Hot Tai Chi Champions

[GeneChing]

China's 'hottest Kung Fu fighter': Super-toned martial arts world champion, 31, becomes a fashion star
Ye Yongxiang, from Shanghai, is the sixth-generation heir to Yang Style Tai Chi
She has risen to fame in the Far East after promoting martial arts on social media
The 5ft 2in beauty has frequented glossy magazines and is now a fashion star
By Tracy You For Mailonline

PUBLISHED: 10:23 EST, 8 January 2018 | UPDATED: 10:38 EST, 8 January 2018

With her glowing skin, perfect complexion and stylish outfits, Ye Yongxiang might look like a fashion model.

In fact, the 31-year-old is a world-class Kung Fu fighter whose daily companions include swords, blades and rods.

The Shanghai-born London-educated Tai Chi teacher has amazed the internet with her ripped body and is now a new fashion icon in the Far East.


New icon: Ye Yongxiang, a 31-year-old Kung Fu teacher, has become a fashion icon in China


Dangerous beauty: Yongxiang the sixth-generation heir to the Yang Style Tai Chi and a world champion Tai Chi expert. She has been teaching martial arts to young people on social media


If looks could kill... The 31-year-old is a martial arts teacher whose daily companions include swords, blades and rods. She said she hopes to revive traditional Tai Chi among young people


Practice makes perfect: Born to a family of Tai Chi masters in Shanghai, Yongxiang joked that she started practising Tai Chi when she was still in her mother's womb


Top-notch Kung Fu fighter: Yongxiang won three gold medals - in Tai Chi boxing, Tai Chi blade and Tai Chi sword - at the Hong Kong International Martial Arts Festival in 2014

The 5ft 2in beauty has frequented glossy magazines in China and been dubbed 'the hottest Kung Fu fighter'.

Yongxiang is the sixth-generation heir to the Yang Style Tai Chi, a prominent school of Tai Chi dating back to around 1840.

Born to a family of Tai Chi masters in Shanghai, Yongxiang joked that she started practising Tai Chi when she was still in her mother's womb.

She said: 'My mum is crazy about martial arts. She is the fifth-generation heir to Yang Style. She learned Tai Chi from her mother, who was the fourth-generation heir.'

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[GeneChing]

Popular: Yongxiang has gathered more than 110,000 followers on Weibo, the Chinese equivalent to Twitter, after starting to promote Tai Chi. Above are two pictures of her on Weibo


Yongxiang hopes to correct the common misconception that Tai Chi is a slow and boring exercise belonging only to pensioners. She stressed that Tai Chi could be fierce and competitive and it could also involve lethal weapons such as swords


Yongxiang's stylish looks have also attracted the attention of various fashion magazines

Yongxiang said her mother, 62-year-old Chen Tieling, started learning Tai Chi at the age of 14.

However during 1960s and 1970s, China was going through turbulent times and citizens were discouraged from pursuing non-Communist ethos. As a result, her mother, a Kung Fu world champion, was allocated by the authority to work as a vegetable seller at a farmers' market.

That didn't stop Tieling from passing her sword to her daughter. Yongxiang started practising Tai Chi boxing skills at home with her mother from three years old. A tiny Yongxiang had to wield a two-metre-long bamboo rod as she learnt to fight.

In 2004, Yongxiang was enrolled into the Shanghai Sports Academy to further her training. She also started working as her mother's assistant to provide private Tai Chi lessons.

Upon graduation in 2008, Yongxiang began teaching Tai Chi by herself, hoping to spread the traditional sport to millions of young office workers.

She won three gold medals - in Tai Chi boxing, Tai Chi blade and Tai Chi sword - at the Hong Kong International Martial Arts Festival in 2014.


Yongxiang and her mother, Chen Tieling, practise Kung Fu while wearing traditional Chinese robes. Yongxiang started learning Tai Chi at home with her mother from three years old


Yongxiang's mother, Chen Tieling, started learning Tai Chi at the age of 14 and is the disciple of Tai Chi master Fuzhongwen. Tieling is 'crazy about martial arts' as Yongxiang described


Yongxiang poses with her gold medal and her mother after winning the Shanghai JingWu Traditional Taichi Competition in 2013. In 2014, she became a world champion in Tai Chi

With more than 110,000 followers on Weibo, the Chinese equivalent to Twitter, Yongxiang posts short videos and stunning photographs regularly on her account to spark the public's interest in Tai Chi.

Having taught Tai Chi for 13 years, Yongxiang hopes to correct the common misconception that Tai Chi is a slow and boring exercise belonging only to pensioners.

Yongxiang argued: 'Who says Tai Chi can't be young, elegant and fashionable?'

She stressed that Tai Chi could be fierce and competitive and it could also involve lethal weapons such as swords.

Yongxiang said she had received doubts about her being a Tai Chi heir and teacher as a young woman - many people in China still believe only senior men could be real Kung Fu masters.

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[GeneChing]

When Yongxiang is not practising Tai Chi, she is a modern and fashionable woman. The martial arts teacher is pictured chilling out during a beach holiday in Thailand


Yongxiang rose to fame after posting pictures of herself doing Tai Chi on the Great Wall


Her efforts in teaching and promoting the traditional Chinese sport has gained her high praise


Yongxiang was born to a family of Tai Chi masters in Shanghai in 1986. She has been heavily influenced by her mother and continued to practise Kung Fu throughout her school years

Determined Yongxiang wanted to prove that Tai Chi can be excelled by free-spirited, chic and ambitious women like herself.

Her efforts have paid off. Her studio in Shanghai has been brimmed with young 'white collar' office workers who wish to learn the Tai Chi philosophy and routines.

Yongxiang is also looking to expand her Tai Chi kingdom to the West.

After having studied humanities at the Queen Mary University of London, the Kung Fu teacher is due to move to the British Capital in 2018 to marry her British fiance.

She said she would start providing Tai Chi lessons online and devote herself to promoting Tai Chi to more people outside of China.

WHAT IS THE YANG STYLE TAI CHI
The Yang Style Tai Chi was established by Yang Luchan, a martial arts master from the late Qing Dynasty.

Master Yang was born in Hebei Province in 1799 and was said to have learnt Tai Chi in secret when he worked as a servant at the Chen family.

The Chen family had invented the Chen Style Tai Chi but refused to teach their skills to anyone whose surname was not Chen.


Yongxiang's mother Chen Tieling is the fifth-generation heir to Yang Style Tai Chi. She is pictured pushing hands with Fu Zhongwen, the fourth-generation heir, in 1991

However, Yang Luchan's devotion moved Chen Changxing, the sixth-generation heir of the Chen Style. Master Chen decided to accept Yang Luchan as a disciple and teach his Tai Chi techniques to him.

After learning Tai Chi for about 18 years, Yang Luchan's Kung Fu was said to be so powerful that he was nicknamed the 'no enemy Yang'. At around 1840, Master Yang was invited to teach Tai Chi in Beijing to the members of imperial family.

He streamlined the routines to make them more suitable for his students who often had weak health and had to wear cheongsam and keep long braided hair - thus creating his own Yang Style Tai Chi.

I'm hoping Ms. Ye starts a trend in Tai Chi. Then this thread can grow.

[GeneChing]

Meet ‘China’s Hottest Kung Fu Fighter’
By Carl Samson Posted on January 9, 2018



A Kung Fu teacher in China is winning hearts on social media through her amazing physique and stylish looks.



Ye Yongxiang, 31, is the sixth generation heir to the Yang Style Tai Chi, one of the most prominent Chinese martial arts.



But after appearing in fashion magazines across the country, Ye, who stands at 5 feet 2 inches tall, has also been dubbed “China’s hottest Kung Fu fighter.”



Born in Shanghai, Ye started learning tai chi boxing skills at the age of 3.



She first trained under her mother, Chen Tieling, who had her wield a 2-meter-long (6.5-foot-long) bamboo rod as a small child.



She entered Shanghai Sports Academy in 2004. Four years later, she began teaching Tai Chi to others.



Ye would be making a name for herself in the years to come. By 2014, she took home three gold medals in Tai Chi boxing, Tai Chi blade and Tai Chi sword at the Hong Kong International Martial Arts Festival.



She has also taken her Tai Chi life to Weibo, where she now has at least 116,000 followers.



In her posts, Ye can be seen wielding blades, rods and swords.

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[GeneChing]

“Who says Tai Chi can’t be young, elegant and fashionable?” the Daily Mail quoted her as saying.



After studying humanities at the Queen Mary University of London, Ye plans to marry her British boyfriend.



She also plans to spread Tai Chi outside of China through online lessons.



What do you think of “China’s hottest Kung Fu fighter?”

A derivative article, but there are some more pix. Especially that last one.