training for Life
Column by Grandmaster Doc-Fai Wong
INSIDE KUNG-FU MAGAZINE
July 2010 Issue


Plum Blossom International


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Cover
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I devoted myself in Chinese martial arts to training hard and searching for high-ranking masters from whom to learn and study. Finally the hard work has paid off. Now the Federation I founded has over 200 schools throughout the world.

I began teaching Chinese martial arts in the San Francisco Bay area in 1968. By September 1969, I officially opened my school near Chinatown. I relocated my school several times and finally stabilized teh present location on Taraval Street inof the Sunset district of San Francisco. After 18 years of teaching, I had students open their own schools throughout the U.S. and Europe. My students asked me to organize a union of the schools so they could hold tournaments, seminars and students's exchange. In 1986, the Plum Blossom International Federation (PBIF) was born. My students and their downline students individually own all Federation schools. It is neither a franchise nore a chain of schools.

The PBIF mainly teaches choy li fut (CLF) kung-fu, Yang style tai chi chuan, sanbao ruyi qigong and the lingnan wudand sword system. My Federation standardized all the traditional teaching forms and the rank testing. All qualified instructors tested by me for sifu level will receive a certificate of Sifu and a Senior Advanced level certificate.

Choy li fut kung-fu taught in the PBIF come from three lineages of the CLF system: the Futsan lineage involves teaching from my first CLF teacher Lau Bun; the King Mui lineage is from my teacher Hu Yuen-Chou, who learned from teh CLF system founder's grandson, Chan You Chi; and the Jiangmen lineage is from great grandmaster Wong Gong, who learned from the founder of the Hung Sing School of Jiangmen, Chan Cheong-Mo. I chose the best forms and fighting techniquesfrom these three lineages to teach all my students and the PBIF schools' students.

Tha Yang style of tai chi chuan is from my teacher, the late great grandmaster Hu Yuen-Chou. He learned from the third gernation of the Yang family's successor, Yang Cheng-Fu. I teach all teh traditional Yang forms and tai chi weaponry, push hands and the internal standing meditation techniques. The teaching methods are for health and self-defense.

I founded the sanbao ruyi qigong (chi kung) system and teach a combination of what I know and what I learned from the Chan Buddhist monk, Xuan Hua. I also learned Taoist chi kung from my Chinese traditional Medicine teachers. For the martial arts chi kung, I learned from the yi chuan late great grandmaster, professor Yu Peng Si and his wife, Ou-Yang Min. The sanbao ruyi qigong I teach impoves health and has been known to cure diseases. It also can increase internal energy and develop jing for the martial arts power.

The late great grandmaster Hu Yuen-Chou founded the lingnan wudang sword system. It teaches the Chinese straight sword (jian). Hu learned from the Chinese sword wizard, General Li Jing-Lin and his classmate Guo Qi-Feng. Great grandmaster Hu was the only student of Li Jing-Lin in Southern China. My teaching includes the five solo forms as well as the two-person forms and the freestyle Chinese straight sword fighting techniques. I am the second-generation successor and head of the lingnan wudang sword system.

To become a certified annual PBIF membership school, the head instructor must attend or do one of the following events within a physical year: sponsor seminars for me or my certified senior instructors to teach; come to at least one of my seminars during the year; hold a PBIF tournament; come to the San Francisco headquarters for continuing advanced training and learning; or have me do testing for their senior advanced students. Each year the qualified member schools of the PBIF receive a membership certificate.

Today, the Plum Blossom International Federation has schools in 35 countries including the U.S. and Canda, as well as Central and South America, Europe, Africa, the Middle East, China, Southeast Asia and the South Pacific. Student membership is over 500,000 in 200 schools worldwide. I am proud of what we accomplished in such a short time and hope the word continues to be spread throughout the world.

jasonjwong@yahoo.com.

Doc-Fai Wong is a contributing editor and writes a bi-monthly column for Inside Kung-Fu.

July 2010 Inside Kung-Fu