Infant Chi Gung

I have discovered a series of exercises that can be a rigorous workout for the parent while at the same time being safe and soothing for the infant. Some of them utilize slings, car seats, and much can be done simply holding the baby safely in your arms. Though some of these techniques require more attention to detail and experience with holding children. Nonetheless. It for the young mother and father to get in a very good full body, chi Gung workout, while simultaneously soothing your child. The motion will stop crying pretty much every time so long as there is not another reason for crying (i.e. feeding time or diaper changing time.)
There is no need to get in a car, or to turn on a hair dryer. This works even better and enables you to stay or get into incredible shape in a short period of time.

Since you can do the workout face to face with your child maintaining eye contact, (that is before the doze off) you can bond with your child as well. You do not need to "make time" for these things as it is possible to do all of these at once.

To Learn how, or if a friend is interested in learning how
Contact me at 781-888-0631
acheung-whitecrane@hotmail.com

August Moon 2009

This past Sunday we performed for the August Moon Festival on August 16th. Roughly based on the Mid Autumn festival which usually falls around September or October on the western Calendar. My first performance for the School had been on stilts when I was fourteen years old for that years August Moon.
This year we did not do stilts. It was too much of a hassle with the few people that we had. Our kids were too lazy, some Ma Fan yaus in Chinatown didn't like it because of jealousy or simply because their head was up their ass when it came to their perception of martial arts and maybe even life.

Considering where we were at as a school we did I good job. They wanted us to stretch out our performance for about an hour since we were last and they had time to kill. I ended up bringing the audience participation into our segment as if I was more, teaching kids of my own instead of performing for strangers. We taught a little bit of Kung Fu and allowed children to try the child's head at the end. This was something that before, we would probably not do. But today, it was okay.

One of Sifu's students from the village met me in back of the stage (which was outdoors) and began talking about the proper way to perform the Tiger Fork. Sifu had shown me some things before but not everything. In the village, the Fork Represented a Master and so there were many rules and rituals associated with it. But Sifu knew that for Boston, I was good enough.
If they challenged us, we could fight them. If they only did so verbally, the truth is that they were only blowing air out of their mouth anyway because they didn't know what they were talking about.

Nonetheless if someone who actually knew something had comments for improvement of how I was doing things, Of course I would choose improvement over irgnorance.

He explained that I did some of the technques but I had to also do the other ones. (Some of which Sifu said, were not as important because they were for look and performance and not for real Fighting. Sifu had told me PA but lay sun, the Flying Paddle (Tiger Fork) should not leave your body. You keep it close so that you have power, This Represents you fighting a Tiger. You don't jab out long to attack, but if the Tiger comes near you then you kill it using the force of you whole body behind the Fork. Otherwise the tiger will be able to get past a weaker extended fork.)

Now Sifu's student, an old man fairly newly arrived from China, began going over some of the customs of the performance with me backstage.

"Do you understand me when I talk to you?" He says in Taishanese.

"Doong" Although honestly, not clearly.

"The Pah, you first Lift it rising up right?, but when come back down around your hands have to switch to this grip," he said showing downward facing fist. "Also you start off the Pah has to face down. " I nodded as I had been doing that, " then you have to attack like this and this." he showed and I watched carefully trying to remember and see if I missed anything. "Then there are some performance moves too you haven't been shown, crossing the shoulders, You have to be shown that, And you throw up the pah and catch it, ending the form, it has to be facing down again." I had been facing it up at the end not realizing this was a rule. "it has to be facing down," he said when I aske d again, "Not facing up to the heavens."

This Uncle here was from another village and recalled one of the performances.

"We went to another village and performed, but the old men wouldn't let us leave. This was the 60's and those guys had their beards down to their waists. They were judging us by old standards from the Qing Dynasty. The said we could leave because we hadn't given them a real performance yet. They were probably 90 years old and had Manuchrian tail styled hair, you know the old hair style from the Qing. Sifu
saw this and sent someone to get Shh MM Hung Monkey King" (nicknamed after the mythical god) from his village. This was a short guy under five feet who looked like a monkey, hence the monkey king nickname. He focused on acrobatic and monkey like kung fu.
"He came and Sifu told him and me what to do. He stood on the Tiger Fork and one, two three! I liftefd him up in the air . Standing on the fork he performed Monkey King Moves while I held him, keeping on turning the fei pah at the bottom, Turning, turning,, keep on turning.
Then Finally he jumped off with a flip and the old men watched and nodding gave us the the thumbs up, "Good Stuff."
Only then would they allow us to leave." he laughed.

Woo Ching- Chapter two- Learning Village Kung Fu

When Sifu was young he was a weaker child and so his parents wanted him to learn Kung Fu to become healthier.
In the village he learned all types of Kung Fu at a basic level.
Alot of the forms, excrecises and fighting forms with sticks were what children practised instead of patty cake, hopscotch, football, or basketball.
In the past, adults practiced much the same way and though this way of training was limited, one could still become very strong and develop fighting skills.
Many of the farmers did simple fighting excercises with heavy weapons, left over from ancestors who had used them when they became officials (Moh Jong yuen) and became very strong, even though they did not necessarily learn clearly from a Master.

One of the most popular systems in the South was Hung Gar
Ma but dong Tow but dong Da yut cuen, yiew but dong.
Stance unmiving, head unmoving, hit a punch, waist unmoving.
Hung Gar is hard over coming soft, or harder over coming hard.
It matches with young people who want to fight quick. The techniques tend to be shorter, and the strategy tends to be to go straight in, hard and fast.



Choi ley fut, which is a mixed sytem in itself the name listing the three systems
tends toward being extended arms and wide stances, (Cheurng kew dai ma) employing haymaker and backfisted like swing motions to beat down a target, followed by a spear like punch, the are famous for the Sau kwa chap combination. They turn their stance when the punchbut not really the waist.

Wing Chun is very close fighting, they side step and then rush in close, sticking to the hands of their oppponent wearing them down and the attacking most easily after the opponent has wasted their energy or begin swinging wildly.
Bak Hok

Bak Mei Pai was brought into the Taishan area by Cheung Lai Chuen, who came up from Hong Kong saying he specialized in defeating anyone who practiced Hung Gar. 90% of the people practiced Hung Gar and so he had no shortage of challengers, all of whom he defeated which gained him many students. People admitted that his Kung Fu was good. At the same time however, a lot of people didn't like him.
Bak Mei Pai is n=known as the Black Star of Shaolin Kung Fu since the founder seemed to have develop techniques to specifically counter the Kung Fu he learned at Shaolin.
They are famous for pulling and then following in the attack with a stronger second attack. While doing this their breathing at first appears to be reversed. Bak Mei was famous for his Gung Lik or power and this is really a requirement to be good with these techniques, thus this system takes a little longer to develop. It is Softer then Hung Gar, but harder then the softest Kung Fu.

Tibetan White Crane
was brought into the area by Chan Hak Fu.
This master had taught the infantry in World War II.
Eventually after the war he wanted to return from Hong Kong to visit his hometown in Taishan.
After getting off of the boat he told the coolies that he would carry his own light suitcase. However before walking out of their area, they had followed him and still demanded payment. He refused to pay because he had not used their service. At this point a brawl started and all the coolies jumped in. it quick became obvious that though they were great in number, they were no match ofr him hand to hand. So they began trying to beat him with their tools or carrying heavy loads. This was a bamboo stick with a metal hook like devise on the end that was somewhat sharp.
However, Chan Hak Fu was quick and they were still no match for him.
They stepped back further and began throwing thse hook sticks at him. With swing arms he was able to catch them and throw them back back handedly and front handedly quickly and using all different directional techniques both to defend and attack.
At this point his wife along with authorities broke up the fight and she explained the incident away apologizing for her husband who had perhaps drank to mcuh and had a belligerent personality. (This was probably said just to smooth things over.)

When Chan Hak Fu arrived at his hometown, fellow hometown people who had taken the same boat recognized hi from the incident and had already started talking about it to everyone. They had been impressed and were overjoyed that he was a member of the same hometown and wanted to treat him to dinner.
He tried hands with many people defeating them easily and showed them the basic Chuen pau cup combinations. These three moves became famous in Taishan for beating the hell out of anything else, catching the opponent by surprise and beating them to where it knowed their lid flying off. (A koui fei sai kang)

They wanted him to stay and teach more but he introduced a classmate to go back instead. He proved his worth buy using a cup punch to preak the bottom of an opium pipe.
One Student of Chan Hak Fu's, Yai Wo, would follow Chan Hak Fu to meet Ng Siu Jong in Hong Kong. He would then come back to openly declare himslef the best in six surrounding cities, and beat many opponents. (More about him later)

Very Shortly after this Communism took over and the country was sealed off and
essentially locked down, changing the nature of what it was to live everyday life.

Most villages learned and tauight more than one Kung Fu combining these things together.
A mixed system in Sifu's village, Nam On was also called Hung Bak choi (Hung kuen Bak Hok Bak Mei Choi lei fut)

Another village, Mee Nam, taught the Bak mei and Bak Hok (The Tibetan White Crane)
They were famous for the philophy of through cups in a very hard style determine either to break the opponents head, kill them or break their own hand. Thus their basic form of White Crane was very hard and aggressive, thinking only of moving forward.

The village next to them hired a Northern Shaolin Master.

All of these styles mixed and floated around this small area of villages battling villages over family feuds.
Doushan, was often called "Kung fu Dao" because of the popularity of KUng Fu there.
There were many Stick fighting systems blended into village life as well that had been passed down form Centuries before. These have stories behind them as well.
The Guests Family Stick

Hakka Stick

These arts were all basically illegal as even three or more peoples gathering was seen as an act of rebellion or counter revolutionary crime against Mao. Old traditions and particularly Kung Fu was seen as a threat.




At this point he began to travel around both to escape his family background (Scholarly families were in a sense blacklisted at this point in Chinese Communism)
So that he could find work or perhaps escape to Hong Kong. He also wished to learn higher level Kung Fu.


He went through many different types of occupations
including

hunting

Carpentry


(others)


At one point in young adulthood
he hid out in Guangzhou.
There he hung out with a man whom he sought out as a teacher of Violin.
It turns out this man also practiced Tibetan White Crane and was originally
from Hong Kong. Both of them talked many long nights trying to find a way to
escape back out to Hong Kong.

He learned Violin as well as some chi Gung and fighting methods of Tibetan White Crane from this Master. (Name)


He also traveled to a temple where he hoped to improve his luck. He had Tried to escape and was caught at least three times and punished for it.

At this point he went to the temple to pray. Ths must have been a very isolated area
where nobody bothered to trash this tenmple yet.

There was a monk there that was a master of Shaolin White Crane from the founder Woo Duk Dai.He hadn't shown this to any of the other monks there and had a strange personality. If he felt that someone was not speaking to him from the heart he would simply ignore that person, not caring about societal norms and politeness., He was also a Chinese Teet da doctor and helped many patients who gave him gifts in payment which he told them to throw in the corner. He never even looked at the pile that was there.
This monk Taught sifu the advanced high level Shaolin Kung Fu including Mein Lay jum, which was a new progression by Wu Dak Dai.
This Master Monk was at the level where he was able to levitate.
He didn't force Sifu to practice but showed him things and Sifu worked on them when the Master wasn't necessarily there watching over him.

One excercise mentioned was with a Bucket of water at the river.
In a stance, circulating the air/oxygen in your body, you would push the empty bucket into the water, the air resisting, until finally it was under and filled with water.
Then slowly you would lift it into your body. and then turn it over to empty it.
Sifu told this story and Dai Si asked if you turned it over using arm strength.
Sifu said you might think you can do that but the bucket is so heavy that the result is that you will only think about it and be unable to do it.
You would have to use your whole body to flip the bucket over, the power coming from twisting the waste and then emptying the water.
That whole process would be considered one rotation of the excercise. From there you would start all over again.
This was one basic excercise for strenth training.

Introduction

I sat on the couch of the Kung Fu school. Having moved into this building, we gained a nicer space and a lower rent fee. However, it was different than the old building in that we could not light the incense and was less ours. It was in fact simply a classroom in a building that had once been an elementary school. It went through sevral stages, at one point being Kwong Kow Chinese School, an extracurricular education I had participated in, and finally renting out the classrooms.

August and Kelly, Sifu's grandchildren, my students, were having a battle with pbc pipes. I told the children to quiet down and finally gathered the courage to take two steps over to Sifu and bring up and start a conversation. "Sifu how are you feeling? Do you feel like talking?"
"What is it?" he asked.
I brought a chair over and asked in halting speech that I would like to write a book about him.
He stared out thinking. "Okay... Good."
"So.. to do this, I wanted to interview you. I didn't bring a recorder today. Tomorrow I will bring one. But we can start now."
He paused for a while.
"Is that okay?" I asked.
"I'm thinking. I'm thinking where we should start. You want to write about the Kung Fu?"
"Your history, everything from the start." I said.
He paused for another long time. Then he turned to me. "Because I am different then other people. The times I was born into are not normal."
"If I was to begin talking about my life I would have to talk about certain things. For instance, I didn't have rice to eat. People will wonder why that is. Was it that everyone had rice to eat but only we didn't?' I didn't go to school. People will wonder if it was because I was lazy?'
Of Course not, " he said his voice growing louder,"The truth is that we had nothing because the Communists took everything away from us!
But if I write this, then there will be many people reading this book , " he said pantomiming this potential reader looking as if inspecting the book with pointed finger, " that will read this cursing us, 'Mother fuckers, you talk rot about our party!' But not to write it... the whole reason why most of my existence was the way it was, stems from the party ruining the country, it is somthing difficult to edit out. Edited out, the story would be an untruth, and useless.
Inevitably to tell the whole story, the book would not reflect well on the Communists. Then if we put this out there, people will curse us saying we are speaking badly of them"

"And you don't want to write something bad about the Communists."
He paused again.
"I'm thinking about if there could be any repucussions now. Whether we should do this." he said.
I said that perhaps we could just write it first then censor things for now or perhaps have them put out later.
"That's too difficult." He said, "and to not say these things, would be a fake story. After all the truth is that these things happened this way."

"There shouldn't be a problem," I said, "Many people have already written things about those times and how bad they were already anyway. These people can still go back to China. After all we could just release these things in the U.S. only"

"You will write it in English?"he asked.

"Of course I'll write in English. I can't write Chinese anyway." I said.

"Ohhh, if in English then you'll bang, bang, bang it out no problem. We are just writing it for the people outside of China anyway." he laughed.
Tension eased some. I felt we mighth be able to do this. Maybe I could interview him and he'd be willing to have this happen.
"Right," I said, "Then if we ever wanted to put it out in China then we could just let them censor whatever they wanted to censor first. But we should have a true version even if it is only for ourselves and our descendants to read."

He nodded. A short time passed and he said, "In China someone has already written the good accomplishments down for me. For instance the things I created and invented and what not. Wei Min (A student still in China) is also friends with this man ( A Principle) and there is a copy of it in my house in China. Perhaps I can get this or a copy sent to us and we can work from there. That would be better."

"Okay," I said.
He stared deep in thought again, lost in the past, and his many experiences. I was somewhat worried, because I knew bits and pieces of what he had been through because of the decade I have spent with him, living with him for a few years as well. I was worried about wherever reliving this stuff was good for him. After all his health was deteriorating. I was very cautious.
At that point. My girlfriend called me and I would now leave. I thought too maybe it is not so good to jerk around the thoughts an then just leave. But after all it was good to let him calmly reflect about this first. I bowed to him, Jing and the kids, the altars and headed home. I thought upon arriving home that I could also conduct interviews by phone. That way they could be at his convenience as well as mine. This ended up not working out as we had to wait almost a month before this photo of a list of accomplishments reached us. Even though it was by e-mail. It had to pass through too many hands who though were not necessarily adverse to my writing a book,
were also not very interested.
This attempt seemed like it would be different thatn my others when I was in highschool. But it would again be similarly difficult. Perhaps I would just ave to write it first and add new information later. Or perhaps my book should simply be about trying to write this book.

Woo Ching- Chapter three "Rise"

Sifu gained great Gung Lik and fighting skills as well as experience fighting in his hometown. But his name did not reach such a high level until he was hiding out in Guangzhou.
Guangzhao at that time was very chaotic with fighting all the time and thus Kung Fu was of great interest to people.
One was not legally allowed to open up a school but he taught in the parks at night.
Here people would test you out or try and mess with your class.

Knocking down all challengers very easily and able to hit people arms once, but so hard that they would be unable to move them for a couple of weeks, he gained a reputation for his skill and power. Also, those who he healed back spread his reputation of high skills in chinese teet da, or sports medicine. He tried hands and was clearly more powerful than many of the powerful masters in Guangzhou.
Wing chun Master


Hung Gar Master


Thus by who he defeated easily, people knew how good he was.

When he returned to his hometown and China opened up after Mao's death
many people would travel to Sifu's house, having heard his name, to learn Kung Fu.

He taught in his village for free and people began to see that his students were much better fighters.
Thus other villages wished for him to teach. He would end up sending one of his students most of the time and check up on progress.

Wherever he taught they would want to test you first. and so his reputation continued to grow.

Furthermore, having defeated them without question repeatedly, they surrendered to his higher skills and thus were not only learning from him, but would show any of the Kung Fu that they had passed down throughout the generations to him.

Often times, though they practiced this kung fu, they did not understand it, and so he would use the Highlevel Kung Fu he had learned to explain how he would use those techniques.

In this way he also encountered many treasured traditional forms which he brought into the white crane system using the philospohies he knew already.

Woo Ching- Chapter One "Taishan"

He was born Woo Chung Ching, the third son of (Father) and (Mother)In China, Guangdong,Taishan, Hometown of Doushan, Village of Nam on. This area at that time was actually more prosperous than Hong Kong. The reason for this was not only did this area have a port, it also had a railroad, built through private investment. All Chinese and not a cent from foreign companies. It was built mainly from an Engineer who had traveled to America and got deals on old tracks, shipping them back to his hometown. In fact people from this area have been coming back and forth between China and the U.S. since the Qing Dynasty.
Chinese men would travel to the U.S. to work either on the railroad, to seek fortune from the Gold Rush, or simply some other form of labor. Many did stay in Canada or America, but as there were laws attempting to exclude Chinese from becoming citizens, bringing wives, etc. Many Chinese returned home. The money they had saved up working for a lifetime abroad was quite a bit. They would build a house in the style of French or Venetian architecture. There remains are still in that hometown area.
Volleyball as well as many colloquial language was also brought back. Thus at this time in the past, this part of China was full of exchange with the west. People who spoke Chinese slang already had English in their vocabulary. Coming back to say they had enough money to Mai sai seng go "bullock". (Buy the whole "block")
Or calling "Ouside!" to say outside when playing volleyball. Things would only close up to the West later under Communism.

There was money to be made from trade, working overseas, or at the least being a laborer for some company. But of course there were a lot of poor people. However, in Sifu's village in that time in the past one could still find food to eat. You could grow your own rice, and potatoes and tomatoes grew easily. In fact even until Sifu's son was a child in the 1970's tomatoes grew like weeds and children picked them not to eat, but to throw at each other. In the time before Sifu, there was enough wildlife that one could catch snakes, hunt birds, and other wildlife for food quite easily. In fact, if one stepped outside the village and stuck stick in the grass by the waters making a circle with it, upon bringing it up there would be a few shrimp on it. Do this enough times and with rice one could easily make a meal, but the question was whether you would get tired of eating the same thing all the time. Cocunuts grew all around, and fish were easy to catch. When it rained and there was a slight flood, there would be fish flopping all over the road.

In other words, back then, the economy may have been bad and you might not have a career, but you wouldn't starve. People spent their time instead, fighting each other. It could be a political war where people were rebelling against the Qing. Later there was ethnic warfare between the Hakka and the people who had moved in on their land and eventually pushed them out,(That is to say Sifu's people. HE had often mentioned that looking at the history the Hakka were rightful owners of the land, but whoever has more people and more fighting power will in the end be the ones to make the decisions.) Hakka people now more or less coexist and are absorbed into one big Han ethnic group.
All this time there was also tension among different villages and family Clans. However, these clashes would take a back seat to more all out wars. In times of peace, these villages would then begin to brawl with each other. Depending on the time period, they would use sticks and knives, guns, dynamite, build forts, or simply fight hand to hand or with glass bottles in more recent clashes.

Needless to say, Kung Fu used specifically for combat, was a much practiced hobby and considered essential right with education and business.




At some point in his Childhood The Japanese invaded and were going to go into the
area he lived. Perhaps only a toddler at this point the whole family went into the mountains. He recalled that it was like they were playing a fun game where they had to hide. Interestingly, the villages that fought each other with such tenacity sparing nothing and sacrificing their lives in the blink of an eye, old men women and children joining in the fight, fled immediately from the Japanese without putting up much of a fight at all. Perhaps this was due to lack of organization and opportunities to join an army. The exact reasons for this are unclear. Many of the soldiers that fought the Japanese at this point seem to have been from the north.

Of course, many did find there way to the army and in fact, one White Crane Master from Taishan gained his name by teaching the infantry.
His name was Chan Hak Fu. One of the most famous operations where participants recieved very little casualties and they killed the most Japanese was when they trained assasins to sneak into Japanese stations in the middle of the night with large knives "doh" or small sabers. using close body techniques and lightning speed they killed Japanese while they were unaware fully of the attack. They had a secret way of feeling for each other in the dark and knowing immediatly whether the person they had just bumped into was one of their own or a target for assasination (i.e. anyone else) I won't mention this secret here as it is our tradition to share it with students who learn the sword techniques employed in these operations.
Of course in modern warfare, these methods would most likely be obsolete against soldiers with night vision.

At some point the Japanese bombed the railroad tracks that made the economy of the area so booming. The tracks were never rebuilt.