunny crew were still going strong, still filming. Several Dragon Crew members stepped up to serve as judges too, when the Judge volunteer pool began to falter. Note that all of those Dragon Crew judges were Kung Fu instructors at our previous schools and some still teach, so they were amply qualified.

Sunday was also the day of our WildAid Tiger Claw Championship, our biggest spotlight event. This was the eighth one, and I can’t be more proud of what that has achieved over the years. The Dragon Crew pitched in there too, with Lori White, one of our occasional copy editors and contributors, helping out. Mason Tong of Cal Wushu and Taiji Champion Benson Lin helped out there as well, and the event came together splendidly. The Tiger Cub and Teen Tiger divisions were well attended and the Adult Champion competition was intense. Cheng Shengwei won the adult division, beating out Samson Lee by the smallest possible fraction of a point. Samson is the son of Hoy Lee, our September+October 2008 cover master. Personally, I was rooting for Samson – not that I have anything against Cheng at all – it’s just Samson is Jow Gar, a traditional southern style, and I’d love for a traditional southern style to win someday. Ultimately, the WildAid Tiger Claw Championship raised another $2000 for WildAid. Each year, it’s a little more. Remember: When the Buying Stops, the Killing Can Too.

L-R: Jonny Oh, Brandon Cheng, Cheng Shengwei, Max Lwin, Silvia Sanchez, Gene Ching

 

Remember also when I said, “Iron Crotch would sting me in the end,” in the previous installment? Well, that wasn’t a euphemism. KFTC25 AF was bookended by Iron Crotch, although not by intention. Grandmasters LIVE! opened with Grandmaster Tu Jin-Sheng’s Iron Crotch demo. That was by design. As a surprise guest, another Iron Crotch exponent, Master Ye Wei, demonstrated at KUNG FU TAI CHI DAY. Now, we didn’t know exactly what he was going to do, and had I been more attentive, I would have realized that this was the same person who had recently garnered worldwide attention for towing seven Audi cars with his goods. At his request, the Dragon Crew constructed a weight from our medals (which were solid metal and very heavy) and then assisted Master Ye by carrying them up on stage. There’s a longstanding tradition of Dragon Crew support of Iron Crotch that began with our 10th Anniversary (prior to the Dragon Crew being named) and reached a climax in 2013 when we hazed then newbie Dragon Crew member David Hardy by making him ride the Iron Crotch. Again, that’s not a euphemism. He was lifted on a special swing by an Iron Crotch master. For the record, he’s really the only Dragon Crew member that ever got hazed. The opportunity presented itself and we all just could not resist.

So Dragon Crewmen Edgar and Hoel helped carry in this massive weight, constructed by newbie Dragon Crewman Jason Raimondi and our own graphic artist Patrick Lugo who, as always, designed the medals. Ye Wei did the lift successfully, but then started in with the pelvic thrusts. That revealed everything. It was embarrassing as we produce the Tiger Claw Elite Championships to be a family event and we certainly do NOT want anyone to have to look at a flashing penis unwillingly. But there was Master Ye, in all his glory, swinging an inhuman amount of weight from his genitals, exposing himself for all to see in the center of our stage. Like I said twice already in this article, it’s the Year of the Flaming Cock. If anyone in the audience was offended, I sincerely apologize. It’s one of those things that I didn’t think I needed to explain, but from here on out, we must now make explicit rules about Iron Crotch demonstrations.

Next year, the Tiger Claw Elite Championships, including the 10th Annual Tiger Claw Elite KungFuMagazine.com Championship and the 6th Annual KUNG FU TAI CHI DAY, will be held May 19–20, 2018, in San Jose, California. I hope to see you there.