Nov/Dec Issue

[mickey]

Greetings Gene,

What I liked:

1-Article on Cai Longyun

2-Gigi Oh's Pubisher's Corner

3-The Xing yi article on the Chicken form

4-Five Ancestor Fist


What I did not like:

1-The failure to ask GM Cai if he knew why the Chinese Kung Fu Series was stopped.

2-The T Shirt advertisment with "Your Last Chance for C0ck!" Now, I have written some racy stuff on this forum....it was never that blatant. Or, maybe its that I am just jealous because you are in a position where you can forever ream, stroke, and ream peoples minds with innuendo and blatancy while they pay handsomely for it. I think that is it..sniff... sniff.....where's my tissue?

3-The Thunder Kicks advertisment. What a waste of a page. No disrespect to the model intended.

mickey

[GeneChing]

In answer to your criticisms (since we don't really have to answer for praise):
1. We didn't ask because I already know. The series wasn't very successful. It was an ambitious project because the titles were also translated into other languages, but it sort of collasped under its own weight. The people that put it together disbanded since it really didn't raise that much of a profit. 'nuf said. Nowadays, it's all about VCDs in China, so we aren't even seeing many good books coming out of there anymore. That was a great series, though, for the time, wasn't it?

2. The good think about the year of the **** is that it will be over and there will be no more **** shirts (http://www.martialartsmart.net/88-38k.html) for people to buy and complain about. Next year's will be much tamer.

3. I love Thunderkicks (http://www.martialartsmart.net/thunderkicks.html) personally. They make great street shoes. Is it the product you don't like or something else?

[mickey]

Hi Gene,

It is not the product, it is the ad itself. Something more creative could have been done with all of that space. It would have been better to give a close up of the shoe in center and show the model kicking in the lower corner. The Feiyue ad on the previous page was better. The shoe was given more prominence. Though I do find the 45-35K a little confusing. Are those the shoe sizes?

Re The Chinese Kung Fu series: You mentioned the people involved. Were you referring to the people at Haifeng or on the Mainland?

By the way, do you know what GM Cai's father taught at the Shanghai Martial Arts Club? The pearls of the dragon seem highly suggestive of Shaolin fighting methods.


I forgot to add that I liked the recipe for the lamb and wolfberry porridge. I have to give it a try.

mickey

[GeneChing]

Would the Thunderkicks ad have been better if it was a girl? ;)

Haifeng didn't disband - it was more the martial artists. Choosing who should be featured in such a high profile book series, especially one so early out of the Mainland, had some serious political undertones. Publishing is carefully monitored by the PRC; just look what's happening with the internet there. The political landscape has totally shifted since then, as has the nature of publishing, particularly free enterprise. There were even some copycat publishers - sort of weak emulation of the original series. Back then, the series was unprecedented. Today, it's all spread out.

As for Cai Srs style, Cai implied that it was Cha, Hua and Hong (Shaolin). I'm not absolutely positive (I was working from notes Gigi took) which is why it was described so in the article.

[mickey]

You are one funny guy, Gene.

I did like the book series very much.

Would you know the real name of Wang Xinde? I really want to get that third part of his kicking series. And anything else he has published.

mickey

[GeneChing]

I got a private email commenting on this thread. The author, who didn't give his name, commented that I've been correct about the group who created the series disbanded, but that is was actually very successful, especially the German edition. It's really hearsay, and I'm only posting it here because my knowledge of the subject is limited.

I'm afraid I don't have anything on Wang Xinde. Sorry.

And about being funny, well, in my position, if I didn't have a sense of humor, I wouldn't last so long here. You have no idea how many clowns I have to deal with on a regular basis. Fortunately, I've always found clowns entertaining. In fact, I think of myself as a clown sometimes, sort of a kung fu movie villain clown - it helps me cope. ;)

[mickey]

Hi Gene,

IF that "author" and Wang Xinde happen to be one and the same, shucks. Please thank him for his wonderful contributions to the series.


mickey