WildAid Tiger Claw Champion

[webcastGreg]

Sun Qibo performed at the Kung Fu Tai Chi day and won Wild Aid. You can see his demonstrations here: Sun Qibo

[GeneChing]

From WildAid's email newsletter

With World Rhino Day coming up, all eyes are on this magnificent species. Rhinos were once widespread across Africa's savannas and Asia's tropical forests, but today very few rhinos survive outside national parks and reserves. Please join us for a Google+ Hangout as rhino experts discuss the status of rhinos today and what we are doing to protect them.

Monday, September 24th at 1:00pm PDT / 4:00pm EDT

You'll hear from the following people:
• Peter Knights - Executive Director, WildAid
• Dr. Philip Muruthi - Senior Director, Conservation Science, AWF
• Dr. Barney Long - Manager of Asian Species Conservation Program, WWF
• Crawford Allan - Director, TRAFFIC North America
Visit the World Rhino Day Hangout event page to RSVP or to submit questions in advance.

[GeneChing]

The WildAid Tiger Claw Champion 2013 is on again for this years Tiger Claw Elite Championship. TCEC2013 combines three separate tournaments under one roof: Tiger Claw’s KungFuMagazine.com Championship V alongside two new competitions, Tiger Claw’s Taekwondo Championship and Tiger Claw’s Traditional Karate Championship. The only place they will cross is the WildAid Tiger Claw Champion 2013.

We are accepting tax-deductible prize donations for WildAid Tiger Claw Champion 2013. Contact me at Gene@KungFuMagazine.com.

In other news, note that Jackie's Save China's Tigers is not the group that is supported through the WildAid Tiger Claw Championship. Jackie does a lot of charity work and tigers are one of his major causes. This is another group entirely, but nonetheless a sad loss.

Jackie Chan-backed tiger charity faces uncertain future after bitter marriage split
Chris Luo chris.luo@scmp.com


Portrait of Save China's Tigers founder Quan Li. Pictures taken in Causeway Bay. Photo: Jonathan Wong

A tiger conservation charity backed by actor Jackie Chan was left in turmoil after its founder filed for divorce from an American banker who is the foundation’s financial backer.

No one is more proactive than Quan Li when it comes to saving the South China tiger. The former fashion executive for Gucci founded Save China’s Tigers in 2000. Hong Kong star Chan was invited to be its ambassador. In 2006, the charity launched the Jackie Chan Tiger Face Awareness campaign in Hong Kong.

But challenges lie ahead for Save China’s Tigers, which is registered in Hong Kong, Britain and the US, after Quan’s recent divorce with American banker Stuart Bray, also a financial backer of the charity.

Since the divorce, Quan has said she was ousted from the organisation by her ex-husband. Bray said her position became untenable because of an alleged conflict of interest, Britain's Daily Mail reported.

“It is a confidential matter and I can’t get into it – but she was in an untenable position,” said Bray, who refused to disclose Quan’s conflict interest. Bray insisted the charity would keep operating.

Quan’s charity has set up more than 300 sq km of conservation zone in South Africa, providing space for South China tigers that cannot survive in badly deforested China. Her relentless efforts to save the endangered species have been made into several documentaries in China.

For his part, Bray has set up an environmental investment fund to bring back the South China tiger, according to Reuters. He has reportedly poured nearly US$25 million into the effort.

The South China tiger is classified as critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. About 100 exist in captivity around the world, and the animal appears to be extinct in the wild.

[GeneChing]

The First 48 WildAid Tiger Claw Champion Entries will receive a copy of Me, Chi, and Bruce Lee by Brian Preston, Courtesy of Blue Snake Books.

[GeneChing]

WildAid

We hope you can join us this Saturday (June 1) for the 4th Annual WildAid Tiger Claw Championship in San Jose, CA. The tournament features Chinese, Japanese, and Korean martial arts and all of the proceeds are donated to WildAid.

Pictured below is last year’s champion, Sun Qibo. More info: http://martial.securesites.net/info/tournament/

Also on WildAid's twitter.

[GeneChing]

Yu Zhenlong is the 2013 WildAid Tiger Claw Champion

[GeneChing]

Wild Aid Winner Zhenlong Yu 于振龙

[herb ox]

Congrats to Champion Yu Zhenlong, and a big thanks to Tiger Claw for continuing to champion the cause against the illegal trade of endangered species!

[GeneChing]

During my last meeting with WildAid, they told me some great behind-the-scenes stories about the rhino shoot.

Jackie Chan Supports Documentary Exposing Illegal Wildlife Trade
5:03 AM PDT 10/18/2013 by Etan Vlessing


Vern Evans Photography for WildAid
Jackie Chan
The Hong Kong action star throws his weight behind a Canada-Germany co-production about the ongoing slaughter of elephants and rhinos for their tusks and horns.

TORONTO – Hong Kong action superstar Jackie Chan has joined the fight against the slaughter of elephants for ivory products by throwing his support behind the Canada-Germany co-production Gambling on Extinction.
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The documentary, from Real to Reel Productions and German partner a&o buero filmproduktion, investigates the illegal trade of wildlife products, including ivory, rhino horn and tiger parts.

"Everyone should dispel the myths that ivory jewelry and carvings are made from tusks that have fallen off the elephant or from elephants that have died of natural causes," Chan said in a statement issued on Friday by the film's producers.

"This is simply not true. Elephants are being hunted and killed for their tusks. The only way to stop the slaughter is to cut the demand. We are all consumers, so we can all make a difference," he added.

“I know Jackie supports many worthy causes, and we, along with our German partners at a&o buero, couldn't be happier about his support for our film and this international wildlife crisis," said Real to Reel producer Anne Pick in her own statement.

Gambling on Extinction sees German filmmaker Jakob Kneser travel across Africa and Southeast Asia to jungles and trading hubs to expose the major players feeding and opposing the illegal wildlife products business.

Pick and Tristan Chytroschek are producing.

Gambling on Extinction has already been sold to ZDF in Germany, W5 and Animal Planet in Canada, France's ARTE, SBS in Australia and Sweden's SVT.

[GeneChing]

Jackie Chan: Chinese attitudes to illegal wildlife products are changing
Martial arts film star and WildAid ambassador believes there is a generational change in views on ivory and rhino horn
Adam Vaughan
theguardian.com, Thursday 13 February 2014 10.14 EST


Still of Chinese actor Jackie Chan from a WildAid's video to save tigers. Photograph: ngbigcats/WildAid

Chinese attitudes towards buying illegal wildlife products such as rhino horn and ivory are undergoing a "big change", according to Jackie Chan.

The action film star, who was born in China and lives in Hong Kong for much of the year, said that although he had eaten shark fin soup and used tiger bone as a young man, he now wanted to end the demand in Asia that is fuelling the killing of wildlife in Africa. People in China, the world's biggest market for ivory and other illegal wildlife parts, had turned against the products in the past five years, he told the Guardian.

Chan, an ambassador for the US charity WildAid, was speaking in London to launch a new primetime advertising campaign that will air on China's main channel CCTV and aims to persuade Chinese consumers to stop buying rhino horn. Chan compared the generational change in Chinese views on ivory consumption to the shift that had taken place in younger Chinese people against smoking.

His comments come as countries, including a minister from China and four African heads of state, met for a summit in London on Thursday with the Prince of Wales and Duke of Cambridge to coordinate the international community's response to the £12bn-a-year trade, that is killing tens of thousands of elephants annually and saw more than 1,000 of the world's remaining 30,000 rhinos killed in South Africa alone last year.

Chan met with the duke last night and quipped that the first thing the he had been asked was when the actor would make Rush Hour 4, the next film in his martial arts series featuring a Hong Kong inspector and US detective. "I thought we were going to be talking about rhinos," he joked.

Declaring that "humans have already destroyed the Earth enough", Chan said he hoped people who saw his new advert would reconsider buying wildlife products. "I want people to concentrate. You're hurting animals, yourself. With education, people will understand. Everyone has a good heart."

He cited the changing public mood against eating shark fin soup in China, a status symbol that was often served at parties and special occasions, as evidence that attitudes could change in China. "These days when you eat shark fin soup, people say 'what are you doing'?" he said.

Chan said that being a father to a daughter and a son had influenced his views and compelled him to speak out on the wildlife trade. "I think China's government and people, everybody knows we need to do the right thing. With 1.4 billion people, if everyone had a piece of ivory … we must stop."

He defended the Chinese government's record on the issue. "China underground did a lot of the right things, just nobody reported [them], they just report the negative things."

Hollywood had also changed in its attitudes toward animals, he said, recalling a film he shot 30 years ago when a camel was killed by a director during filming. "At that time, I was so angry. I say – why'd you kill the camel? He said 'it was so cool'. I'm glad this kind of director has disappeared." By comparison, he said, animal welfare experts were always present whenever animals were used on film sets today.

Chan said his relationship with animals was influenced by having been brought up in a household that always had pets. He currently has three dogs (two others recently died) and five cats. "I just love animals, I don't know why. I am tough but I have a pretty good heart."

Note that our WildAid Tiger Claw Championship is on again this year at Tiger Claw Elite. We are accepting prize donations. These donations are tax deductible and all contributors will be acknowledged in the coverage of this very special division. Contact me at Gene@KungFuMagazine.com if interested.

[GeneChing]

[GeneChing]

I had a good meeting with WildAid yesterday. They are planning another Gala in November. Meanwhile, once again, I am looking for prize donations for anyone who might like to support our cause here. All of our prize donors get substantial promotional consideration. Contact me directly at Gene@KungFuMagazine.com.

[GeneChing]

And I thought the high pressure prostitutes were bad...

3 held after gang intimidated motorist into buying ‘tiger paw’
By Ke Jiayun | April 28, 2014, Monday


The “tiger paw”is displayed by police.

THREE people said to have intimidated a frightened motorist into buying a “tiger paw” after he’d pulled over at a market have been held by police.

Police are now trying to trace more alleged victims of the trio.

The motorist, surnamed Yang, told police that the suspects approached him after he parked near a market in Songjiang District on April 18.

The gang asked him to buy an item which they claimed was a tiger paw, an ingredient in traditional Chinese tonics, for 200 yuan (US$32) per gram.

Fearing he was about to be attacked, Yang paid 6,000 yuan for the alleged big cat body part.

Police stopped the trio after they’d taken the cash and were about to flee.

Songjiang police said they have received several similar reports already this year.

Cases occurred in crowded places such as markets and bus stops, with passers-by who were walking alone or drivers targeted, said officers.

[GeneChing]

This is part 6 of a 12 part series.

Tigers in Traditional Chinese Medicine: A Universal Apothecary
Posted by Sharon Guynup in Cat Watch on April 29, 2014

For centuries, tigers have inspired awe, reverence and sometimes, terror, in the humans they’ve lived beside. They command the Asian landscape as the top predator—immense, magnificent, muscular animals armed with razored claws and massive canines. They can kill with one swipe of their dinner plate-sized paws or with a strangling bite to the throat of their victim. But they also shimmer with radiant, auburn beauty in the sunlight; sometimes they seem to materialize out of nowhere, hunting under a blanket of night or appearing suddenly from a stand of bamboo, silently stalking their prey at dawn or dusk, shrouded by ghostly mists or by failing light, the jungle’s apparition.


A tiger charges in India’s Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve.
Photograph by Steve Winter/National Geographic

With this great power and mystery, tribal cultures worshipped tigers, bestowing them with powers that extend far beyond those of any worldly creature. Tigers became gods—and healers. For millennia, medicine men have ascribed magical powers and medicinal properties to them, and somehow, this cat became a universal apothecary. Many believe (and some still do) that by ingesting it, you absorb an animal’s life force, its vigor, strength, and attributes.

Nearly every part of this cat, from nose to tail ‎ (eyes, whiskers, brains, flesh, blood, organs and more) has been used to treat a lengthy list of maladies. Tiger parts are purported to heal the liver and kidneys, to cure everything from epilepsy, baldness, toothaches, joint pain and boils to ulcers, nightmares, fevers, and headaches. They’re also used to treat rat bites and laziness and are thought to prevent possession by evil demons. Tiger ***** is said to have aphrodisiac powers.

The hu gu (Mandarin for bones) are the parts that are most highly prized in Oriental medicine, a favored treatment for rheumatism and arthritis—and for impotence and flagging libido. But the humerus is the most coveted section of a tiger skeleton: That upper front leg bone is believed to contain the most potent healing powers.

Once they’re stripped of flesh, the bones are ground into powder, then used in pills, plasters, and as part of remedies containing other ingredients. A standard oral dosage for rheumatic pain is three to six grams a day. Over a year, that’s somewhere between six and a half and 13 pounds of bone—which is also used in wine.


A tiger skeleton soaks in rice wine in Harbin, China. Photo courtesy Save the Tiger Fund.

There is a growing, clamoring demand for tiger bone wine, a tonic made by steeping a tiger carcass in rice wine to produce an extremely expensive elixir. It’s thought to impart the animal’s great strength, a status symbol product bought or gifted by the elite: government officials, military officers, and wealthy businessmen.

Although China banned the use of tiger bone in 1993 and removed it from the list of approved medicines, manufacture and sale of tiger bone wine never stopped. Labels may picture a tiger, bottles may be tiger-shaped, but the word “tiger” has disappeared from packaging, replaced by “lion” ingredients—or it’s called “bone-strengthening wine.” Without DNA tests on any bone bits that might have remained in the liquid, there’s no way to know what exactly it’s made from, but ongoing media reports coming out of China document dealers offering tiger bone wine to customers.

Some of these are ancient remedies prescribed for well over 1,000 years—some say traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) originated perhaps as long as 5,000 years ago. According to legend, as human civilization emerged, Heaven sent a number of “sage-kings” to teach the people how to survive in a hostile world. One of these sage kings, Shen Nong Shi (3000 B.C.), created medicine by ingesting plants and discovering which served as drugs. As Chinese medical practice evolved, circulation of qi—energy—became paramount, along with balance of yin and yang, the opposite principles in nature, and a focus on the function and the intricate relationships between five organs: kidneys, lungs, liver, heart, and spleen.

TCM ingredients include a wide range of plants, herbs, minerals, and parts from over 1,500 animals, including tigers and other endangered species—more than 6,000 substances in all. Demand for some of the most highly prized items, including rhino horn, pangolin scales, and tiger parts, has nearly hunted these creatures off the planet. The first reference in China to tiger bone medicine dates to 500 A.D., published in the Collection of Commentaries on the Classic of the Materia Medica.


Small pieces of tiger bone (on the right) offered for sale by a street vendor in
Myanmar. Photograph by Steve Winter/National Geographic

The appetite for animal parts used in TCM skyrocketed in tandem with China’s expanding industrialization in the 1980s. As the country’s population approached 1.2 billion, newfound wealth and greater spending power fueled the demand as interest in traditional cures resurged: Their use garnered prestige, while maintaining old customs.

Initially, tiger parts came from huge local stockpiles. In 1950, some 4,000 South China tigers roamed the country; but at the end of that decade, as part of the People’s Republic of China’s Great Leap Forward, Mao Zedong declared the cats to be one of the four pests that threatened progress. He organized and championed eradication campaigns, and within a few years, just 1,000 remained. The remaining population dwindled and ultimately crashed. A South China tiger has not been spotted by biologists or government officials in the wild for over 35 years.

China’s stockpiles of tiger ingredients eventually ran low and beginning around 1986, the cats began to mysteriously disappear elsewhere. Professional poachers fanned out, shooting, snaring, and trapping their way across tiger range. India was a prime target, with close proximity to China—which is still, by far, the largest consumer of tiger parts and at the time, was the largest manufacturer and exporter of medicines containing tiger derivatives. In 1986, China’s People’s Daily newspaper reported that 116 factories were producing medicinal wine.

Poachers targeted locations where corruption was rife, enforcement weak, and where there were few other economic opportunities. They hired locals to hunt the cats or act as guides, then ran the parts and pelts over borders to Chinese TCM manufacturers and dealers. A huge pipeline was shipping wildlife to East Asia, especially China, the trade run by international crime syndicates—and driven by monstrous, staggering economics.

But it wasn’t until the early 1990s that field biologists and conservationists realized that TCM was responsible for what had become a precipitous decline in tiger numbers. It was a shocking seizure of tiger and leopard bones in Delhi, India in 1993 that revealed the severity of the threat and the mushrooming trade: 882 pounds of tiger and leopard bones (about 30 animals’ worth), eight tiger skins and 43 leopard skins. A Tibetan refugee arrested in the sting had agreed to supply an undercover agent with 2,200 pounds of bones—about 80 tigers.

continued next post

[GeneChing]

A brochure advertises wine made from tiger bone. Photograph courtesy IFAW.

Tigers were classified as globally endangered in 1986. The following year, a Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) treaty banned cross-border trade in tiger parts. From 1990 to 1992, China exported some 27 million units of tiger medicines and wine to 26 countries, according to TRAFFIC, a nonprofit that documents illegal wildlife trade. Tiger remedies were seen in pharmacies in Asian communities all over the world.

China formally banned domestic trade of tiger bone in 1993. The next year, some Chinese medical practitioners publicly repudiated the use and efficacy of tiger remedies; today, very few pharmacies still openly carry remedies containing tiger products. But the market slipped underground and shadowy networks still thrive. Though tiger hunting is illegal everywhere, the killing has continued, and in some places, it’s accelerated.

Prices for tigers, dead or alive, continue to soar as populations collapse. Poaching for their bones (and skins) has become a primary threat to their survival.

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A partial list of traditional medicine uses for tiger parts:

Bile: Used to treat convulsions in children

Blood: Used to strengthen the constitution and build willpower

Bone: Used as an anti-inflammatory to arthritis, rheumatism, back problems, general weakness, or headaches; also considered a powerful tonic

Brain: A treatment for laziness and pimples

Claws: A sedative for sleeplessness

Eyeballs: A treatment for malaria and epilepsy, nervousness or fevers in children, convulsions and cataracts

Fat: Prescribed for dog bites, vomiting, hemorrhoids

Feces: A cure for boils, hemorrhoids and alcoholism

Flesh: Used to treat nausea and malaria, to bring vitality and tone the stomach and spleen

Feet: Used to ward off evil spirits

Fur: Is burnt to drive away centipedes

Nose leather: Used to treat bites and other superficial wounds, for epilepsy and children’s convulsions

*****: Used as an aphrodisiac or love potion

Skin: Used to cure fever caused by ghosts and mental illness

Stomach: Prescribed for stomach upsets

Teeth: Prescribed for rabies, asthma, and genital sores

Tail: Used to cure skin diseases

Whiskers: Used to treat toothaches

(Source: KILLED FOR A CURE: A Review of the Worldwide Trade in Tiger Bone.)

Still looking for prize donations for our WildAid Tiger Claw Champion. Contact me.