Friday, May 13, 2005

A Farewell to my Teacher – Grandmaster Cheng Tin-Hung

News from Hong Kong has confirmed master Cheng’s death on May 7, 2005 in his Tai Chi Mansion in China. Tai Chi circle has forever lost one the best gladiators of our time. Although he was not well known in the US, his fighting skill is highly appreciated in the Far East and Europe. Even the Chinese government has invited him to advise on how to implement fighting tournament in China.

Although I know that Tai Chi is a way of life or a path of self-realization, I am sadden by the fact that a number of his students has deviated from Master Cheng’s original teachings while they have NOT reached the skill level of master Cheng. In addition, most of the books that he had co-authored in the west are mostly direct translation from his Chinese books.

One word of caution for master Cheng’s inner circle is to avoid fighting for being his successor like in the case professor Cheng Man-Ching. Right after professor passed away, some of professor’s student used legal action to took over Professor Cheng’s dojo and expelled the students hand-picked by professor to run his dojo if he was in Taiwan.

Wednesday, May 11, 2005

Who Killed Professor Cheng Man-Ching

Professor Cheng left a legacy behind when he passed away at the age of 75. However, his death also raised questions about his immortality, Tai Chi skill, and the correctness of his teaching. Although Wolf Lowenthal insisted that Professor Cheng had prepared for his death by hand picking his successors in his New York dojo before he went back to Taiwan, so much rumors had aroused overshadowed this notion.

I asked about professor’s death when I was on a trip to Taiwan. Most people reiterated what a professor at the National Taiwan University had told me - professor was poisoned. In his book Steal My Art, T.T. Liang also recalled the incident and advocated that professor was in fact being poisoned. The stroke that led to his death was caused by his failure to recover from the poison. If this is true, the questions remained are who wanted to kill professor, what was the motive behind the killing, and who was involved?

Tuesday, May 10, 2005

Cheng Tin-Hung - The Martial Art Champion

An old photo of Cheng Tin-Hung taken after he had won the martial art championship in Taiwan.