For The Silk Road Kung Fu Friendship Tour Part 4, click here.

July 24 – 26, 2015 – Days 10 and 11

Interview with Shifu Mike Adams that teaches private classes in Wing Chun and Tai Chi in Almaty

Introduction
Kazakhstan is a very large country and the world’s largest landlocked nation. It borders Russia, China, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan. It has extensive, huge reserves of oil, gas, uranium, chromium, lead, zinc, copper, coal, iron, gold, and diamonds and that’s not all. The list goes on. In the future, Kazakhstan may become one of the richest countries in the world, a new Saudi Arabia, or something like that. With a total population of slightly less than 16 million, it’s a nation with lots of room for growth. In 2009, 63.1% of the population was ethnic Kazakhs, with ethnic Russians representing another 23.7% of the total. Almaty is along the direct line of the North Silk Road.

 

The Road
It was a pretty and rugged road from Urumqi to Almaty here consisting of a 27 hour bus ride starting at 7:00 pm in Urumqi with lots of stops along the way. The ride was on a “sleeper bus” that had bunk beds instead of seats.

When I woke around 6:00 am, I was greeted by very magical green mountains with fabulous skyway bridges above me - believe it or not - and long elegant tunnels that boggled the mind. It was right out of a science-fiction movie. I also saw real cowboys tending herds of cows and sheep in lush deep green mountain valleys. It seemed idyllic, right out of a storybook. Western Xinjiang is amazing. Around noon, we encountered the border crossing that was rather hot and crowded. But I have to say the Kazakh Immigration officer was efficient, polite and professional which is always a relief. That took till three or so, and was followed by seven more hours driving along a rather bumpy, twisting, turning road. For fans of roller coasters it would be a blast. We arrived in Almaty around 10 pm.

Basically I had two “hookups” on Kung Fu before I got here. One was through the Olympic Committee which is in charge of sports, including Kung Fu, Taekwondo, etc. and the other was a semi-retired American expat living the dream here in Almaty I met on the Internet researching Kung Fu in Almaty.

But, before diving into the interviews, it seems nice to put a little more background context on this story. With a population around two million Almaty is the big city, and riding in the taxi going to the hotel that first night, I noticed it sure looks modern with lots of expensive cars driving around and all the major international brand names of virtually everything available in large ultra-modern malls. This is no “backwoods” place; it’s a prosperous modern city in most respects. But, that said, not a whole lot of people speak English and if one wants to read signs for shops, restaurants and menus, it’s a good idea to brush up on ones’ Cyrillic, as Kazak language and Russian are the big two spoken here. English comes in a distant third. The majority of people here are at least nominally Muslim, but one is far more likely to see men and women wearing shorts than in Urumqik, which is a bit more conservative. I even saw one or two men wearing tank top shirts so it’s pretty liberal, at least in some respects. But most important to me, it was a major Silk Road stop and has thousands of years of history.

Oh! I feel compelled to mention one other “first impression” of Almaty. This is the first time in many years I saw a lot of muscle cars and the first time in years I’ve heard a lot of wheels squealing. These guys love their cars.

First this morning I went out to buy some fruit and there met a nice lady named “Aika” that speaks English also buying fruit. I found out she’s a Graduate student specializing in English and Turkish and hopes to become a professional translator. Who says there’s no God?

I got her to call the phone number Aslan – at the Kazakh Olympic Committee - gave me for a Kung Fu club in Almaty, and she got the address and set up an appointment for tomorrow evening, not terribly surprising because today is Friday, and who the heck really wants to work on the Day of Prayer in the Muslim world?

Then I called Shifu Mike Adams who’s an American that teaches private classes in Wing Chun and Tai Chi here.

We met with Mike about an hour later at the “Green Market” which fortunately is right across the street from my budget “Turkistan Hotel.” Aika had to take off then, with many thanks I wished her well.

Urumqi to Almaty Kazakhstan: Yurts, Traditional dwelling of the ancient Turkik grasslands peoples.

 

Mike Adam’s Tai Chi and Wing Chun Kung Fu in Almaty

For me, it was pretty nice to meet up with an American as I’ve been living in East Asia for the last almost 15 years, and actually most of the time since 1992. (Though my school in Beijing has other foreign teachers, they all live in an on-campus dorm whereas I choose to live off-campus in a regular apartment to get the full-flavor and experience of living in China. My school is quite large and I rarely see the other foreigners except in the rare faculty meetings.)

After meeting with him at the Green Market he took me to a pretty darned good café which I badly needed as I was a bit tired of the instant I usually make in my hotel rooms. After sitting down and some small talk he started to tell me his story.

Mike’s Kung Fu journey started way back when he was 25 living in Connecticut (he’s in his late 50s now). Inspired by a variety of martial art magazines he started training in Tai Chi at a school which later on in 1984-1985 transformed into “Footloose Aerobic and Tai Chi.” I remember a great Shorin-Ryu Karate called: “Ki Mind and Body” that changed into “The Body Shop,” in the mid-eighties. I knew and liked the owners, but they had to follow the money and the money was following the national trends.

He commented on, and then we reminisced on how fighting arts training in the U.S were in many places hijacked during the mid-eighties into “Yuppie arts” featuring designer gym clothes and the more physical side of training. He discussed the philosophical meanings of Ying Yang and its role in Tai Chi and emphasized the importance of “Original Intent” in thinking and action, and mentioned that in some ways the rise of the MMA movement now is reminiscent of the New Age Movement of the 1980s with all the emphasis on winning.

He said that in Kazakhstan there wasn’t too much emphasis on Kung Fu, but boxing was/is the most popular sport. He distinguished between sports (win/lose approach) and martial arts where in training both people win. He also discussed the meaning of “Kung Fu life” which implies a holistic unified approach to training and life.

Asking about how he got into Wing Chun he said it was in Naples Italy that he started classes. Unfortunately he had a rather serious elbow injury during that time and had to quit for a while, but kept up his Tai Chi training.

Later on in Honduras, he met Tom Chi and trained with Roberto Contreres, who learned acupuncture in Taiwan and Beijing. He mentioned having reached a plateau in his training which ended when he saw some videos on YouTube by Earl Montague, an Australian that taught Yang Style Tai Chi and talked about for example the Reptilian Brain, and a philosophy of “don’t wait.” “He’s a great guy,” Mike said, “When I called him from Honduras he answered and talked with me – a complete stranger - for quite a while, sharing a lot of resources that lifted me out of that plateau to a new level of understanding in martial arts.” Mike also discussed the importance of the “state of Song” or looseness and how that’s different from simple “relaxation,” for martial arts.

At this point along his path, Mike started back with Wing Chun and began training at a school in the Catskills Mountains of New York. “Tom Chi noticed that I favored my right arm and took me into his office. With a combination of massage and needles, he fixed the elbow injury I’d been living with for years, in an hour.”

Later on in Philadelphia, Mike says he became more involved with the Moi Yat family via Jay Hitchman attending seminars and other classes with Dr. Pete Pajil, a Pilipino who he described as his Sigung or Kung Fu grandfather – a descendant of Moi Yat and before him Yip Man.

Mike quoted Samual Kwok, “Other styles emphasize ‘hit, wait.’ In Wing Chun, the philosophy is hit, hit, hit. A smaller weaker person can defeat a stronger bigger person.” Mike also repeatedly emphasized the importance of stance, and made an interesting illustration of the knight’s use of a lance held across his body, wherein the horse and lance become part of and a foundation for the body. Several times during our interview he jumped up to illustrate his points and the fluidity and precision of his movements proved to me that he is a master worthy of respect.

Though boxing and wrestling are the favorite sports practiced in Kazakhstan, Mike’s private Kung Fu classes offer Almaty locals a broad, rich background in the philosophy and training of the internal styles of Tai Chi and Wing Chun styles. Before parting for the evening he agreed to help me find the Kung Fu school recommended by Aslan – at the Kazakh Olympic Committee the next day, as he also was rather curious about it.

After this interview, I wandered around the “Green Market,” for a while, a nice place with tons of fabulous things for sale at quite reasonable prices, including Kazakhstan T-shirts and hats. For lunch, I had something like a gyro sandwich which was out-of-this-world delicious. Then I had the evening free, changed some of my Chinese RMB into U.S. Dollars, washed the great sports shirt given to me at Xian Sports University , typed some notes, edited some photos, did some yoga stretches and otherwise basically relaxed a little, something I don’t often do.

For The Silk Road Kung Fu Friendship Tour Part 6, click here.

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About Greg Brundage :
As a boy going to schools in different countries, Gregory Brundage (AKA Shi Long) had to fight a lot. At age 12 he started Judo, and after that Wushu. Since then he's fought in more than 300 martial arts tournaments. He's worked at a variety of jobs, ranging from farming and construction work to university lecturer. He is currently a teacher in Beijing.

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