Who's going to Berkeley CMAT this year?

[GeneChing]

Hope to see some one from the forum this weekend. Anyone.

[GeneChing]

350 is actually rather low. CMAT is typically around 500.

Monday, March 25, 2019
Chinese martial arts tournament in California attracts hundreds
Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-25 19:34:10|Editor: zh

SAN FRANCISCO, March 24 (Xinhua) -- The 27th annual Chinese Martial Arts Tournament (CMAT 27) was held at the University of California, Berkeley (UCB) Sunday, attracting hundreds of Chinese Kung Fu fans from across the United States and Canada.

The two-day event, hosted by the UCB Martial Arts Program, brought together many diverse martial arts groups and individuals from North America who have a strong interest in traditional Chinese culture, such as Chinese Kung Fu.

Nearly 350 athletes, aged six to 60-plus, competed in the two categories of contemporary martial arts and traditional Kung Fu, including weapons and Tai Chi Kung Fu.

The CMAT, which was a competition originally limited to UCB students decades ago, has now grown into one of the largest and most popular Chinese martial arts events open to the public after 27 years.

This year, the CMAT 27 organizers added a Shaolin Division to the competition events. The new division includes the famous Shaolin Tongbi Fist, Shaolin Luohan Fist (or Arhat Fist), as well as Shaolin Short and Long Weapon.

Shi Yanran, executive director of Shaolin Temple USA and head judge of the Shaolin Division events, said the addition of Shaolin Division to the contest indicated that more Americans have come to realize the true value of Chinese Kung Fu culture and also the charm of Shaolin martial arts.

Bryant Fong, president of the National Chinese Wushu Association of America and CMAT chair, said the tournament aims to preserve the philosophy, techniques and tradition of Chinese martial arts.

Elena Sfecla, a video producer who works for an international video gaming company in San Francisco, has competed in several Shaolin events, such as Tongbi Fist, Shaolin Staff and Long Weapon.

"I was fascinated by Shaolin Kung Fu immediately after I came across it last year," she said.

"Practicing Shaolin Kung Fu trained my discipline of the mind and the body, and it keeps me fit and in shape," she said.

Bill Zemlidge, a father of two pre-teen boys who are competing in the Shaolin events, said he wants to have his children practice Shaolin Kung Fu. "It's difficult to practice martial arts, but I think it's nice to see that my kids are learning to do things better than before," he said.

"They have to persevere, and I don't think it comes naturally," Zemlidge said.

Lara Brooke was pleased to see her seven-year-old girl win first place in the Shaolin Broad Sword competition.

"I brought my girl to Shaolin Temple USA to do Chinese martial arts because I want her to learn something that she can carry with her for life," she said.

"Chinese Kung Fu can train her physical discipline and flexibility in good health, in addition to the mental discipline," Brooke said.

And I did see a few former forum members. Well, I shouldn't say 'former'. They just don't come 'round here anymore.

[GeneChing]

The 27th Annual Chinese Martial Arts Tournament facebook album.

[GeneChing]

62 more pix just posted.

More to come. We'll be here all week.

[GeneChing]

48 more pix - shot by me.

[GeneChing]

85 new pix in our facebook album. Tomorrow I'll probably post the last of them - Gigi's pix.

[GeneChing]

41 new pix in our facebook album. These are all Gigi's.

Full coverage of the event will be in our next issue, SUMMER 2019. Subscribe now.

[GeneChing]

I was standing right by when Elena was being interviewed and now regret not photobombing when they took the lead pic.

California embracing essence of wushu, Chinese martial arts
By LIA ZHU in Berkeley, California | China Daily Global | Updated: 2019-03-29 23:35


Elena Sfecla, a video producer at a video game company, assumes a Shaolin kung fu stance at the Chinese Martial Arts Tournament at University of California, Berkeley on Sunday. Lia Zhu/China Daily

When 7-year-old Arya Brooke walked to the center of the ring, she immediately put her game face on. After a routine of Tongbi Fist, she won a gold medal in her age group at a Chinese martial arts tournament.

"I love being proud of myself, and I love going to competitions and performances, because everyone claps at all these people around me. My shifu (master instructor) is from a real monastery. I'm really happy I'm here," said Brooke.

The girl from Santa Cruz, California, has been studying kung fu for three years at the Shaolin Temple USA in Sunnyvale, California.

More than 100 members of Shaolin kung fu centers in the Bay Area participated in the 27th Chinese Martial Arts Tournament (CMAT) over the weekend at the University of California, Berkeley.

This year was the first that the CMAT, one of the largest and most popular Chinese martial arts events in the US, has added a Shaolin kung fu division.

"It's important to introduce culture to the students, so they don't just think wushu (Chinese martial arts) is just for fighting or exercise. It also comes with ethics, morals and how you interact with the society," said Bryant Fong, CMAT chair and head instructor of the wushu team at UC Berkeley.

He believes that Shaolin kung fu is good to practice for most people at any age, because it teaches basic movements, stances and posture and improves health. It also has a rich history and culture, he said.

Brooke's mother, Lara Brooke, learned of Shaolin kung fu because of the temple and from movies. Twice a week she drives more than an hour to the kung fu school, where her daughter spends one hour in class and another in team practice.

The benefits are "huge" in many aspects, said the mother. "Compared to other children, she has a really great capacity (to follow) instructions and discipline. And of course there are physical benefits of being active and flexible," she said.

Lara Brooke said she has talked with the school, hoping it can develop a program for children who have reached a certain level.

Bogdan Marchis and Joel Macard, both competing in the senior age group, said they felt benefits both physically and mentally.

"I'm in much better shape now than I ever was. I'm more flexible, and competitions like this make you more confident. I feel I'm happier when I do this," said Marchis, who works at Stanford University. Marchis learned of Shaolin kung fu from a wellness program that is a partnership between Shaolin Temple USA and the university's medical school.

Chinese kung fu has become increasingly popular in the US. In the Bay Area, various kung fu schools can been seen at malls in the region. The Shaolin Temple USA alone has around 800 members enrolled at its four centers in the Bay Area.

Twenty-seven years ago, when Fong founded the CMAT for University of California students, there were around 80 competitors. Today, it attracts around 500 participants, ranging in age from 5 to 60, who come from diverse ethnic groups and other countries.

"But if you go to tae kwon do or judo tournaments, it is obviously more diverse," said CMAT Director Michelle Yang, adding, "we are still lacking" when it comes to diversity.

To help people from non-Chinese backgrounds better understand wushu, Fong has designed handouts for his tai chi class and regularly gives lectures on wushu and the culture that it's related to.

"American culture doesn't have something like this, so if they don't have the same response (as Chinese students), we should find ways that we can make it easier for them to understand what it is we are doing," said Fong, also president of the National Chinese Wushu Association of America.

He was trained for the Beijing Wushu Team in 1980, and was among the first American students sent to study in China.

"When I started learning wushu in Beijing, the first thing they taught is wu de (ethics of wushu). Obviously, we don't do it here, but eventually we need to," he said. "Learning those ethical questions is important, so you have a stable way of knowing where you are supposed to be."

Traditional wushu was brought to the United States in the 1800s, when Chinese used it for defending themselves amid the anti-Chinese sentiment during that time, he said. It's not until the 1970s that modern wushu came from China.

Modern wushu is a sport developed by China to emphasize the dynamics and performance aspects of traditional wushu.

[GeneChing]

Menzies wins gold in U.C. Berkeley Push Hands Competition


By UKIAH DAILY JOURNAL | udj@ukiahdj.com |
PUBLISHED: April 4, 2019 at 1:18 pm | UPDATED: April 4, 2019 at 1:20 pm

Scott Menzies, owner and instructor at Fort Bragg’s Perfect Circle T’ai Chi Martial Arts, walked away with a gold medal in Tai Chi Push Hands from U.C. Berkeley CalWushu’s 27th Annual Chinese Martial Arts Tournament, held over the weekend of March 23-24.

“It feels really good,” said Menzies. “I’ve been doing this practice for a long time, and this just reinforces for me that I’m on the right track.”

“One of the best organized and most popular Chinese martial arts events in the nation,” according to Russell Ahn, U.C. Martial Arts Program Director, the event included a wide range of Chinese martial arts, with individual and group competitions for adults and children; a diversity of empty-hand and weapons forms; demonstrations from masters such as Shaolin monks and martial arts actor Dr. Chiu Chi Ling, whose movies include Kung Fu Hustle; and Tai Chi Push Hands.

“It was really a sight to see,” said Menzies. “So much going on, from groups of little kids dressed in Shaolin garb doing routines to the amazing array Chinese weapons forms.”

According to Menzies, Push Hands is the martial arts core of T’ai Chi Ch’uan, also spelled Taijiquan, but most commonly known as Tai Chi. The goal of Push Hands is to train the practitioner to become more aware and sensitive, so as to be able to “listen to energy” and, ultimately, “understand energy,” thereby establishing a solid foundation for martial arts.

Barbara Weiss and Richard Melrose, who recently started practice at Perfect Circle, attended the tournament to watch Menzies compete.

“I wanted to see the tournament so I could see how the Push Hands martial arts we study looked in a competitive setting with people from different schools,” said Weiss. “We emphasize redirecting an opponent’s energy in Scott’s classes. At the tournament, it was more about strength, but I was proud of Scott, who was actually using the energy work we study.”

“We have been not only learning the techniques and movements, but the meaning of these practices,” said Melrose. “So it was satisfying to see that he won using good technique, not just shoving people around.”
Menzies said he felt really good that most of the time he was able to redirect others’ force with less force in return, scoring many clean points and resulting in larger point differentials, like his 9 to 4 point win for the gold.

“This practice is a never-ending developmental process,” said Menzies, “so if I can go from being successful against brute force one out of ten times and make it two out of ten, then that’s progress, and I’m happy.
“The reality is that you have to lose to learn, and those who lose with self-reflection will eventually surpass those who rely on strength and remain in their comfort zone,” he explained.

Menzies first started studying Yang Style Tai Chi in Taiwan in 1999, shortly after moving there from Nepal, where he was a Peace Corps volunteer. In 2002 he and his wife Emily McPhail moved to Hunan, China, where he met Master Zhou Fei, under whom he studied Chen Style Tai Chi “yong”, meaning “usage” – i.e. the martial arts of the practice, which focused on Push Hands. In 2003 they left Asia and returned to Humboldt County, where Menzies had attended college, and he began teaching Tai Chi on the side.

“I didn’t actually plan to start teaching right away,” said Menzies, “but the truth was that, up there, I didn’t have anyone to work with, and I didn’t want to lose the knowledge I’d gained in Asia.”

Since then, Menzies has returned to China twice – in 2007 and 2016 – for further training.

In 2011, the couple moved to Fort Bragg, and two years later Menzies took advantage of an opportunity to open Perfect Circle on Franklin Street in central Fort Bragg, where he teaches these practices for both health and wellness and martial arts.

He also uses Tai Chi as a leadership development tool.

“I’ve a strong interest in community organizing and social change,” said Menzies. “It’s actually one of the reasons we returned to the States after seven years in Asia – so we could get more involved.”
According to Menzies, Tai Chi Push Hands is a solid framework for leadership development – teaching practitioners how to take action, including hard action, from inner peace. That inner peace, in turn, is important to ensuring clear, creative, intelligent, and strategic thinking, not to mention a healthy body to support those efforts for the long haul.

“In Push Hands the old adage ‘The first one who gets angry loses’ is actually a physical reality,” said Menzies. “Strong emotions create physical tension, and that tension can be used against you in Push Hands. So this practice is a biofeedback process that trains us to be more calmly proactive, strategic, and creative as we engage with others at the social – and political – levels.

“The action one might take to satisfy one’s strong emotions and the action needed to actually solve the problem at hand are often, if not always, different,” said Menzies. “This is why we need to develop our ‘internal skill’ along with our ‘external skill’ – be it martial arts, leadership, or whatever – so that we can be more effective in solving the problems and accomplishing our goals.”

Menzies has used Push Hands and its underlying premises to demonstrate and cultivate these skills in workshops for Leadership Mendocino, the City of Fort Bragg staff, Fort Bragg Unified School District’s Alt Ed staff and students, and other local organizations. He has even used it to work with the Fort Bragg High School football team.

“Push Hands is a great social-emotional learning activity for youth,” said Menzies, “and it directly complements and supports, for both students and staff, the School District’s efforts toward implementing Restorative Justice Practices.”

“Restorative approaches refer to a range of methods and strategies which can be used both to prevent relationship-damaging incidents from happening and to resolve them if they do happen,” according to the Restorative Justice Council’s website.

In his efforts to get more people to experience the challenges and benefits of Push Hands, Menzies will be adding a Thursday evening Push Hands class in May.

“Most people think of Tai Chi as that stuff older folks do in groups in parks,” said Menzies. “And while that’s part of it and the benefits of that work are real, I would like more people, young and old, to experience the action philosophy and martial arts of this practice through Push Hands.”
Menzies can be contacted at pctaichi@mcn.org or 962-3009.

Despite CMAT's low turnout this year, at least they got some coverage. There was another large tournament here two weeks later and I've yet to see any media coverage at all on that one.

[GeneChing]

CMAT 27
By Gene Ching


SUMMER 2019

[GeneChing]

Really Berkeley? Really? Of all the U.S. universities, you'd think Berkeley would have this together.

‘Stop normalizing racism’: Amid backlash, UC-Berkeley apologizes for listing xenophobia under ‘common reactions’ to coronavirus


Students walk on the University of California at Berkeley campus in Berkeley, Calif., on Aug. 15, 2017. (Marcio Jose Sanchez/AP)
By Allyson Chiu
Jan. 31, 2020 at 4:08 a.m. PST

At first glance, the informational handout recently shared by the University of California at Berkeley’s health services center on Instagram looked like many of the others that have been promoted amid rising worry over the global spread of the deadly coronavirus.

This particular post, which was widely circulated Thursday, focused on “managing fears and anxiety” about the pneumonia-like virus that originated in Wuhan, China, last month and has since infected people in countries worldwide, including the United States. In addition to offering mental health tips and resources, the bulletin identified a handful of “normal reactions” that people may experience as the crisis continues to unfold.

It would be reasonable, the university’s health center wrote, for people in the coming days or weeks to feel panicked, socially withdrawn and angry, among other emotions. But the last “normal” feeling listed was, as one person put it, “very much not like the other.”

“Xenophobia: fears about interacting with those who might be from Asia and guilt about those feelings,” the handout said.

As Asians, especially Chinese people, worldwide have experienced heightened tensions in their communities and an increasing number of racist incidents sparked by fears of coronavirus contamination, the post struck a nerve. Many critics slammed the notice, expressing disbelief that a prominent university with a large Asian student body appeared to be “normalizing racism.”

Dustin R. Glasner, PhD
@drglasner
Hey @UCBerkeley @cal @UCBerkeleySPH @TangCenterCal - as a proud Cal alum (PhD Infectious Diseases '18) and Asian-American, this is really, truly unacceptable. Stop normalizing racism. It is not normal, and racist reactions to the current coronavirus outbreak are NOT OKAY. https://twitter.com/adrienneshih/sta...86183778689024 …

Adrienne Shih
✔
@adrienneshih
Confused and honestly very angry about this Instagram post from an official @UCBerkeley Instagram account.

When is xenophobia ever a “normal reaction”?


22
1:25 PM - Jan 30, 2020
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The outcry prompted university officials to take swift action, removing the Instagram post later in the day and issuing an apology for causing “any misunderstanding.”

“We apologize for our recent post on managing anxiety around Coronavirus,” said a statement shared by Berkeley’s Tang Center, which happens to be named after Hong Kong businessman Jack C.C. Tang. “We regret any misunderstanding it may have caused and have updated the language in our materials.”

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Thursday’s controversy coincided with the World Health Organization declaring the coronavirus outbreak a “public health emergency” and the State Department elevating its travel advisory for China to Level 4: “Do Not Travel.” According to the most recent figures from Chinese officials, nearly 10,000 people in China, where the pneumonia-like virus originated, have fallen ill, and the death toll in the country has risen to 213. Outside China, the number of international cases has risen to more than 80, with at least four countries, including the United States, reporting person-to-person transmission of the virus.

The latest developments are likely to stoke more fear over the virus’s spread, as experts say a vaccine won’t be ready any time soon. That doesn’t bode well for Asians already being subjected to discrimination and vitriolic attacks — and if history is any evidence, it’s only going to get worse.

Terri Chu
@TerriChu
In my Chinese moms chat group, we discussed how to brace ourselves and the kids for the inevitable wave of racism coming our way as this unfolds.

Many of us have never even been to China but know we will not go unscathed. https://twitter.com/akurjata/status/1221165180568002560 …

Andrew Kurjata 📻
✔
@akurjata
Perhaps revealing some naiveté, I'm surprised at the level of vitriol towards Chinese people I'm seeing in the comments sections of stories about the Wuhan coronavirus. And I mean towards the people, not the government. Disheartening.

513
1:31 PM - Jan 25, 2020
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Going back centuries, “Chinese and Chinese American people have served as scapegoats for infectious disease outbreaks and sanitation failures in the United States and around the world to particularly alarming effect,” wrote Jessica Hauger for The Washington Post.

During the third pandemic of the plague, political cartoons printed in California showed Chinese Americans “eating rats and bunking in crowded, unsanitary lodgings,” according to Hauger, a doctoral student at Duke University who studies healing and colonialism in the indigenous history of North America. Publications labeled China and Chinese people the “breeding place of King Plague.”

continued next post

[GeneChing]

The reactions to the coronavirus outbreak haven’t been all that different.

The hashtag “#ChineseDon’tComeToJapan” has been trending on Japanese social media, and Singaporeans are petitioning their government to bar Chinese nationals from entering the country, the New York Times reported. As of Thursday, there were 11 confirmed cases of the virus in Japan and 10 in Singapore, according to data compiled by The Post.

In France, Asian citizens launched a hashtag, “#JeNeSuisPasUnVirus” (“I’m not a virus”), to fight back against racism, the BBC reported. Le Courrier Picard, a French newspaper, also recently apologized after weathering backlash for running a front-page headline that read, “ALERTE JAUNE,” or “YELLOW ALERT.” So far, the country has confirmed five cases.

Reports of xenophobic behavior in Toronto prompted Mayor John Tory to issue a public statement Wednesday rebuking the treatment of the city’s Chinese Canadian community. Canada has reported three cases of infection.

“We have to be here to stand up and say that kind of stigmatization is wrong,” Tory said at a news conference. “It is ill-founded and in fact, could lead to a situation where we are less safe because it spreads misinformation at a time when people are in more need than ever of real information and real facts.”

The mayor went on to pledge solidarity to Chinese Canadians living in and around Toronto, stressing that quarantines or avoiding Chinese people and businesses are “entirely inconsistent with the advice of our health care professionals.”

John Tory
✔
@JohnTory
Standing with our Chinese community against stigmatization & discrimination, and reminding residents that, as our health care professionals have informed us, the risk of Coronavirus to our community remains low. We must not allow fear to triumph over our values as a city.

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11:22 AM - Jan 29, 2020
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Then, Berkeley’s University Health Services publicized its latest coronavirus handout, which went viral Thursday after an image of the Instagram post was shared on Twitter. Critics, a number of whom are current or former students, blasted the university, suggesting that the post amounted to condoning racism against Asians. According to Berkeley’s fall enrollment data, more than 40 percent of last year’s freshman class were Asian.

“This just in from the number one public university in the world: it’s okay to be xenophobic as long as you also feel sort of guilty about it,” one person tweeted.

Michelle Lee
@1michellelee
Very cool take from my alma mater @UCBerkeley - xenophobia as an acceptable “common reaction” to the coronavirus panic. Feeling good about the light fear people have had of me in public all week. https://twitter.com/adrienneshih/sta...86183778689024 …

Adrienne Shih
✔
@adrienneshih
Confused and honestly very angry about this Instagram post from an official @UCBerkeley Instagram account.

When is xenophobia ever a “normal reaction”?


21
1:22 PM - Jan 30, 2020
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Reactions ranged from shock to disgust, as several people demanded answers from the university.

“Is this a joke @ucberkeley?” a Twitter user asked. Another opined that the handout was “the exact opposite of good public health messaging.”

At least one person pointed out that Thursday also marked the official removal of California lawyer John Henry Boalt’s name from the main classroom building at Berkeley’s law school. Boalt’s anti-Chinese writings helped catalyze the passage of the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, according to a university news release.

Top Dog
@DJAL3XGA5
sorry professor i can't come to class today. im xenophobic and i think it might be contagious. please understand https://twitter.com/adrienneshih/sta...86183778689024 …

Adrienne Shih
✔
@adrienneshih
Confused and honestly very angry about this Instagram post from an official @UCBerkeley Instagram account.

When is xenophobia ever a “normal reaction”?


22
1:54 PM - Jan 30, 2020
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The revised version of the health-center handout makes no mention of xenophobia. Under “Ways to Manage Fears & Anxieties,” a bullet point reads, “Be mindful of your assumptions about others.”

“Someone who has a cough or a fever does not necessarily have coronavirus,” the handout said. “Self-awareness is important in not stigmatizing others in our community.”


Allyson Chiu
Allyson Chiu is a reporter with The Washington Post's Morning Mix team. She has previously contributed to the South China Morning Post and the Pacific Daily News.Follow

I wonder if Coronavirus will still be an issue when CMAT happens. It's scheduled for March 14, only a month and a half away.

[GeneChing]

[NorthernShaolin]

Hope to see some one from the forum this weekend. Anyone.

I'll be there.

[GeneChing]

hold the phone for this year...