TCKFMCIIIby Gene Ching Photos by Marc Arsenault Kevin Ho, Patrick Lugo, Greg Lynch Jr. & Donovan Rittenbach

Dave: Category tonight, I think you're gonna be surprised and delighted. The category tonight: Top Ten reasons why Gene Ching shaved his head.Paul: Whoaaa.Dave: Here we go, Number 10: Gene thinks he's a Shaolin Monk. He so isn't.Paul: I think I'm a Shaolin monk.Dave: Do you? Do you really?Paul: Absolutely. Yeah. I studied Iron Keyboards there.I was bent on shaving my head for several months prior to Tiger Claw's KungFuMagazine.com Championship (or as I like to acronym it, TCKFMCIII a.k.a. teeseekayeffemseethree). I figured my naked scalp might catch a few people off guard and that's always good in the martial world. This wasn't the first time I shaved. I did it twice at Shaolin, back in the '90s, when showering facilities weren't so good so it was a matter of personal hygiene. However, it had been eight years since I last shaved and all last winter I was feeling long overdue.Two weeks prior to TCKFMCIII, I was a panelist at the 1st Shaolin Summit, an unprecedented event held at the Los Angeles Convention Center. I figured there would be a lot of bald guys there, monks and wannabe monks, so I wore my hair down, super shaggy hippie style, just for contrast. The Summit was very inspirational (you can read my full report in our September October 2011 issue). The following Monday, I was all fired up for kung fu practice, eager to try to incorporate some of the methods I saw at the Summit demos. As fate would have it, I wound up injuring my knee almost immediately, during jibengong (basics) of all things. It was frustrating, embarrassing and humbling. During a basic front snap kick - my best kick on my stronger leg - I felt my inner hamstring pop. It wasn't too painful, just really disturbing as I've never injured it that way before - a pathetic example of "Geeze" disease. A few months before, I had lunch with my first Shaolin master, Wing Lam. He was amused at the notion of me still practicing Shaolin at my age (and wear and tear) instead of making that inevitable switch to internal styles. I had been one of his taijiquan instructors for many years, but abandoned that practice long ago in pursuit of Shaolin. "Enjoy your Shaolin while you can," he said with a characteristic Sifu chuckle.{C} {C}Memorial Day weekend was just before TCKFMCIII. My family went camping at some natural hot springs in the Sierra Nevadas with a group of friends, one of whom is a Zen priest. He had kindly agreed to assist me in renewing my Buddhist vows for the shave. I was also hoping that soaking in healing hot springs would put my knee back into place before TCKFMCIII. Unfortunately, it snowed. Snow. In California. In June. Seriously? Basking in hot springs under heavy snowfall is an extraordinary sensation, but the thought of the cold on my naked scalp gave me pause. So I postponed my shearing until later when we stayed at another friend's place on the way home. My wife helped me renew my vows. She's got a degree in religion and philosophy, among others, so she was as easily qualified as our Zen priest friend. Besides, the first time I took my vows was for our marriage ceremony. Counting my discipleship ceremony inside Shaolin Temple, this was the third time I took refuge. Three's a charm, right?As always, shaving was a liberating exercise in non-attachment. It helped me get my head together for TCKFMCIII, just like Shimada looking to trick the bandit in SEVEN SAMURAI or Aang preparing to face the Fire Lord Ozai. Despite my knee, I felt confident about TCKFMCIII. I was limping rather severely going into TCKFMCIII, but I hid it to the best of my ability. The baldness was a good distraction as it kept people looking at my head more than my shaky gait. Hiding one's weakness is a kung fu skill in itself, one that I have to deploy far more often than I'd like to admit.

Dave: Number 9: Gene tapped out in the battle with his receding hairline. Well, I wouldn't know anything about that.Paul: Yeah. Me neither. Not a thing.

It takes months of preparation to stage TCKFMCIII, but it really hits home on Set-Up Day, the Friday before the event. When we arrived early Friday morning, that massive South Hall of the San Jose Convention Center was fairly empty, like a massive vacant field just waiting for the approaching battle. We have a core group of volunteers that somehow manage to get their Friday free to help us out of their love and generosity for the arts - the avante garde crew of TCKFMCIII. That crew moniker is quite literal, as the translation of avante garde from French means "advance guard." It originally described the foremost troupe advancing into battle.We rely heavily on our volunteers. Most tournaments are held by schools. Any school has a stable of eager volunteers from the students and parents. Tiger Claw and KungFuMagazine.com doesn't have that luxury. It's a job, a fun job, but a job nonetheless - no student or parent volunteers. Instead, we tap our martial friends. Shark City Promoter Tony Kattengell brings some guys. A few Tiger Claw people like Jonny Oh, Patrick Lugo and the dread Melendez brothers have to be there. I also have a gang of solid martial brothers who volunteer - my Dragon Crew. Many of them have been with me for years. Mostly, they do security and break down, but they've done some crazy things too, and I think that's what keeps them coming back. At our 10 Year Anniversary Gala in 2002, they eagerly slammed a log into Shi Guolin's iron stomach and rode triumphantly in the back of a truck bed being towed by Grandmaster Tu Jin-Sheng's iron crotch. Being stalwart martial brothers, they love that sort of stuff. This year, my double-shidi Chris Lewin (Wing Lam Kung Fu School and U.S. O-Mei Academy) went the distance from Set-Up Day to the After-Party. Like me, Chris earns his full-time living in kung fu. His generous volunteer time was an expression of a hardcore devotion to the discipline. Either that, or he's just kung fu crazy that way. You can't buy that kind of loyalty.It's nice to get out of the office and do some physical work. Too much "desk job" just isn't healthy. Things like the stage, chairs and barricades are set up by facility people, but there remains a lot more heavy lifting for our avante garde crew: setting up our VIP tent, putting up signs and banners, arranging tables, laying out mats - so many puzzle mats - and those regulation wushu carpets. Wushu carpets are really heavy and bulky, and it takes more than a dozen big guys to move them. Each carpet breaks down into two pieces which have to be positioned just right so there's no gap. This year, we were able to borrow a forklift for load-in which made things a lot easier. Nevertheless, it's strangely dangerous and the avante garde often suffers some minor injuries like sprains and pulls, dealing with those carpets. I strained a muscle in the palm of my hand when it got caught in one of the rug bindings (we used white belts to bind up the rugs). That, along with my knee, was another symptom of the onset of Geeze disease. I hate those carpets. They are the worst thing about modern wushu. Never mind the dubious politics, the flowery ineffective moves, or the stubborn lust for Olympic status; it's the carpets that I hate.The immense size of South Hall is a double-edged sword. On the upside, it's so spacious. This year, we set up twenty rings, a central main stage, a staging/warm-up area and a row of vendor tables, and still had room to spare. The downside is it

requires a lot of walking on asphalt. By the end of Set-Up Day, I must have limped several miles crossing that venue on my strained knee. Next year, I should bring my pedometer, just for laughs. If only we could get KungFuMagazine.com Segways.

Dave: Number 8: He fought a samurai duel for top knots and lost.Paul: Same thing happened to me.Dave: And do you fight a lot of samurai duels, Paul?Paul: At least one a month. I get my samurai swords at MartialArtsMart. After I made a quick change behind some pipe and drape from work clothes to a 3-piece suit and tie, the remaining avante garde gave me a big thumbs-up at my transformation from rug mover to party host. We held our Welcoming Banquet at China Stix in Santa Clara, less than ten miles from South Hall. Nevertheless, it's too complicated to get there via public transit, so I chauffeured Master Grace Wu-Monnat and her two students to the restaurant. Grace is always gracious, and a dear old friend, so it was my pleasure to escort them. I did my best to give them the 20 renminbi tour as I drove, but the route from downtown San Jose to Santa Clara wasn't that scenic, and frankly, my mind was still lingering on hateful wushu carpets.The banquet was sumptuous. China Stix prepared a lavish feast and I was starving, so much so that I accidently ate some meat-filled dumpling, stuffing it in my mouth ravenously before remembering those Buddhist vows. Oops. Maybe my freshly shaved head would give me a little karmic credit to cover that, but truth be told, my karmic bank account is surely long overdrawn. Oh well. I'm so NOT a Shaolin monk.

There was a lot of photos taken, lots of laughs and kung fu posing. It was great fun. That part always is. The Welcoming Banquet is a real treat. Chinese culture places a lot of importance on banquets. Despite the "drinks not included" clause on our invitation, our platinum sponsor Tiger Balm really came through and Tiger Claw was able to afford two bottles of Californian fine wine for each table: a chardonnay and a cabernet sauvignon. The red was polished off quickly with repeated "ganbei!" rounds. Martial artists, it seems, prefer reds.As one of the hosts, it is my formal duty to go to each table and offer a toast of respect and gratitude. Ganbei literally means "dry cup" and there's a formality on how to drink. When you clink your liquor cups, you show respect by having your cup lower than the other person's cup. Being martial artists, there's often a small skilled skirmish as two toasters seeking to honor each other try to get their cup lower faster, without spilling their drinks. When you drink, hold the cup with both hands

as a sign of reverence as you drink. If someone proclaims "ganbei," the cups must be emptied. When finished, tip your cup towards your fellow toasters, still holding it with both hands, as evidence that you truly did drink it all. If you don't drink liquor, you may participate with tea or water, but then no one really cares if you empty your cup. Sharing drinks together is a formal gesture of friendship, highly valued in the Chinese community. It has particular meaning in many martial circles, as many legendary tales involve drunken heroes. As a self-confessed drunken stylist, drinking toast to honor every guest is a job I take very seriously. Very seriously indeed.On the way home, I snuck over to Shoreline Amphitheater where Furthur was playing. I've done a lot of work for Shoreline as well as West Coast Tour with the Grateful Dead through Rock Medicine, and armed with the suit and the bald head, I figured I could work my way in for a cameo. Once I was through the gates, a friend slid me a ticket in Row L and I managed to catch Morning Dew, which many later claimed was the highlight of that two-show run. That was icing on the day for me. A little "grateful" recharge and I was ready for TCKFMCIII.{C} {C}Dave: Number 7: It's the chemo. (grimaces)Paul: That's not funny.Dave: No. It isn't. (tosses card over shoulder - sound of breaking glass) I've already written the tale of TCKFMCIII three times: once for the September October issue of Kung Fu Tai Chi, once for Tiger Claw's B2B newsletter Claw Marks, and once for the DVD insert that will be free for subscribers with their November December issue of Kung Fu Tai Chi. Each version is different, tailored to its specific platform. Ironically, this version, the last one I will write, will be the first one published. Such is the power of the web. This one is my personal take on it all. Every person has their own unique perspective on the Championships. A privilege of my position allows my last word on the subject to be the first official word.I took a more active role with the judges this year. We held two volunteer and judges meetings prior to the event, and I gave a last-minute pre-championship pep talk to the judges just before we started. Our judges, both locals from the Bay Area and those from across the county, are seasoned veterans of ringside. There wasn't too much to say beyond my insistence that traditional standards be enforced. Back when I was competing ('80s to '95), I was beaten by plenty of modern wushu players in the traditional rings. Now, it's even worse. I don't have anything against modern wushu (beyond those stupid rugs), but as a traditional practitioner, I don't want to see them in traditional rings. Modern wushu has plenty of other local venues for competition. Since there are plenty of local traditional practitioners, my vision for TCKFMC has always been as a venue where traditionalists can compete too.

Ironically, it backfired on me, but only just a little. Two of my O-Mei shidi competed in traditional with Shaolin meihuadao. Our school doesn't have traditional dao so we practice with boken. While wooden swords are totally allowable within the traditional regulations, few seem to want to use them in competition, so I lent my two shidi my old traditional competition

dao, which is fairly light but the blade is stiff enough to support its own weight. Nevertheless, the judges busted them on it, as they were being super strict upon my request, and declared it was too short. My two shidi rolled with it, and one even went on to capture the grand for traditional intermediate. He's managed to win a grand at TCKFMC every year now, even with me loaning him illegal weapons.Dave: Number 6: Sometimes you got to change your look to shake the man.Paul: I don't know anything about that either.Dave: (laughs) Really? Really Paul?Paul: Yeah, really. I don't know a thing about that. We experimented with running our own First Timer division this year. The First Timer division is like a "first one's free" deal, only it's not quite free, it's just discounted. It's more like an exhibition event. Newbie competitors are judged and scored but not placed. Everyone gets a trophy. It's a way to encourage participation, a safe ring to let newcomers get their feet wet. In the past, Shark City handled all the First Timer divisions, but this year, we decided to do it. With over 160 First Timers, we planned to do it first, but that too, backfired. It made for a chaotic start as First Timers, being first timers, didn't really know what to do, despite the best efforts of our crew to direct them.

I'm not sure if it was carryover from such a crazy start, but I wound up fielding more complaints than ever this year. I was secretly hoping that my new look would intimidate people from complaining to me, but that also backfired. Maybe my gleaming dome made me easier to spot. Of course, I always do my best to resolve any complaints amicably, but that often means I must bite my lip over the more petty ones. Part of the problem stems from changes in the Bay Area Chinese martial arts world, which is now dominated by PRC emigrant masters. In the PRC, tournaments are government-regulated and very controlled. PRC coaches need only get their students entered in the tournament, and the rest is just following the program. Here in America, there's more of a DIY attitude among martial masters. In other styles like taekwondo or karate, teams are prepped and coached by the teachers. At TCKFMCIII, many of the more FOB PRC masters just left their students on their own, and sadly, the kids and parents suffered for it. As a parent, I know what it's like when your kid doesn't seem to get a fair shake at a tournament, so I did my best to resolve complaints.{C} {C}One complaint was just too much. A PRC competitor followed me all around South Hall as I was solving some other problems (his was way down in my problem-solving queue, which I had explained to him at the outset). He even followed me into the bathroom when I was solving a personal problem, that of my own impinging bladder. As I relieved myself at the urinal, he stood right alongside of me, waiting for me to fix his absurd issue. Seriously? For a fleeting moment I considered turning to face him, which would have resulted in me peeing on his feiyues, but I restrained myself. In the end, his complaint was completely erroneous anyway. Figures, right?Complaints are par for the course, so I won't dwell here. On the flip side, so many great moments emerged from the event that I can completely disregard the ignominy of having an audience while micturating. One of my favorite moments came with one of our newest cover masters. We've known Grandmaster Chiu Chi Ling for years, but he only made our cover in 2011. Anyone who has met him knows that he's disarmingly charming. I think it's his Iron Wire. When he laughs as part of the breathing technique, he really laughs a lot. Practicing laughter is part of his kung fu. That's rather extraordinary in itself when you think about it. He has another amazing kung fu skill - he can get into more photos than any other master. Just look at our facebook photo albums. Anyway, my Dragon Crew had pooled at one of the gates. Out of nowhere, GM Chiu stepped

in and decided my brothers needed a lesson. Quick as a leopard, he was crossing hands with each of the Dragon Crew, putting them in their places gently, yet effectively. While it may not have been as good a story as being towed by GM Tu, they had a blast being schooled. That's how I pay back my Dragon Crew, by getting them slapped around by a Chinese septuagenarian. Being martial artists, they absolutely love that. It keeps them coming back for more.

Dave: Number 5: It makes him more aerodynamic for those nandu 720 moves.Paul: Ah ha.Dave: (thumb up)This year's WildAid Tiger Claw Championship went really well. We launched this project last year as it was the Year of the Tiger and Tiger Claw's mascot is a tiger. Personally, I've been interested in this since the previous Year of the Tiger when I first heard of Jackie Chan's work to save tigers. I even wrote a semi-cover story for the fifth to the last issue of our now defunct magazine, World of Martial Arts. I've been very proud of the work we've been able to do with WildAid and this showcase Championship is the most glorious part.Last year's campaign reached a lot of the martial arts community because all martial artists respect tigers and Jackie Chan. This year, we were a little worried that the message was getting lost. However, we spotlighted last year's WildAid Champ Yuan Long much more than he expected, so this year many top-rate competitors took notice. This year, we were joined by WildAid's Director of Development Erin Sullivan and staff member David Contois. I invited Erin to join us on stage, which was great fun. It's one thing to see high-level martial art forms on stage. It's completely different when it's right next to you, right in your face. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a few good "jaw drops" from her, and I might have betrayed one or two myself. There were some great athletes.By luck of the draw, our judging panel was heavily traditional this year. Serving as judges were Grandmasters Chiu Chi Ling, Lily Lau and Clarence Lee from the KungFuMagazine.com side, and Willie Banuelos and Prithanjan Bhattacharya from the Shark City side. At one point, Gigi whispered to me that she couldn't quite understand how the judges were scoring, but it was very clear to me. They were looking at rooting and power over high-flying stunts. Many of the early competitors were grabbing massive air time in some spectacular displays of modern wushu, but the judges, being traditionalists, weren't so impressed. In the end, Zhang Yongbiao emerged victorious with a powerful rendition of Huojiaquan, a style attributed to Huo Yunjia, founder of Chin Woo. Of course, there were complaints afterwards by some of the wushu competitors. I asked them if they noticed who their judges were. Any good competitor, especially in something as subjective as forms competition, takes note of who is judging. It was better than peeing on their feiyues, although perhaps not as satisfying.

In the end, it was another great WildAid Tiger Claw Championship. Through the generous support of Tiger Claw, Shark City, CDIA Supplies and Pang: The Wandering Shaolin Monk, we gave out some great prizes and gift bags. But most importantly we helped get the message out about endangered wild species.Remember - When the Buying Stops, the Killing Can Too.Dave: Number 4: That's not Gene Ching. It's his evil twin, Ming the Merciless.Paul: Awwww.This year, my personal pet project with this tournament was the Songshan Shaolin Championship. Modeled after the WildAid Tiger Claw Championship, this event was limited only to the traditional forms currently practiced at the original Shaolin Temple on Songshan. It was a benefit for our own charitable branch, the Tiger Claw Foundation. There were actually four benefit exhibition events for the Foundation: this, Mulanquan, Health Qigong and Special Skills Qigong. Mulanquan and Health Qigong have been heavily promoted by the PRC, so we were hoping to get some official teams and representatives approved to attend. Unfortunately, they couldn't get their travel visas together. Mulanquan was canceled and Health Qigong was very small.Special Skills are the qigong stunts, and tournaments of this nature have been held in PRC for years. In fact, one of our most popular DVDs, Extreme Kung Fu Qigong, features just such a tournament - the On Water Contest of the "Liqun Cup" International Traditional Wushu and Unique Feats Tournament, held in Taizhou in 1999. Our Special Skills Showcase was really Grandmaster Tu Jin-Sheng's show, which included four events: bending bars on the throat, breaking bottles, throwing chopsticks and, of course, iron crotch. I confess that I was disappointed that no other media picked up on the fact we were staging an iron crotch competition. In 2005, I was involved with a BBC Documentary on Grandmaster Tu and made the front page of the local paper kicking him in the goods. And I actually did kick him. I'll testify to that. That stunt went viral, if that was even a slang term back in 2005, and I found myself getting interviewed by a few shock jocks as well as publishing an article in some porn magazine (for which I was paid handsomely, but never received an author's copy). Anyway, no other media group reported on the iron crotch competition at all, which was a waste of several good lifts, upwards to nearly 300 lbs. Seriously.

But back to Songshan Shaolin, I managed to get several of my Shaolin monk and former monk friends to help out, along with fellow Shaolin enthusiast Sal Redner, who worked wonders as ring coordinator. Judging this championship were my personal coach, Yan Fei (formerly Shi Yanfei), a former coach, Shi Yantuo (aka Wang Lu), and my Shaolin friends, Chen Fei (formerly Shi Yanfei too), Ye Xinglie (Shi Xinglie) and the headmaster of the official Shaolin Temple Cultural Center, Shi Yanran. Shi Yanran oversaw the Shaolin Summit demonstration two weeks prior. All the masters were resolute about this being traditional Shaolin, so when a few competitors busted out some aerials, they were duly penalized.As fate would have it, the Songshan Shaolin ring was run next door to Grandmaster Tu's Special Skills ring, right when they were holding their chopstick throwing contest. Several stray chopsticks wound up flying into the Shaolin ring, which Sal and I found absurdly funny. In retrospect, that was probably hazardous because when thrown true, those chopsticks do pack a palpable penetration power. The Shaolin competitors were unfazed however. To me, that was a testament of traditional kung fu. A traditional kung fu practitioner embraces hardship. Romantic images, mostly from the movies, imagine Shaolin halls with all sorts of crazy challenges - carrying water with blades under the arms to keep them upright, burning incense sticks that sear acolytes if they move inappropriately, chambers of flying darts to test a novice's reflexes, and so forth. In comparison, a stray chopstick was inconsequential.

Early in production, there was a debate over whether or not to cover the traditional rings with puzzle mats. Being the only traditional practitioner on the production crew, I argued that traditional martial artists can compete on asphalt. After all, that's what I was trained on. I chided the puzzle-mat-advocates saying that traditional kung fu people could work in a pit surrounded by wild beasts and sharpened bamboo punji sticks. Never mind those hateful, prissy wushu carpets. I was overruled, however, and the traditional rings wound up working on puzzle mats or industrial carpet.Our first Songshan Shaolin Champion is Yang Chengjun, who won with a slinky interpretation of qixingquan. All the dedicated Shaoliners found that rather amusing. If there's one form to encapsulate Songshan Shaolin in 2011, it is qixingquan. The biggest Chinese New Year blockbuster in Asia was the 2011 film called Shaolin starring Andy Lau and Jackie Chan. We even featured it as the cover of our 2011 Shaolin Special. During the TCKFMCIII Master's Demo, there were two Shaolin demo teams, Shaolin Kung Fu Chan (Ye Xinglie's group) and Pure Shaolin Kung Fu (Chen Fei group). Both groups wove their performance around qixingquan. If you're practicing Shaolin in 2011, it's all about qixingquan.Dave: Number 3: Nacho sauce kept turning his locks into dreads. (mugs at camera) Nacho sauce? I don't know what that means.Paul: I don't know what that means.Dave: I don't know what that means.Paul: We are better off not knowing.For those with the most stamina, Tiger Claw provided libations for an intimate After-Party in the Presidential Suite of the Marriott Hotel. Everyone was really tired, but there was a universal need to decompress, as well as savor the final moments of a glorious day. Most of my Dragon Crew made it. Those guys never miss a party. The other new addition to our cover master attendees was Dr. Yang Jwing-Ming. His disciples competed last year. They brought a bottle of Cuervo to the After-

Party. A bottle of Scottish Gin came from Raphael Zanders-McNeil, who came to us through our forum and wound up volunteering (I knew our forum was good for something). Both bottles were polished off quickly with repeated "ganbei!" rounds. It was a great time. I ended up closing the door to that room only a few hours before sunrise. My double-shidi Chris wound up sleeping it all off in his car. Chris, my brother, I salute you!Dave: Number 2: Ninjettes dig it. (chuckles)

In 2012, assuming there's no apocalypse, we'll be celebrating the 20th Anniversary of Kung Fu Tai Chi. We're planning something big to celebrate. It'll be in June in San Jose, California. Watch for upcoming announcements. I hope you'll join us. It's going to be historic. Just don't follow me into the bathroom. Seriously.Dave: And the Number 1 reason why Gene Ching shaved his head: He's training for a cage match! Ladies and gentleman, thank you so much. We'll be right back with Jackie Chan after a short message from our sponsor, MartialArtsMart.