Taiwan Kung Fu

[brianlkennedy]

Jimbo,
Which martial arts store did you work at? The two I used to buy at most frequently were Bokaido and another one over by the Botantical Garden (I have spaced out on the second one's name, it started with "Ta---- and was owned by a set of brothers). Bokaido made outstanding judo gi--I still have and use my Bokaido gi.

take care,
Brian
p.s. what years were you there?---have we met?

[TenTigers]

speaking of Bokaido, does anyone have a good connection with them? I would like to order shuai jiao uniforms, and going through USSJA they charge 95 for jacket alone, but when we bought them directly from Bokaido, they were 65 for jacket, belt and pants. The trouble is, Bokaido only sold it to us if we walked in the door, and bought them personally,not by mail. It seems the association has a monopoly on them.

[Jimbo]

Jimbo,
Which martial arts store did you work at? The two I used to buy at most frequently were Bokaido and another one over by the Botantical Garden (I have spaced out on the second one's name, it started with "Ta---- and was owned by a set of brothers). Bokaido made outstanding judo gi--I still have and use my Bokaido gi.

take care,
Brian
p.s. what years were you there?---have we met?

Hi, Brian. The one I worked at was named Ta Chung Martial Arts Supply. It was on Nan Chang Road, near Fu Chou St. I actually worked at (or 'helped out') there around the years 1990 through 1992, closer to the end of my Taiwan period. My whole Taiwan period was in part of 1984, then from Jan. 1985 until the very end of 1992, minus the year 1987, which was spent back in the States. But we probably didn't meet; at the shop, I was usually helping out, part-time, to assemble globes for world maps in the basement, or stuffing punching bags/assembling Chinese spears in the back, or helping move supplies upstairs.

I recently went on Google(?) maps and used that 360-degree photo thingy to revisit my old haunts and "walk the streets" online in Taipei, and tried to find Ta Chung. It was gone, or at least I couldn't see it where I remembered it was.

[Faruq]

Although TKD is a Korean art, it originally was based on Shotokan karate. Also, the way TKD is taught is based along the lines of JMA, even though the current, Olympic-style TKD is several steps removed from what it once was.

TKD is also the art taught in the Taiwan military. It used to be CMA (not sure which style or styles, though; Baji??). I was told that during the 1960s or '70s, they switched to TKD because some influential man (a general? a politician?) witnessed a TKD demo and was highly impressed with the board and brick breaking, and felt it was easier to master than CMA.

As for Bak Mei Pai, it may very well be practiced in Taiwan, but I never personally saw or heard of any practitioners there.

Oh, that makes sense Jim. All these years I was thinking TKD was a Korean art. But it was actually an offshoot of Shotokan. Fascinating. Kind of like how in Pencak Silat tournament competition, the three top world powers are Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam; though Pencak Silat isn't even native to Vietnam. Does Taiwanese TKD have as much of an emphasis on aerial kicking as the Korean TKD? And how do the TKD guys do in the Taiwan Lei Tai competitions?

[Jimbo]

There's really not a lot of difference between the current TKD you'll see in Taiwan, Korea, US, etc. Most of what I saw there was WTF-style TKD, which is the type you see in Olympic-style competition. So I would imagine it's the same in Taiwan as far as any aerial kicking is concerned. The older-style TKD, like the ITF-style, was definitely more karate-like. WTF was an attempt to further "Koreanize" TKD and remove more Japanese characteristics from it.

In terms of Lei Tai competitions in Taiwan, I saw a few Taiwanese fighters who used TKD to good effect. They were not only pure TKD, but practiced a mixture of things. I knew two of the fighters from the Taiwanese team whose fighting style was the same as Sanda, but with more TKD-style kicks. Their kicks were very good and very effective, but their favorite tactic was to ultimately get in and throw you to the floor.

[Faruq]

Interesting. Thanks.