PureInsight | October 11, 2013
[PureInsight.org] On September 22nd of 2013, the 4th Global Chinese Martial Arts Competition sponsored by New Tang Dynasty TV (NTDTV) successfully ended in New York. Many Chinese martial arts practitioners from all around the world took part in the event and 31 of them reached the final competition that lasted for two days.
Wang Baili from USA won the gold medal within the men’s fist fighting martial arts group. Tang Yi from mainland China won the gold medal within the men’s weaponry fighting martial arts group. Lu Wenrui from Taiwan won the silver medal within the southern style fist fighting martial arts group. Wen Qingni from Taiwan won the silver medal within the women’s weaponry fighting martial arts group while Su Xirong from Taiwan won the silver medal within the men’s fist fighting martial arts group.
17 participants won the bronze medal within their respective southern style fist fighting, men’s or women’s weaponry fighting and men’s or women’s fist fighting martial arts groups. Here are the bronze medalists:
Southern style fist fighting group: Michel Orchard, Lu Geyong.
Women’s weaponry fighting group: Julie Drapkin, Lu Weian.
Men’s weaponry fighting group: Wu Luoling, Yang Guandao, Liou Dayan, Chou Xingbin, Fu Houyu.
Women’s fist fighting group: May Chen, Ye Qingyi.
Men’s weaponry fighting group: Huang Haofu, Jiang Tao, Jean Francois Complot, Zhi Yong, Zhang Xiaobing, Lu Yanzi, Gao Peijun.
One 9 year old boy, Li Qiaofeng (from Canada) won the special award of “Traditional Martial Arts New Stardom”.
Gold, silver and bronze medalists received $5,000, $3,000 and $1,000 prizes respectively.
Principal competition judge Mr. Li Youfu told reporters that he was very glad to see that all the participants had come to realize that NTDTV was trying to help promote the principles of traditional Chinese martial arts and kungfu. Participants paid special attentions to the virtues of martial arts. Mr. Li was extremely comforted by seeing the interests shown by young children in tradition Chinese martial arts, and said he was so happy to present the “Traditional Martial Arts New Stardom” special award to the 9 year old boy - Li Qiaofeng. Mr.Li praised Li Qiaofeng for his courage to take part in the competition. Since the competition was a world class one, usually, only people who had already reached the top would be willing to participate in the competition, most kids wouldn’t dare to come to the competition, but Li Qiaofeng was brave enough to show up for the competition. As a matter of fact, Li Qiaofeng’s martial arts show on the stage was very impressive and it was a genuine display of one’s skill that was really encouraging.
Mr. Li said: “NTDTV’s Global Chinese Martial Arts Competition has placed a very high emphasis on the virtues of martial arts, as the virtues of martial arts had originated from the basic human morality requirements. Only through the development of advanced standards of human moralities has the human race created civilizations, cultures and all kinds of art forms. Once a martial arts practitioner has gained the virtues of martial arts, he will be able to endure. He can take a light view of materialism in society and it will be easy for such a person to be picked up by a genuine master. Wisdom will follow and even higher realm of martial arts can thus be achieved.”
Mr. Li continued: “All the participants showed very high demand on virtues of martial arts on themselves, I am pretty sure that these people will make much more improvements now that they’ve completed their competitions. I hope this competition can help uplift the morality requirements on various kinds of professions in human society.”
Mr. Li praised the participants and said he was impressed by the level of professionalism. People didn’t fight for fame and they took part in this competition simply in order to help promote the traditional Chinese martial arts, uplift the requirements of virtues on martial arts practitioners. Many masters showed no interests to fame and money, they just wanted to present the genuine Chinese martial arts to the world.
In conclusion, Mr. Li said: “This competition can match any world class martial arts competitions. Those gold and silver medalists are world class martial arts practitioners. We would have never awarded those prizes to anyone if we didn’t think those people had truly reached to the top in the world. The overall strengths of participants in this year’s competition were impressive. Based upon the principles of fairness, we gave many people the bronze awards.”
Lu Wenrui from Taiwan won the silver medal within the southern style fist fighting group. Mr. Lu is the 9th generation successor to the southern style fist fighting martial arts in China. Mr. Lu said that he brought with him the high mission from his master to present his unique fist fighting skills to the world for the first time. Mr. Lu thanked NTDTV for sponsoring such a competition for martial arts practitioners and he hoped that this special cultural heritage of the Chinese culture could spread all across the world.
Mr. Lu said: “Traditional Chinese martial arts don’t exaggerate on anything; they seem very primitive and not that splendid but such arts have their own internal strengths. The essence of traditional martial arts is to hand down the skills, generation after generation. We must respect our masters and we must follow the Tao. One practices martial arts just like one is practicing a self-cultivation method. One can work in any profession and still be able to engage in martial arts practices. Every day one should first cultivate one’s mind, this is just cultivation. We must emphasize the virtues of martial arts and we must try to follow the Tao. Tao is the Buddha’s heart, when we gain such a heart, we will see our own characteristics. We can then get rid of all the bad attachments and do what we say. De (virtue) is the manifestation of one’s heart.”
Mr. Lu also said: “Master Li Youfu has been stressing the importance of virtues of martial arts for a very long time and this is different from some other competitions. NTDTV’s competition is to uplift the virtues of martial arts practitioners. Nowadays, many martial arts students don’t pay any attention to their virtue developments, such people won’t be picked up by genuine masters. As a result, many martial arts skills have been lost. This De (virtue) is therefore very important.”
Mr. Lu’s daughter Lu Weian and son Lu Yanzi also won the bronze medals within the women’s and men’s weaponry fighting groups respectively. The whole family all got prizes. Mr. Lu was very happy and said that he would encourage his children to engage in such competitions in the future. By bringing his children to this competition had really opened his children’s minds; it would definitely motivate them even more in their practices and improvements to uplift their virtues of martial arts.
Mr. Wang Baili from China won the gold medal within the men’s fist fighting martial arts group. Mr. Wang came to USA two years ago to participant in the 3rd NTDTV sponsored Global Chinese Martial Arts Competition and he won the gold medal within the men’s weaponry fighting group then. Mr. Wang said that he was very lucky and expressed his gratitude towards NTDTV for its fair competition award rules.
Mr. Wang told people that in mainland China today, it was not easy to find people who were still practicing the traditional Chinese martial arts even though there were such people around. The whole nation was moving along the so-called economic development path, the government didn’t support traditional Chinese martial arts development at all. Mr. Wang said he had opened a martial arts school in Los Angeles in California and he’d got a secured employment. Mr. Wang wanted to thank NTDTV for sponsoring such a competition, to have provided such a good platform, to have instilled new strength and energy into traditional Chinese martial arts practices.
Another martial arts master from China, Mr. Tang Yi, won the gold medal within the men’s weaponry fighting martial arts group. Mr. Tang went through many difficulties in getting out of China to take part in the competition. He exclaimed: “These two days have given me more admiration for tradition Chinese martial arts. I can sense the power and beauty of Chinese traditional cultures. Traditional Chinese martial arts emphasize the De (virtue) requirements on disciples. It is a show of martial arts spirits whenever one decides to participant in such a competition. To carry out such a world class competition in USA can really help promote traditional Chinese martial arts. I hope NTDTV can continue its competition series and make those competitions better and better so that martial arts fans all around the world can enjoy such a platform and we can study, inherit and spread traditional Chinese martial arts throughout the globe.”
Many people went to see the competitions; they were all amazed by the elegance and power of traditional Chinese martial arts. Rudy Ibarra came to see the martial arts competition for the first time in his life. He said he found that traditional martial arts were different from the modern martial arts in China. Mr. Ibarra said: “I went to China and got enrolled in Beijing Gymnastics University to learn Chinese martial arts there because many of my friends recommended that school to me. I stopped my traditional Chinese martial arts practices and then started to learn the modern martial arts; however, later on I realized that traditional Chinese martial arts contain much deeper meanings. I got injured while practicing the modern-day martial arts so I decided to stop and now I am practicing traditional Chinese martial arts again.”
Another audience, Ms. Gao Natsu Youko from Japan was also very happy to see that her friends Wang Poseng and Jiang Tao all reached the final competition. Ms. Gao won a bronze medal in the 3rd Global Chinese Martial Arts Competition herself last time. She said that traditional Chinese martial arts were full of inner meanings, they were like those traditional Chinese characters and still carried cultural denotations. Some of the complex yet beautiful movements were lacking in the modern martial arts practices. Traditional martial arts tended to be more flexible, it was almost like Chinese calligraphy.
Translated from: http://news.zhengjian.org/node/19016
