Re: You all need to study in NYC China Town

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: I think I'll pass. : First off, I expect MORE of my role models and teachers. I am not saying that teachers can't have their vices. It is not my business if someone drinks, smokes, womanizes, whatever. It becomes my business as as student of a school if that person brings their vices into the school. Womanize and drink all you want, just don't do it with your students. : I would not respect my father if he came in drunk as a skunk. I would not respect him, either if he went out chasing women in his workplace (preying on his employees), especially since he is married. : You assume that because some of us find something reprehensible that it is because we are NEW AGERS, whatever the hell that is. Sorry, for myself, I don't do crystals, palms, or Windows (except for Bill Gates version). I do Long Fist, Wing Chun, Yang Style, Sun Style, and have had good teachers - one who was part of the Chinese Mafia (I left due to his trying to cheat me out of a large sum of money), one who used his school to find new mistresses while married - (I left that one too because it took too much to close my eyes to it after the 3rd or 4th time of his wrecking another person's marriage), and my last teacher who places great importance on living up to ideals in martial arts as well as in life. : A few shots to the head....been there, done that. I sport a scar on my lip from a gang fight where my training made the difference between walking away and being carried away on a stretcher. : I expect more of myself as a teacher now than that. I don't let such things enter my class. I do not misrepresent where I come from, what I have and have not learned, who my teachers were, none of that. : A person should earn respect every day and should be and do what they say. If you are willing to excuse bad behavior solely upon the reasoning that the person behaving badly can fight or do great Taijiquan, you become part of the problem. : : : All this crying about tradition. How about these great old Masters who drink, smoke, womanize, gamble, laugh ... and teach incredable Tai Chi... Come visit the big apple and find outwhat full contact tai chi is like when being taught by a wonderful drunken master.... Get off of your new age, crystal wearing, feel good, I'm sooo relaxed, this must be real tai chi mentallity and take a few shots to the head. Come and visit.. u can stay with me .. we will go downtown to Laffette street and do some open push hands .. : : : Everyone on these message boards seems to love to talk about small things but no one addresses the really big issues. : : : What do I mean by big issues? Let me list a few that concern all people who do Tai Chi Chuan or any other type of Kung Fu. : : : (1) The new fad of "Shaolin Monks" training people in the US. Come now, take a history lesson. The temple closed in during the Japanese occupation of China. It re-opened later but Mao limited their ability to spread their word AND to accept new monks. Then in the 60's the temple was shut down during the days of the Cultural Revolution by the Red Guard. : : : Currently around Song Shan there is the temple (a great tourist attraction) and numerous government sponsored Wushu training centers complete with fake monks. A great money making deal and many of these people are truly able to teach but they are NOT monks. : : : (2) Magazine publishers who fuel controversy. Inside Kung Fu is famous for this. A few years ago, they were greatly responsible for the feud between William Cheung and Leung Ting. They fueled the Shuai Jiao feud, the east coast vs. west coast wushu association argument, the ninja craze of a few years ago, and now the UFC craze are all backed and made bigger by these magazines. They are currently setting up a controversy on this Shaolin monk thing. The recent article on real or fake monks was written by a student of a professed monk/monk student who is also NOT what he professes to be. : : : Is responsible journalism too much to ask for? : : : (3) "Instructors" who learn from a teacher in a seminar venue and then promote themselves as that teacher's close student. : : : (4) Instructors who have no professional ethics : : : There are several cases of instructors who use their role to lie or cheat the public. There are also a number of male instructors who use their position to make their schools into sexual hunting grounds for their own pleasure. They do not limit themselves to adults or one sex either. What happened to the idea that instuctors should also be role models? : : : I have yet to hear of any female instructors violating ethics in this area so we men should get our act together and become honorable. : : : (5) Instructors who write volumes in magazines and books about Martial morality and the responsibility of the teacher to student and student to teacher who have almost all of their senior students leave them for ethical and moral issues and for violating the trust between teacher and student. : : : These are just 5 examples of issues that face all of us involved in this art form. We need to police our own and clean this junk up or we all end up looking bad. : : : Instead, we quibble over small things.

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