pak mei tonfas

[tnwingtsun]

Thanks MoQ,it is indeed a tradgey,when these collectors of forms that have no roots or understanding of the system learn from a video or go see someone,tape them doing the set and practice without a clue as to the basics or body mech. of the system.Tonfa I'm not saying that you're not entitled to this knowledge but I don't know if you have a Bai Mei background with a skilled sifu,if you don't then what would be the point?,find one if you're able to and work the hands and body before thinking about weapons.
I've seen these so called "Sifus" that are nothing but con men that have a little Karate a year or so of Kung-Fu(from another con man),a used car sales course and suddenly these guys are masters!,tell ya a true story,there are these guys that went to china,taped some real sifus,brought them back to America and with a little Karate under their belt these guys jumped on the Kung-Fu bandwagon,they could not comprehend what was taking place on these tapes!
Sure,they could copy the movements but they were nothing but paper tigers,now to beat it all they had another one of their con men sifus claim that Chang Lai Chuen is still alive living in his basement teaching them real Bai Mei! No telling how many people they got hurt teaching garbage.
This guy in the UK,Pak Mei,don't know him,I don't know if he's an closed door disciple or not,he seems to know what he's talking about and thats why I e-mailed him with an invite to my school if he's ever in my neck of the woods,and that goes for the rest of the Bai Mei/Pak Mei people.
IMHO I think we should stick together and make sure that the con men don't mess it up for future generations.
Bai Mei Butterfly Knifes???,as I said before,I'd love to see and learn the set,better from a real person than a video,video would be better than nothing,my school and sifu are on my profile.
I'm very easy to find.
BTW thanks to the gate keepers of this system.
I'd hate to wake up one day and see a Bai Mei school on every block like the Mc Donalds of
MAs that Tae-Kwon-Do has become.
And good luck Tonfa,I really mean that
Peace guys
Don

[This message was edited by tnwingtsun on 03-04-01 at 11:29 PM.]

[This message was edited by tnwingtsun on 03-04-01 at 11:36 PM.]

[fiercest tiger]

someone is having you on! the start does resemble the tiger exits the forest though.

where do you train and who with? :)

peace

bakmeimonk@hotmail.com

[tonfas]

Hi tnwingtsun and moq,

I just spoke to one of the pak mei teacher,

they said, tonfas only teacher selective students.

they are afraid the arts teaching the wrong people
so they keep it until they find a right person

What is the right person????

I do not known.

:)

[tnwingtsun]

If you feel you are the right person,then be respectful and express your passion,ask,you only live once in this lifetime,it would useless to learn the Bai Mei tonfa without having a foundation in this system,do you have a Bai Mei Sifu? or do you just wish to have the set?

[Black Jack]

I know this is not my feild by any means but I thought that Bak Mei only had two weapon sets?

1. Double daggers
2. Staff

10 forms and 2 weapon sets to round it out?

Regards

[MoQ]

The right person is one who learns what his teacher teaches and doesn't synthesize his own timeline for leaning, seeking out a bootlegger rather than the honest path...

Different lines must have various weapons, so collecting them all is for... collectors.
Some have Tiger Fork etc. but a japanese weapon like tonfas is gonna be pretty recent and "rare" for other reasons than its "deep"...

[Pakmei]

Actually you may find that the Tonfa's are actually of Chinese origin.

Originally the Chinese Tonfa's are longer in length and were used as crutches by cripple people who used them to drag themsleves across the floor as well as to protect themsleves against being mugged.

It was also a farming tool used by local farmers and Monks in harvesting crops. When the Shoalin styles were introduced to Okinarwa, Japan and later become known as Karate, you may find that a lot of the weaponary skills were also introduced and stripped of their essence, to make it more easily understood by the Japanese.

But also if you think about it, you can get a Tonfa like weapon when you break apart a chair and use one of the legs with a support strut.

If you look at Shoalin Gung Fu, you'll find the their something like the 18 weapons of Shoalin, which include a tonfa like weapon.

So I don't think the Tonfa set is a recent edition to Pak Mei, it may well have added to Pak Mei during Chueng Li Chuen era, but the Tonfa's are definitely not a Japanese invention by any means.

Dave Stevens

[tonfas]

Hi tnwingstsun,

Are you pak mei?

I learnt the tonfas and butterfly under my grand master cheung ping lam in 1988. i went with my father.???

tonfas@hotmail.com