The 1st World Traditional Kung Fu Championships

[spaz_dragon]

ah man! i wasn't informed about any closing ceremony thingie was it at the stadium or something? grr. we just had a final dinner at our hotel (where we would have our breakfast, lunch and dinner everyday), and they did a speach, played some music, and we ate. that was basically it. no goodie bag wish i could help. man, that's awful that the stickers got lost! i would have totally been like "gene, can i get one!!!!!!", lol . regardless, i hope they show up for ya

[GeneChing]

The closing ceremony and buffet party was held on the eve of Oct. 20th at the Yuda Palace Hotel. I think they gave out trophies and such, but I wasn't there either, so I'm not sure what happened. We went out to a private dinner with GM Chen Tongshan (Xiaolong's dad). Your Shifu even showed up for a moment to bid us a safe trip home - we thought that was awefully nice - too nice, in fact, it was sooo much trouble for him to cross Zhengzhou, just to say goodbye, especially when we all live in America.

But tell me about the book. What book? The yellow program book?

[humble-one]

When is it? Will anyone be able to get any movie footage? Or is it not allowed?

[norther practitioner]

There are a few threads with links to some footage...
also check out www.jiayo.com

[GeneChing]

I gots over 20 hours of footage...
There were no restrictions on filming whatsoever - plus we had press passes, which meant floor access everywhere. I'm in the process of sorting through it all and will have something for y'all at some point. Going into the holiday season means a lot more work around here, so I'll have it ready, bit-by-bit.

We've been discussing down on this thread on the Shaolin forum. Some video and pix are posted.

There's a bit of a teaser about the festival in the e-zine piece we posted two weeks ago for the benefit for GM Shi Suxi. I'll amend that soon. I'm just beginning work on an article on the tournament itself for the e-zine now.

[SifuAbel]

Why is this the first "world" event? There have been plenty of international tournamnets.

[rogue]

Yeah, but that was the first at that exact time and that exact place.

Gene, has Tiger Claw or Martial Arts Mart ever thought of fielding a team?

[SifuAbel]

LOL! Oh man, these tournies always try to make it seem like nobody has done this before.

And was it really a "world" event?

I remember the first Lee Koon Hung tourny, it truely had people from all over the globe.

[norther practitioner]

First traditional international sponsored by the IWuF I guess.

[GeneChing]

The tournament had over 60 countries, 2300 competitors, and 150 delegations, and that was only part of a huge festival that had a trade show, an academic symposium, a concert gala opening and more. One section of this event is petitioning for recognition from the Guinness book of World Records. It was put on by IWuF and the Chinese Wushu Association, who IMO, fielded one of the most interesting teams - a lot of older masters doing some great traditional stuff.

[SifuAbel]

cool, big tourney.

[jun_erh]

I think I heard about this. It's going to be on an island. This one guy I know with a huge afro is going there. It seems like it'll be cool, but the guy who's putting it on is kind of scary and not just because he is missing his hand.

[firepalm]

For those that may be interested here is some footage of the parade (where the audience rode buses through the parade) at the World Traditional Wushu Festival in 2004. Very interesting.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fk0Jpm0pXSI

[GeneChing]

There's a good shot of me right after the monk statue at the new front gate complex. Good thing I wasn't picking my nose right then (but just for the record, that's culturally acceptable in China ).

Here's my e-zine write up of that day. My video of the event is coming to DVD this summer...

[Doug]

Where is this DVD?