Quotable DM

[Drunk Monk]

DM is not actually quoted in this article. It's really just all about how super awesome cool DM is. That's him in the bottom pic on the far right.

聖荷西功夫太極日
李連杰恩師
吳彬談武術

( 本報記者仇家奇菲蒙報道 )

國際巨星李連杰的武術教練、中國武術界傳奇吳彬師傅昨日抵達灣區，將參加周日舉行的第三屆聖荷西市功夫太極日活動。他說，中國武術不光重視招數的好看，實際對戰也有很大的作用。就拿太極來說，看起來柔軟緩慢，但真要掌握以柔克剛的原理，在武術競技上也能立於不敗之地。

吳彬在李連杰的功夫明星道路上起到至關重要的作用。李連杰一直與這位老師保持聯繫。

吳彬昨日在功夫太極日記者會上說，太極拳既可成為中老年朋友強身健體的法寶，亦可在競技武術中起到防身功效。他指出，太極拳的理念講究一個圓字，利用圓形的不穩定性可化解攻擊。實用性較強的太極拳其實與印象中的太極很不相同，動作幅度和速度都比較快。與人交手時，敵動我動，後發先至，並不是一味防守，也講究先下手為強。

................（詳細新聞，請閱 《星島日報》)


武術冠軍鄒云健表演峨眉太極。


吳彬老師談中國武術。


朱感生（右四）對此次太極日活動表示期待。記者仇家奇攝

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[Drunk Monk]

January 13, 2015 > Kung Fu magazine: 22 years young and still kicking

Kung Fu magazine: 22 years young and still kicking

By David R. Newman

If youÕre looking for an American success story, look no further than in our own backyard; Fremont, California. This is the home of Kung Fu Tai Chi magazine, founded in 1993 by Thomas and Gigi Oh. The magazine features interviews with top teachers, current events, weapon studies, historical essays, and articles about traditional and pop culture.

Originally called Wushu Kungfu, the magazine was the brainchild of Roger Hagood, who published under the name Pacific Rim Publishing. When he ran out of money and content, the Ohs stepped in to help, and began publishing under their own company, TC Media. Today, Kung Fu Tai Chi is published bimonthly and boasts an international circulation in about 40 countries.

At the time, Thomas Oh was busy with his own company, Tiger Claw, distributing martial arts equipment to local schools. And so, with no publishing or martial arts experience, but with great heart, Gigi Oh left her career in real estate to run the magazine. Initially this seemed like a perfect fit for a Taiwanese native who loved reading wuxia novels (adventures of martial artists in ancient China). Now she could meet the masters of martial arts in real life.

However, the first five years were rough. It was a big challenge. I did really bad for a couple issues. Observing and absorbing everything, Gigi was only getting three hours of sleep a night. But she was up to the challenge. I set a goal: I had to be better every single issue. Today, she credits her love of learning for keeping her going. I have gained so much knowledge. I feel more like a complete person.Ó

At her side for the past 15 years has been Associate Publisher Gene Ching. With a strong martial arts background and a deep love and respect for Asian history and culture, it seems only natural that his path led him here. One of the things about Kung Fu that makes it very special is that itÕs very embedded in Chinese culture, he explains. Its not just fighting techniques. It encompasses art, history, and all these other elements. Along with two designers (Patrick Lugo, Kevin Ho), this elite team of four keep the magazine running smoothly. Each issue also contains contributions from freelance writers.

In 2001 they launched their website, KungfuMagazine.com, which contains its own unique content. And in 2010, the use of social media began including a YouTube channel, where instructional videos that they produce themselves are posted. There is also a digital version of the magazine available through Zinio.

While they acknowledge the power of an online presence, Ching and Gigi say they still prefer print, and think their readers do as well. They take great pride in publishing a work that embraces new developments in martial arts while staying deeply rooted to the past. Because of this mission, and community connections, making it onto the cover of Kung Fu Tai Chi is a highly sought prize by many masters.

With so many newspapers and magazines disappearing these days, its remarkable that Kung Fu Tai Chi has thrived. They attribute their success to loyal readership and position in the heart of the martial arts community. Ching smiles, ÒCalifornia and the whole West Coast is a very fruitful area for martial arts, particularly the Bay Area, because so many Asian immigrants come into this area. There are so many schools. Right here, within a block of our building, there are three martial arts schools. In fact, sometimes we feel we get a little too Bay-Area-centric with this magazine. ThereÕs such a great population of very talented teachers and masters.Ó

Another reason for their success has been the unique relationship with their parent company, Tiger Claw. Thomas has grown the company from selling goods out of the back of his van to a nationwide leader in martial arts gear. TC Media also runs MartialArtsMart.com, a retail outlet for Tiger Claw. For a long time, Tiger Claw was the sole advertiser in the magazine. This helped to fund the operation when times were tough. It also gave Gigi and the staff the freedom to publish content without any outside agenda.

In addition, they have partnered with Tiger Claw to host an annual martial arts championship in San Jose. Now in its seventh year, the event draws participants from around the world. The Ohs have also established a non-profit (the Tiger Claw Foundation) and a consultancy group (Tiger Claw Management Consultants).

Gigi and Ching like to stress that there is something for everyone in their magazine. In fact, as they have come to realize, it is a way of life. And they are still learning. We often say, weÕre barely scratching the surface of this, even after twenty some odd years of publishing.


For more information, contact Kung Fu Tai Chi at (510) 656-5100 or visit online at <!-- w --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.KungFuMagazine.com">www.KungFuMagazine.com</a><!-- w --> and <!-- w --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.MartialArtsMart.com">www.MartialArtsMart.com</a><!-- w -->. Visit Tiger Claw at <!-- w --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.TigerClaw.com">www.TigerClaw.com</a><!-- w -->.

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[Greg_phpbb3_import1]

Prior post.

So cool all you are is a blue square with a question mark in it. Even the link has been cut.

[Drunk Monk]

Ok, ok, fair enough, Greg. Moving on.

Remember when we used to sit through the credits of some godawful film just to see Greg's name and applaud loudly? That was long before those irritating Marvel post-credit scenes. Well here. Sit through the credits. It's only like 18 min to get to them.

[youtube]Z5VSi7YNr4Y[/youtube]

[Greg_phpbb3_import1]

I see nothing. Your forum fu is weak today.

[Drunk Monk]

I always forget that this forum only needs the end digits for YT vids, not the entire http addy. :oops:

I fixed it.

[The Queen]

The Queen will be interviewed this morning on the "Friday Buzz" show on WORT-89.9 - public radio for Madison, Wisconsin. They want me to talk about Nigel Hayes, the Wisconsin Badgers basketball player, and whether his references to the stenographers during NCAA press briefings have had an impact. SPOILER ALERT, I'm going to say, yes, they have.

[lady_cranefly]

What kind of impact? (I did think of you when I saw that story--)

[Greg_phpbb3_import1]

For one thing, they are talking about court reporters on Sports Center.

[The Queen]

The major impact is that they're talking about reporters/stenographers at all, on ESPN, and on both local and national news shows, and talking about them in a positive way and as as high tech, relevant service providers. Too often lately, if we made any sort of news, it was about official court reporters being laid off because the state legislature doesn't understand why a tape recorder isn't cheaper or sufficient to replace all of the court reporters, or because a reporter screws up in some fashion.

It's just great to get the positive PR. Gives a big lift to all the reporters I work with. There's talk of the NCRA trying to get Nigel Hayes to attend our annual convention in NYC this summer. We'll be happy to introduce him to a lot of beautiful, talented reporters.

[Drunk Monk]

A CAT WHO CAN CATCH MICE: A CLOSER LOOK AT THE ABBOT OF SHAOLIN
FIGHTLAND BLOG
By Sascha Matuszak



On August 21st, China’s Supreme People's Procuratorate, the government body which supervises anti-graft wing investigations, formally accepted a claimant’s plea to investigate Shi Yongxin, the abbot of Shaolin Temple. The step came after a group of monks and former monks traveled to Beijing and personally petitioned the central authorities to step in after local officials in the town of Dengfeng, where the temple is located, made little progress in the month since the allegations surfaced on Chinese social media.

The Want China Times identified the petitioners as Shi Yanlu, who previously taught martial arts at the temple, Shi Yande and Shi Yanyong, lay disciples at the temple, monk Shi Yanqin, Shaolin resident Shi Yanren and the former director of legal affairs for the temple Wang Yonghua. Shi Zhengyi, the anonymous whistleblower who cast the first stone on Weibo, China’s Facebook/Twitter hybrid, is either an umbrella name for the group and their supporters, a mysterious figure in the shadows, or a non-person.

Shi Yongxin himself, despite being profiled as the CEO Monk who drives around in flashy cars, is somewhat of a mystery. One of the best profiles of the monk was written by Gene Ching for Kung Fu Magazine back in 2003. Shi Yongxin had been abbot for just four years and a lot of the moves he is famous for hadn’t been made yet. But the younger Shi Yongxin was already taking warrior-monks on tours, establishing associations and research bodies, and lobbying for Unesco World Heritage status for the temple. But he had been active long before he became abbot in 1999:

“In 1986 he helped establish the Shaolin Temple Martial Way Development Association ... [t]he following year he developed a warrior monk demonstration team for Shaolin Temple and became the team leader. ...

In February of 1988, Yongxin founded the Shaolin Red Cross Association to provide medical assistance to the local suburban residents. He also established, nine months later, the Shaolin Calligraphy and Art Research Organization. In June of 1989, Yongxin led the Shaolin Warrior Monk Team on a fundraising demonstration tour across China. They collected money for a large commemorative statue that was erected by the Yellow River in Henan. Later, he lead the warrior monks abroad to Canada, England, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, Macao, Malaysia, Russia, Singapore, Taiwan and Thailand, in one of the earliest friendship tours to spread Shaolin culture.

By 1993 Yongxin was spearheading a multitude of projects to promote Shaolin culture. In March he was elected into one of Henan's highest political positions as a representative at the People's Congress. Soon after in May, he established the Chinese Zen Poetry Research Center, which published an annual collection of Chinese Zen poems. The following month was truly extraordinary. Yongxin was part of a Shaolin Buddhist Cultural Team invited to Taiwan by the Taiwan Chinese Culture University. It was the first time that Mainland and Taiwanese Buddhists interacted face-to-face in four decades.”

Shi Yongxin the first acting, official abbot of the Shaolin Temple in more than 300 years. Since 1772, no one led the temple, organized tours, disciplined monks, established relations, or expanded research. In fact, following the razing of the temple in 1927, Shaolin lay in ruins until the 1980s. Shi Yongxin’s immediate predecessor, Shi Xingzheng, had some success reviving the name, but when he died in 1986, the temple had a few dozen monks scattered about a rag tag collection of dilapidated ruins in the backwards village of Dengfeng.

Shi Yongxin changed all of that. He moved the temple into its current location, at the foot of Songshan Mountain, and set up reclaiming and rebuilding Shaolin. He revamped and organized the tourism industry—jumpstarted by the 1970s film industry out of Hong Kong—and put people to work. Warrior monks were expelled and replaced with martial artists. By the time Matthew Polly entered the temple as a student in 1992, the ruinous hulk of the 80s had been replaced by offices and courtyards with monkish teachers, not-so-monkish drinkers, a rapidly developing bureaucratic apparatus, and foreign relations with everyone from the lowly 98lb weakling searching for meaning to curious heads of state.

The abbot made Shaolin. Unfortunately, not everyone is pleased with what he made Shaolin into. But that, in a nutshell, is the story of China at the turn of the century. A bunch of crooks and thieves made China into the juggernaut it is today on the world stage. They had little to work with, were starting from scratch, and there were few time-places which provided as much opportunity to get rich and be naked than China during the 1990s and 2000s. A fantastic look at the absurdity of one billion people released into the wild west is Yu Hua’s novel, Brothers, which tells the tale of a rich, unscrupulous pervert and his impossibly (for Western society) upstanding brother during the end of the Cultural Revolution and the decades that followed.

Shi Yongxin grew up in that world, perhaps as an upstanding and dedicated monk, and was in a position to resurrect a dead icon of Chinese culture. He was the one who took pilgrimages to Buddha’s birthplace in India, organized collections of Zen poetry, and marshaled the leaderless monks of Shaolin into an internationally renowned force for modern Chinese Buddhism and lucrative kung fu.

His accomplishments obviously do not absolve him of guilt. An abbot of the Shaolin Temple needs to keep his pants on. But the man who Opened China up to the world in 1979 famously said, “Black cat, white cat. Doesn’t matter as long as it catches mice.”

Shi Yongxin is most definitely a cat who can catch the mice, and now he’s paying the price for his success.

<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://fightland.vice.com/blog/a-cat-who-can-catch-mice-a-closer-look-at-the-abbot-of-shaolin">http://fightland.vice.com/blog/a-cat-wh ... of-shaolin</a><!-- m -->

This one is sorta cheating as Sascha used to write for us, until VICE poached him with higher pay and better exposure. :?

[Drunk Monk]

Again, I'm not actually quoted.  I don't speak Mandarin.  Even Professor Wang said I was the 'silent guy'.  Actually he said that in Mandarin...

http://dailynews.sina.com/gb/news/usa/si...32986.html

[Drunk Monk]

Man I love this pic.  



http://www.usalifeonline.com/news/bencan...6&id=15369

[Greg]

I really need Georgelee to dress me.

[Drunk Monk]

I've been poached.

https://www.facebook.com/drunkmonkpodcast

Not me.  Definitely not me.