For the first installment, 2023 Tiger Claw Elite KungFuMagazine.com Championship – The Return of TCEC, click here.
For the second installment, 2023 Tiger Claw Elite KungFuMagazine.com Championship – Legend of Shaolin Warriors, click here.
I know, I know. It’s been like four months since our 2023 Tiger Claw Elite KungFuMagazine.com Championship was held. I apologize for the delay. It’s been a busy summer. As the world bounces back from the pandemic, my summertime dance card has been packed. Nevertheless, journey back with me to that brilliant May weekend in San Jose, California when sold out Legend of Shaolin Warriors show...
After our Legend of Shaolin Warriors show, I gathered my riders Christopher Pei, and Violet Li up and returned them to the San Jose Hilton, where we were all staying. After which, I stayed up way too late chatting away the night with a dear friend when I should’ve been resting up in preparation for the the main event the next day, but it had been too long since we’d seen each other.
After that way-too-late night chat, Saturday morning came brutally early. And with all the event logistics swirling in my head, my nighttime brain circus was going full blast and three rings plus trapeze. Send in those clowns. I was half awake by 4:30 AM. I had hoped to sleep until 6 AM but at least I squeezed in one solid sleep cycle.
I donned my three-piece suit, complete with a bright Jerry Garcia tie, my standard ‘battle armor’ for TCEC, but this year, I added an iron mala. Actually, it was a stainless-steel mala, but there’s an ancient legend of a demon-quelling iron mala and Bodhidharma (which I retold in Shaolin Trips - Episode One: Open Two Doors) so forgive my affectation. I wore that mala for two reasons. Firstly, it was because there are few places where I can get away with an accessory quite that ostentatious. Secondly was for my own reality check. I injured my shoulder badly last year, so bad that I was laid up in bed for a few weeks, working off my laptop. I’ve been on a neural medication ever since and have been diligently working to rehabilitate myself with qigong and yoga. It’s slowly getting better, but it’s far from healed. The mala was a check, a palpable device to remind myself not to overdo things and reinjure my lame shoulder.
I grabbed a light breakfast at 6:30 at the hotel with the Tiger Claw crew, but it had to be quick because I had to be at the venue by 7 AM. Events were scheduled until 10 PM – way too much was packed into Saturday. In our enthusiasm, we overdid it.
Saturday – External Chinese Divisions, Taekwondo, Grand Champions, and Masters’ Demo
The plan was simple – start with the First Timers and get them out of the way. Use all the available rings, judges, scorers, and timekeepers and process them quickly. There was just one rub. There were over three-hundred first timers, more than ever before. This was the biggest TCEC so far – over eight-hundred competitors competing in nearly two-thousand competitions across nearly four hundred divisions. Our partnering Tiger Claw Elite Taekwondo Championship, which also ran on Saturday, had over seven hundred competitors. Even though the competitions were spread out over the day, South Hall was packed.
On top of that, it was the smallest staff ever. We had about three-hundred-and-fifty judges and volunteers for our KungFuMagazine.com and the Taekwondo championships combined. That may seem like a lot but when faced with so many competitors, it was just barely enough. I never even got over to look at what was happening on the Taekwondo side. I like to see how they are running too, but I couldn’t break away from our Chinese divisions to sneak a peek.
But back to the First Timers, there were two miscalculations in our strategy of running them first. Firstly. our staff wasn’t quite ready that early. Secondly, the First Timers are the most clueless. And I don’t say that in a derogatory way. They are First Timers. If anyone has the right to be clueless, it’s First Timers.
The intention behind First Timers is to introduce potential competitors to the competition floor in a safe way. Competitors are scored but not ranked for first, second, and third place like with regular competitions. Everyone gets a participation trophy. The idea is to give them a taste of what it’s like. First one is free. Then ideally, they are inspired to try real competition the following year. It gives potential competitors a chance to feel what it’s like to perform in a ring and be judged by strangers. Unfortunately, instead of easing them in gently, what we gave them was a real taste of what Kung Fu tournaments can be like – pure chaos.
For a fleeting moment, I thought TCEC was about to collapse. Through my karma work as a volunteer medic at mass gatherings, I’ve been in several MCIs (an MCI is a ‘mass casualty event’). I’ve also been at concerts that collapsed for one reason or another, like bad weather or equipment failures. Consequently, I’m all too familiar with what it’s like when catastrophe strikes and causes a mass gathering falls apart.
And while TCEC didn’t approach that magnitude of disaster, there were several instances when I felt like we were teetering on the edge. Perhaps that was my own paranoia, but it was a sickening feeling. We had done so much to prepare, but to be honest, we were out of practice, and much to my dismay, I discovered several oversights that were clearly my fault. To everyone who I might have slighted, my apologies. It wasn’t intentional.
Fortunately, none of the issues were devastating. Sure, there were some missed opportunities – there always are a few – but overall, Saturday’s external divisions were successful. Our champions shined and our other participants were as satisfied as you can be when you lose. But that’s part of the game. Not everyone can win. That’s partly the point of a competition. Even the First Timers, who were guaranteed a trophy, got a genuine taste of how crazy a martial arts competition can be, so in an inappropriate way, I felt satisfied on how things turned out.
It was so busy within the Kung Fu external rings that I never even got over to the Taekwondo side, but I heard they were satisfied with their event as well. When we finally left South Hall, I was so tired, completely spent from a long arduous day of resolving tournament issues. My brain was fuzz, blurry fuzz. My throat was raw, and my neck and shoulder were sore. The Shaolin monks generously gave me some special Shaolin traditional medicine that they were offering at their TCEC booth. It was some Shicutang (飠瘯堂) lozenges and a vial of Tongbixiao Baojian Tumo (通痹消保健涂膜). I didn’t try it at the time because I’ve had bad reactions to Chinese medicine in the past. Nevertheless, I was heartened by their compassion. They also gave me a lovely mala, which I now treasure.
The Afterparty
We’ve always held an invitation-only afterparty on Saturday night. Tiger Claw provides snacks and libations, and my Dragon Crew oversees it. It is a pleasant space for our visiting masters and volunteers to relax and unwind. And it’s not exclusive. If you want to participate, just ask me at the next TCEC and I’ll be happy to share the ‘secret’ location.
My beloved Dragon Crew secures the libations and prepares everything, but this year, different Dragon Crew members oversaw libation acquisition – my dear Kung Fu brother Hoel Rainier (who I’ve dubbed Dirty Hoel after Dirty Ho, which is such a great classic Kung Fu movie that he cannot deny it) and a new member of our Dragon Crew, Peter Stoll. They both work with me as psychiatric emergency responders at music festivals, and had I been a bit more cautious, I might have realized what powerful enablers they can be. Instead of our usual selection of craft beers (which they also acquired, just not as many) they went for some top shelf liquors – single malt scotch and tequila. Few afterparty masters can resist good liquor, so everyone went right for the shots, right for the kill. Thus fueled, the afterparty raged with hysterical accounts of the day’s events and lots of joy and laughter. It was a fabulous decompression session, and a true honor to drink with so many of our very important guests once more. As the old Chinese saying goes, “sometimes a thousand drinks are not enough.”
The Afterparty went to 1:30 AM.
Sunday – Kung Fu Tai Chi Day, Mass Simplified 24 Taiji recital, Internal Divisions, Shaolin Duanpin, and the 1st Heavy Guandao Championship
Sunday began somewhat similarly to Saturday – another early morning after a long late night, but I didn’t need to formally suit up. I did need to load out of my room but that was easy enough (I travel light). Sunday is always more mellow. It’s the competition day for the internal styles, which draw far fewer competitors, plus some showcase events. Additionally, there’s no Taekwondo so half of South Hall is empty.
We held our opening ribbon-cutting ceremony again, which I discussed in my coverage of the previous TCEC’s Sunday. I’ve come to think of this odd Kung Fu Tai Chi Day ritual as translation error, an artifact of when Kung Fu Tai Chi Day was first declared in 2012 by the City of San Jose. Records of ribbon-cutting ceremonies go back to the late 19th century, but they symbolize new beginnings and now that Kung Fu Tai Chi Day is over a decade old, it’s superfluous. Gigi Oh, our publisher emeritus, still insists that Chinese masters like it, but even that is a bit weird because we invite well over a dozen cutters, all our visiting masters and notable supporters, each with their own pair of scissors, when traditionally there is typically only one cutter with one pair of ritual scissors. But whatev, right? I’ll participate when invited because why not?
I also like to participate in our Mass Simplified 24 Taiji recital, and I rally some of my Dragon Crew to accompany me. This year, only one of us bothered to review the form beforehand, and that was our Dragon Crew newbie, John Larson. The rest of us just followed the people around us. We all practice Tai Chi, although most of my Lam Kwoon siblings practice Sun Tai Chi, which is quite different than the Simplified 24. I totally failed at the first recital. Note to self – if I’m going to follow someone else through a form, I should follow someone who knows it better than I do. My second recital was more centered. My friend, Violet Li, caught a nice photo of John and me during this and published it for her delightful report on TCEC - What A Tremendous Victory!. I’m glad she captured us when we looked like we knew what we were doing.
The Internal competition ran much more smoothly than the day before. I was more focused on the special showcase events because those are my babies.
The WildAid Tiger Claw Championship drew a good turnout once again. WildAid usually sends a few volunteer representatives, but their San Francisco office experienced some of downsizing due the pandemic. I was very proud that my daughter Tara stepped up and volunteered for WildAid (and my TCEC Dragon Crew) to represent WildAid. She did some volunteer work for WildAid back when she was in elementary school, and helped at Kung Fu Tai Chi Day back when we were in Plaza de Cesar Chavez Park a few years back. I suppose the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree because she’s always been passionate about WildAid’s mission. And like I said, the WildAid Tiger Claw Championship was one of my babies at TCEC.
The other baby this year was the Heavy Guandao Championship. As I mentioned in my first installment of this year’s TCEC trilogy, this event has been percolating since our original Championship that was cancelled by the pandemic.
I stage these unique showcase events because as a publisher, it can be challenging to report on tournaments in a colorful way. Beyond the results, the blow-by-blow commentary doesn’t quite work in the same way that it might for a typical sporting event (by the way, if you’re interested, you’ll find all the 2023 Tiger Claw Elite KungFuMagazine.com Championship results here). What’s more, I’m all about the diversity within Chinese martial arts, and here is a platform that I can manipulate to showcase that very thing. We’ve staged many variations – a Dog style competition for Year of the Dog, a Drunken style competition, and others. Now, I just said that this year’s TCEC reports are a trilogy, but in fact, there is another feature coming that is exclusively covering the Heavy Guandao Championship. This event produced one of the best stories ever and that will be an epilogue to this year’s trilogy. Stay tuned…
The final event was the Shaolin Duanpin. Ordinarily being a Shaolin disciple, I’d have engaged that more, but I was way too spent. I watched a little of the workshop but left for home before the exams. Due to my exhaustion, I was having incoherent conversations with people, and that’s not good in the martial world.
Epilogue
It took me several days to recover from TCEC 2023, much longer than in years past. I don’t know why. Maybe I’m still recovering from the trauma of the pandemic. Maybe I’m out of practice. Maybe I’m just getting older. Probably all of these things and more…
The following Monday, I noticed I had a scraped and bruised right ring-finger-knuckle. I had no memory of getting that. Did I hit someone? No, the scrape is in the wrong place. What the heck? A few days later, I was texting with a Tai Chi friend on another matter, and he said we said ‘hi’ on Sunday at TCEC. I completely forgot that. In my defense, it was late Sunday, and he was wearing a mask.
But despite all my bellyaching, TCEC 2023 was a lot of fun. It was so wonderful to reconnect with the Wulin, something I need to do regularly in my life. Touching base with the Chinese martial arts community is always so reaffirming and inspiring for my own personal practice.
If anything, the pandemic taught me a hard lesson about impermanence. Losing the print mag was impermanence. Gatherings like our Tiger Claw Elite Championships are impermanent too. Will there be a 2024 TCEC? Like I said, the prices of everything skyrocketed during the pandemic. They call it ‘fun-flation’, but it kills any profit from staging an event like a martial arts tournament. Fortunately, the increase in attendance covered the increase in tournament expenses, but it didn’t cover the time spent by Tiger Claw staff in preparation and execution. We have yet to discuss the potential for next year, but some preliminary informal chats have already identified some major changes that might have to happen for TCEC to continue. We’ll find out more soon, and I’ll let you know.
Until that time…
