Blog entry

• Previous |
• Next |
• All

• Beijing Fall 2007

  Friday, Nov 23, 2007 6:25AM / Standard Entry / Members only
  9 comments

   

  

  So...

  I don't really blog... I like blogs, and there are several I read and subscribe to:

  allnewyear.com, narom's blog is always fascinating, Wu Di does a great job on keeping current in both Chinese and English, Ian Bogost does a great one on trends in gaming and technology that is always philosophical and illuminating, Wil Wheaton (http://wilwheaton.typepad.com/) is a sensative and touching gamer/nerd blogger, Mike @ mywushublog.com keeps me updated on classes and movie reviews when I'm abroad (which is pretty often this year) ...

  ...I'm just not the type the put my brilliant and introspective thoughts on paper or in binary...

  However- I was in China *again* this fall for 6 weeks (October and Nov), and had a nice trip. I'm not going to wax poetic or write much at all except to say that I love Beijing. I visited Mark in HK for a few days and now he owes me a meal, and Macau was nice, but I prefer to watch their wushu team to anything else there (I live too close to Vegas to care about the rest of it.) I spent January and February training in Thailand (muay thai) and most of March, June and July in Beijing doing wushu and sanda (and a little tui shou and traditional chin na), punctuated by brief trips back to the US to make a little money, make sure my car still runs, and pass gifts out to family members...

  This mid-November I had the honour to accompany the US Wushu Team during the 9th World Wushu Championships in Beijing for a week, as I was living at Shi Cha Hai training with the Beijing Sanda Team. I checked out of SCH and into the Beiyuan Hotel in N. Ring 5, and spent 7 days dining and travelling with the taolu and san shou athletes- some wonderful people. Being with the ream during the opening ceremony on a Sunday evening was overwhelming- I believe over 80 countries participated in the games, and their flags and uniforms were so diverse- we literally swam in a sea of windbreakers and trackjackets from all over the world.  There was so much energy in the room- the emotion emanating from this diverse crowd of humans was touching- we were all there, athletes, cometitors, coaches, judges, spectaors- because of a love of something bigger than ourselves- everyone you met eyes with was thinking the same thing, or something close to it... "God (or whomever) I love wushu, I love martial arts, I love ____ (insert country name here). Thank you... I want to train, I want to perform, I want to be better tomorrow than I am today." That's really what wushu is about for all of us. I know there are athletes that do it for a living and get tired of it, but even they enjoy it, and most of the people there are like me- lovers, amateurs- people who find improvement in themselves and their relation to the world through their involvement in Chinese arts...

  

  Places I didn't even know had kung-fu had teams showing up! It was really wonderful. The opening cermony included hundreds of little kids doing forms together,

  

  a 1,000 person Yang taiji demo,

  

  and the Beijing SCH boys leading a wushu great wushu demo (sans Wu DI, who was off competing in Guangzhou).

  The US didn't show as strongly as I'd hoped, but we got two people in to represent the US in Beijng 2008 at the Games.  Enough talking... there are plenty of people who will blog about it I'm sure. I just wanted to put some pics out, and say that I was homored to be there and see so much in credible taolu and san shou (the san shou guys get really burnt when you refer to taolu as wushu- they feel left out... whatever...)

  Anyway. here's some pics...

  Jet and Coach Patti- the Ultimates- reunited - if you don't know who Hao Zhi Hua (Patti Li) is,

  get on wikipedia or www.wushuwest.com and check her out... she's my sifu... The other one is named Jet Li (or Li Lianjie). He does movies and charity stuff...

  

  15-year-old Colvin Wang (east coast US) made it to the 2008 Games with jian and chiang- he's a really talented and respectful player with a great future ahead of him. This is the profile I got when I told him to look pensive.

  

  The greats from the first generation Beijing Wushu Team, with Cheng Haikun, one of the heads of the Chinese Wushu Federation (and me on the far right)

  

  one of the greatest photos I'll ever have:

  

  yeah. that's me (not Jet, the other guy)...

  The Great One:

  

  He is amazing to watch on video, but awe-inspiring to see live and close up. Every movement is practically perfect...

  

   

  Tat Mau (Paul) Wong and Sifu Patti- the legends of American kung fu:

  

   

  The American 2007/2008 Wushu Team

  

  Me and Coach Patti-

  

  American and Chinese Sanda players:

  

  American taolu:

  Anyway... today is Thanksgiving, and I'm thankful for so much- the focus wushu has given my life, the life my sifu has opened the way for, the coaches and athletes from all over the world I've had the honor to train under in martial arts and acrobatics... life is good, and gets better everyday. I'm very proud of the US players- everyone did so well. I'm thankful for my teammates in Berkeley- regular people like me, who have kids and jobs and mortgagesand bills and they still come and train and get better and better every week... it's inspiring...

  I can't wait to get back to China, but I'm glad to be home.