Tucson-Ho Kam Ming Seminar

Wai Jia: The Kung Fu Forum Wing Chun
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Just got back from a full 3 day event in Tucson with
wing chun folks from all over. Two days were the
official Ho Kam Ming seminar- the first day was an
unofficial one. This was the finale in Tucson of the
grand retirement series that included Chicago(w Ken
Harnish) and Ottawa(w patrick Gordon) and then Tucson
(w Augustine Fong).At the beginning of the 2nd day
there were close to a hundred folks there- and the
banquet drew around 140.

Lots of hands (and feet) on work as well as discussion
of dynamics and principles.

Master Ho brought a contingent of his students from
Canada, Wash.DC., and also the superb Lui Ming Fai who
has taken over Ho’s Macao school.Other ex students
were there including Fong and Buddy Wu (Ohio).
Master Ho was a direct regular student of Ip Man for
over 7 years and also remained in regular contact till
IM’s death. Ho has been in wing chun for almost 50
years. He has trained lots of students for full
contact fighting in Asia. He credited his unique
knowledge of wing chun ofcourse to Ip man, but also to
his own evolution and experience, to his sihings and
compadres and to his students.

joy chaudhuri

www.tempewingchun.com

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Lui Ming Fai is in red. On Master Ho’s left is Sifu Patrick Gordon.

I hope you got some nice ones too Joy?..:wink:

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Old Jong- Thanks for sharing the picture. That is Pham on the right next to Patrick.

Pham’s bot jam do work is impressive- and he is also a decent person.

joy
www.tempewingchun.com

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Yes! His knifes demo was something to see. He is a very nice guy who shares a lot about Wing Chun.

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BTW Joy
Was Ken Harnish at the seminar?..He was in Ottawa and he’s a real nice guy to talk with. I heard that his Wing Chun skills are very high too.

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Old Jong- yes he was there. Nice, friendly and polite. I do not know what his current skills are- not a loaded comment-I just dont know. I briefly rolled with him once-years ago.I believe I saw one of his students go upto the front
for an hands on demo…
I am sure that a pic of the attendees will be up on the Fong site later. Within an hour of the photo op- Fong gave a well mounted
beautiful big display of all the attendees to his sifu…suitable for wall hanging.

Ed and Ken from Windy City wc were there. When ed was called up to the front to demonstrate for fun - a high kick against wing chun- he did a great high and dangerous fast hook kick! Would have landed if he didnt control it.Of course the Fong contingent was large-from Tucson, Phoenix and tempe.. and New Hampshire, NYC, El Paso, Calif and elsewhere. Carina is getting good. She surprised me with a gift… a very well made wooden (oak possibly)kukhri for practice.

Apart from Ho’s contingent, Buddy Wu and some of his students came down from Ohio. We chatted about wing chun some- including the two years of interlineage matches in HK, the initial Thai disaster and the later salvaging/recovery in another year, challenge matches in Singapore- now discontinued and the various Ho fighters. Mainland matches too.
Ho’s teaching/training always has had the real martial objectives intact.He has produced quite a few fighters in Asia… apart from
some that are in the US.

Rene Ng’s group from San Diego was there. But Rene wasnt- hada newborn child to take care of.

Gangsterfist was there with a Kansas City group. Rolled with gangster fist a bit. He was younger than I expected him to be.
Gangsterfist-are you home yet?

Tony Kariotis from Chicago metro- was a delightful riot. There were other lineages too. Of course I didnt get to visit everyone.

Master Ho held forth a lot about his approach to wing chun and his students demonstarted well. We went through the empty hand forms, various drills and chi sao. kicking, closing and lots of other things.

I am glad to be in the lineage (Fong) that I am in but ina way it was an outstanding “friendship” seminar though it hada focus.Probably my final exposure to Ho’s approach given his “retirement”. He is a source of considerable information.He looked healthier than he had for a while and his new wispy beard really fitted him.

The pre seminar all day Friday workout with Ho and his people present at Fong Hq was fun too. Because of the number of people the seminar was held at a hotel facility.

Sifu and Simo and Mabel and others had tons of details to take care of. The multi course banquet was superb.

Joy (not proofread- duty calls)
www.tempewingchun.com

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Just got back late last night. 26hours in a car with out stopping is not fun. Especially when you are with your sihings students that are too young to drive ha ha ha.

It was fun. We had a pair of geckos outside our hotel room that kept us company all weekend. We were staying in a room right next to rene ngs students, who were very nice people.

Sibok Fong was a blast. He is very funny and very fun to work with. He had me laughing a lot. Watching him and my sifu joke around was funny too.

I got to touch hands with many different wing chunners and a lot of them were completely different than what I was used to. So, I learned a lot from it.

Sigung looked in good shape. His students olong (sp?) and Louisa were both very talented. The man from Macao (not even going to try to spell that name) was also very good. His foot work demo he did was very good with crisp movements.

Funny story, my Sihing was talking with Sigung Ho Kam Ming about forms. Their students do a different number of punches at the end of the form than we do. Sigung asked him how many punches he did at the end of SLT. My sihing mis heard him and thought he asked how many punches do you do after you practice SLT. He told Ho Kam Ming, “Oh, I do about 200 to 400 .” Ho Kam Ming laughed and said it did not matter how many you do. I thought that was funny.

BTW, Joy, I am 24 years old just so you know heh.

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Hello Joy, how are you doing? Don’t mean to change the subject. I remember back some years ago, it was some fancy type magazine did a 4 – 5 page write up on you and Master Fong, it was called Asian Martial Arts or something like that, I’m not sure. If you remember could you tell me the name of that magazine. You are somewhat a celebrity here in the Detroit wing chun community. I would love to do a cover story on you, for the Red Boat Scroll if that’s possible. You don’t have to answer on this form. I have a lot of students that are from India (20), I don’t know if you are their nationality or what, but they seem to think so, here in the Hamtramck area. We all have big respect for you and Master Fong, here in Detroit. E- mail me @ theredboat@comcast.net. If that’s okay, you can have complete power over the story if needed. Take your time and think about this one. I know when you first notice me on this form, I must have seemed kind of crazy to you, at that moment I had my reason, forgive me if I came off the wrong way at that time.
If you want to write it your self, photos and all. Now that’s what I call going big time. Detroit would love to hear from you.

We all thank you.

Ali Hamad Rahim. & Silent Warrior Association

detroitwingchun.com

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Ali,

Joy was planning a hiatus, soon expecting another grandchild among other things occupying him at the moment. I do not know if he is currently reading this forum. The periodical you may be referring to is the “Journal Of Asian Martial Arts”; Joy has been published there and elsewhere.

FWIW, Joy is indeed from India. His late wife was Native American of the Muscogee Creek tribe.

He may be more readily accessible via email if you wish to try him there. His address is listed in the contact section of his website at http://www.tempewingchun.com/.

Regards,

  • Kathy Jo
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Thanks KJ. Hi Ali. I was taking a break from KFO—not really reading posts as soon as I see the usual stuff. But this caught my eye.

Let me think about it and I will try to come up with a relevant article topic for you. You can contact me also via my website link at
<www.tempewingchun.com>

I got back earlier this week after 3 good days in Tucson with the first day at Master Fong’s and two subsequent days at the Ho Kam Ming farewell seminar. Master Fong’s analysis of motion and principles is amazing in addition to his great skills. And like an excellent teacher he keeps on evolving. I got semi drafted for teachinga course at the U where I taught in the past- all sorts of political philosophy and asian politcs and kung fu:, Have 120 cantankerous(election year) students to manage in that class
(intro. to Political philosophy). Plus changes in the family-- an Indian niece going back- an Amerind nephew “partly” moving out- an elderly mom to take care of- 4 wing chun classes per week-a 2nd grandchild coming in October (female)- first one 18 month old boy. His mom gets frustrated because we playa "boom"game-- I deliberately trip him-(no fighting)
so he can recover balance as quickly as possible- yanking his legs when he crawls away.Saying “BOOM”- he laughs as he adjusts.Too bad I dont have him more often- lots to teach. Lots of other chores- I hardly sleep.
Will be 71 years young tomorrow- can do “it” for money, principle or self defense. Depends.No quarter expected. My kung fu students took me out for a big dinner.

I am indeed- originally from Bengal, India. My late wife of 40 years was an American Indian- English was her 3rd language.Quite a story in itself.

I am nota natural athlete- compensated for that with . have been a martial arts bum most of my life–Indian, western and Chinese. Wing chun is the capstone.

I will think about it and get back to you about the aricle. OK?
What is your email handle?

Joy (aka Joyotpaul) Chaudhuri(aka Dutta-Chaudhuri)
www.tempewing chun.com

PS

My martial arts articles including the Journal of Asian Martial Arts one, the Indide Kung Fu ones and the KF ones are on my website,:
Master Fong and I were on the IKF cover abouta year and a half ago- with me getting beat up naturally.

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Good to see you lurking, Joy, and

[SIZE=4]Happy Birthday!!![/SIZE]

Regards,

  • kj
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I say the same: [SIZE=4]Happy B-Day!!![/SIZE] :cool:

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That’s good news thanks Joy AND HAPPY BIRTHBAY!!!:slight_smile: my e-mail
is theredboat@comcast.net

Ali Hammad Rahim.

p.s. thanks KJ for the info: earlier.

Ali Hamad Rahim.

detriotwingchun.com

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Thx KJ and Old jong’.
Old song-
good times are coming- and when they do I’ll be there!
joy

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I’ll tell you what, joy can move around really well for someone his age.

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Originally posted by Gangsterfist
I’ll tell you what, joy can move around really well for someone his age.
Now that’s a back-handed compliment. :wink:

[SIZE=3]Happy Birthday Joy![/SIZE]

Peace,
*Bill

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Thanks Bill.

Looks like I have to do more wing chun. But that is always a pleasure. Atleast- A magnificent obsession. Avoids going to the ground:-
joy

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Joy is most definitely top notch. You better ask somebody.

Ali Hamad Rahim.

detroitwingchun.com