Hello my mantis brothers and sisters.
At long last my friend Michael Martello has decided to go public with the tribute page to GM Wei.
Mike has planned this page for 3 years while Howard Wang, Paul Lin and I have been fiddling with the translations for a year and a half or 2 years.
Please leave some comments or questions here.
What other aspects of GM Wei would you like to see or how could the page be improved upon.
Excellent!
Excellent web site.
Nice design (both functional and eye pleasing). Most importantly, excellent translations and valuable content. It is a great memorial to a great master. It is especially interesting for me as I have been studying GM Wei’s book quite a bit recently and I found the translations and interpretations you guys did on the site, to be very good! You have set quite a high standard.
Good work!
Brendan Tunks
Excellent and thorough. Exactly what traditional Chinese martial arts must do in order for it to survive and prosper!
Please continue and post us.
Indeed, great work. I would like to personally congratulate Michael Martello and those who are involved in the project in bring forth such a wonderful tribute to a great master. Thank you, guys and please keep up the good work. 
Mantis108
Great Page
Excellent information. Congratulations
great looking site. There was a video I saw a while back of Master Wei doing form that looked very impressive and unlike any mantis I’d seen though I havent seen much, very fluid with intention which would be a great addition if you can find it.
Thanks for the encouragement all.
RAF,
On JAMA… I though since I use this forum so often it would be nice to submit an article to Gene first.
brassmonkey,
Look under “about Babu”
where it says moving steps.
You can see part of the video that you mention.
Also is a description of what you are seeing.
Tainan Mantis:
Either journal/magazine or better yet both. I only suggested JAMA because of the technical nature and translations of your material. We’ve wanted for a long time to submit something to Gene’s magazine and hope to do so in the future (time seems to be the key element).
Its good to see 8 Step praying manits curriculum. A well-structured 8 Step praying mantis program will rival anything you find in Karate and/or Taekwando plus, if you are lucky, you can get an authentic version of the Wu style taiji. 8 step praying mantis is a system just begging to be hatched in the United States.
RAF,
What do you study now?
Your shrfu is Su Yuzhang?
Do you still talk to him?
brassmonkey,
You are talking about the clip of GM Wei doing Zhai Yao.
At some point in the future part of that will also be put up.
There are also complete clips of GM’ Wei’s students doing the 2 man drills and forms from that era.
That will probably not be put up though.
It is something that stays in the family of 8 Step. But I think if you study the style you may have a chance to see all tha footage.
Here in Taiwan, for example, Liu Yunchiao(of Baji)'s students have a once a year get together for the higher ups where they get to see some of the footage of GM Liu doing the forms.
It is a great inspiration for the students as well as a way of preserving the original flavor.
My Shrfu in Taiwan would also do this on occasion at his home.
Tainan Mantis:
My teacher is Yang, Xiao-dong (Tony Yang. I have been his studetn for about 15 years). When I first started with him, we only learned 8 Step praying mantis and pretty much learned the forms described on the website you posted. I also learned beng bu, mei hua hand, qi qing zhao yao but never took the training seriously since I had come to Tony Yang for Chen and Yang’s taijiquan. I regret this very much and have seen babu zhao yao #1 and #2 and its fantastic. I could have learned Fen zhen ba zhou and lan jie last year but gave all my mantis back around 1992 or so. I met Su Yu Zhang in 1992 and seen him a couple of times but I am not really a mantis player. I like him. BTW, until 1997, our martial arts instruction only happend once a week for 2 hours (Sunday) because my teahcer was tied up in his family restaurant and we really were not public.
1992 is when I started baji/pigua training and now I focus most of my time learning bagua basics and continuing my work in Chen/Yangs. However, I did learn, recently liuhe duan chuei.
I like your clips and you can see some of Tony’s early days in Taiwan:
http://www.wutangcenter.com/masteryang.htm
If you scroll around in the above site, you see Gao Dao Sheng and my teacher. Scroll down further and you will see him teaching at Tainan Da Xian Temple in 1975 and 1977.
http://www.wutangcenter.com/tournament.htm
If you scroll down to the picture of Master Yang giving Sun De Yao his trophy and look back to the right, you will see one of Wei Xiao Tang’s disicples who is also a childhood friend of Su Yu Zhang. I always forget his name but his xing yi performance was outstanding and he was featured in a Japanese magazine last year. He is also listed in Wei Xiao Tang’s book, pre 1980 (I have seen the book and Paul Lin’s father is listed, I believe first). I’ve had dinner with him and Msster Su and this guy is a real gentleman and buddhist.
Although I don’t actively train or pracitce praying mantis, I can now look back and see the opportunity I missed but still appreciate those who carry forth the banner, yourself included.
RAF’s Bio
Hi RAF,
Those pics on your links are nice.
I especially like seeing the old masters when they were young.
Hey, I didn’t know Gao Daosheng smoked.
When I came to Taiwan some of the older generation told me I need to start smoking to stay healthy.
Back then the ROC cig. was called LONG LIFE.
cool site although i couldn’t get any of the form clips to work for me…any suggestions?
neil
About the Video Clips
I think Michael updated the page. They are under Quicktime format now. You might need to download a free Quicktime 6. I had a Quicktime 4 which didn’t work at all but the Quicktime 6 works fine. It’s great to see the 8 Step Grandmaster performing his version of Zhaiyao on a public website.
Michael your effort should be commended.
Mantis108
great site, both in form and content…
I wish all sityes about gong fu could be that informative and eyecandy…
way cool cllips, thx for sharing
Hi Tainan Mantis,
I look long and hard and I can’t find the video section for the web site. Please pass along the url to the video section.
thanks.
wm
Hi WM,
Go to
-site developers
-Kevin Brazie
There are clips of me there, but they are the same I have posted here.
BTW, That pic is in Mantis108’s shop.
Oh, Wait! You mean vid of GM Wei?
Ok, go to
-about babu
-8 moving steps
-clip a step for vid.
But not all steps have video.
Originally posted by Tainan Mantis
[B]Hi WM,
Oh, Wait! You mean vid of GM Wei?
Ok, go to
-about babu
-8 moving steps
-clip a step for vid.
But not all steps have video. [/B]
Hi Tainan Mantis,
Thanks, I was looking for video clips for the 8 steps website. I plan to posted the site address to a hong kong kung fu board. you guys wouldn’t mind the extra bandwidth usage, right?
I am also going to post the video page since many of them don’t read English. May be you guys could make a Chinese version of 8 step site for the English impaired audience.
wm
Originally posted by RAF
[B]Tainan Mantis:
Either journal/magazine or better yet both. I only suggested JAMA because of the technical nature and translations of your material. We’ve wanted for a long time to submit something to Gene’s magazine and hope to do so in the future (time seems to be the key element).
Its good to see 8 Step praying manits curriculum. A well-structured 8 Step praying mantis program will rival anything you find in Karate and/or Taekwando plus, if you are lucky, you can get an authentic version of the Wu style taiji. 8 step praying mantis is a system just begging to be hatched in the United States. [/B]
8 step preying mantis is all over the states already, anyone who knows the current Grandmaster Shyun Kwong Long(James Sun) would know this. Link to the site is right here 8 step schools
great site about GM Wei. i really like old stories about gong fu masters. would like to learn more about him.