We stood in the room, surrounded by walls with luxurious amethyst hues that still had an intoxicating and inspiring effect on me. It had been over a decade since I first opened the studio and now, I was closing its doors for the last time. My wife, Diana and I turned towards each other, acknowledging the bittersweet moment that was easily identifiable by the dimples of our faces turning up into smiles and the tiny welling of tears in eyes, like intricate lace doilies, laying drearily on the edge of a table.
The room was empty. The silence was deafening. But it was still full of memories, full of passion, and full of the glorious heartache that was the physical location of Tiger Crane Kung Fu: Simi Valley, California’s authentic Chinese Martial Arts Studio.
As a student of renowned Grandmasters, Y.C. Wong and Raymond K. Wong, I was fortunate to have the martial pedigree that some spend a lifetime searching for. It was with the approval and encouragement of both exemplary masters that I began teaching Kung Fu in 2003. Like any endeavor in the world of Chinese Martial Arts, the trek to attaining my own Kung Fu School would be arduous beyond belief from the base of the mountain to the peak which always seemed to grow further and further skywards beyond reach.
The Journey of A Thousand Miles
In order to achieve the goal of acquiring a following, as well as the capital to open a brick-and-mortar school, many sacrifices were made in my early 20’s. Firstly, I moved back in with my parents, which saved money but was an adjustment after enjoying the independence of a bachelor’s life for years.
Additionally, I gave up my lucrative career as an artist in the highly demanding field of Video Game Design. There was just no way that I could hope to consistently teach Kung Fu classes when during the development cycle of nearly every video game “crunch” (a brutal period where employees are mandated to work a devastating amount of overtime for weeks or months on end) would be required. So, I took part time work to allow flexibility in my schedule while I built my Kung Fu following in parks and recreation centers. In time, I moved back out on my own.
Unfortunately, one part time job was not enough to pay the bills. So, I took another job, then another, and another. Eventually I found myself working five part time jobs at seven different locations on a daily basis which bolstered my income and allowed me the flexibility to teach nightly classes but left me an exhausted husk of an aspiring Martial Arts Instructor.
On one amusing day, an individual saw me check him into the gym I worked at as a receptionist. A few hours later he saw me teaching a Tai Chi class, and later that same evening, he was surprised to see me teaching his son at a local art school.
Perplexed to see me at so many different jobs throughout the day, he asked:
“Do you have a twin brother?”
Like I said, many sacrifices were made. I continued on with this grueling hustle for another five years.
The Single Step
Eventually, I came to rent floor time at a Taekwondo Dojang (Training Hall 道場) in Simi Valley called “Flying Eagle Martial Arts” in order to teach my Kung Fu classes. My following grew, and I found myself with fully packed classes of students wishing to learn the dynamic and powerful system that is Hung Gar Kuen (Hung Family Fist 洪家拳). I enjoyed these years and would have been happy to continue the arrangement at this location but there came a time when it became too difficult to negotiate further time at the space. So, I took a deep breath, pulled money out of my savings, and put down my first and last month’s rent for the location that would become Tiger Crane Kung Fu.
Although our Grand Opening was in 2011, we actually did a soft opening in the Summer of 2010. The students were elated, and everyone pitched in creating our new home. They worked tirelessly building partition walls and painting the room in the lavender and indigo tones that would become the trademark of our school’s branding. My soon to be wife, Diana, lent her keen design sense, selecting various furnishings like green glass backsplash tiles for the bathroom sink which glittered like the iridescent shells of jewel beetles. In time, we converted what was once a local surfboard shop into our very own Martial Arts Shangri-La.
An Opening So Grand
After a full year of being in business, Tiger Crane Kung Fu held its Grand Opening on July 16th of 2011. We got special permission to hold the event in our parking lot for the whole of Simi Valley to see. It was a magical occasion that brought together nearly everyone who made up my journey from Kung Fu student to Master along with family members and friends. My students had worked so hard in preparation for the event from practicing their performance routines to their different roles in making the event a success. The camaraderie we built in the month’s leading up to the occasion was tremendous and we were buzzing with anticipation.
Guests of Honor included both Grandmasters Y.C. Wong and Raymond K. Wong, along with their respective Hung Gar Kuen and My Jong Law Horn (Lost Track Monk 迷蹤羅漢拳) lineages. Fellow Kung Fu Masters like Sifu Peter Pena from Arizona and our good friends Sifu Daniel Tomizaki and his wife, Steffani, came to celebrate. Everyone gave Kung Fu demonstrations from both Grandmasters to students and guests from other notable lineages like Jook Lum Gee Tong Long Pai (Bamboo Forest Temple Praying Mantis 江西竹林寺螳螂派) and Choy Lay Fut (蔡李佛).
But it wasn’t just what this day meant to me that was so special, it was what it meant to my Sifus. Just as a grandparent yearns to see the future that extends beyond their lifetime in the eyes of a grandchild, so do Grandmasters yearn to see the future of their life’s work set to continue in the capable hands of grand students. And it was this which was so special. To see my Sifu, Y.C. Wong giddy with excitement as he jogged back and forth to greet friends and members of our Kung Fu community, proud that his lineage was continuing to the next generation was moving beyond words.
In the years that followed, I would hold onto this memory when I would leave the studio late at night. I’d be exhausted from a full day of working a day job and a full evening of teaching Martial Arts. My mind would be concussed with stressing about how to make the next month's rent. Just as the cold night air hit the skin of my face, I’d notice a single fluorescent lamp post flickering in the parking lot’s darkness like the lonely spotlight on a stage where all the players had long since left.
In the emptiness of that singular luminescence, I’d find myself transported to that warm Summer day of the Grand Opening. I could see my Sifu smiling in his seat of honor right by the lamp post. He was smiling at being the Grandmaster of Tiger Crane Kung Fu and despite all the physical and mental aches, I would find myself smiling too. I would smile knowing that I was not done with Tiger Crane Kung Fu and that Tiger Crane Kung Fu was not done with me either. I’d start the engine of my gray Scion XA and head home for a brief rest before resuming the same routine awaiting me at daybreak.
Day In, Day Out
In the years that followed, I continued to impart the wisdom and treasures of my masters’ teachings to my students across Ventura County. Great care and time were spent in nurturing them to master the intricacies of Kung Fu and the uncompromising foundations that are the benchmark of proper Martial Arts training. I had so much to teach and at the same time, I found myself learning from them.
They would teach me by asking questions that I never pondered, forcing me to discover nuances of the arts that I had not yet tapped into. I also learned from my students when they needed advice about their personal lives and hoped that I had some sage-like wisdom for dealing with difficulties. These deep conversations would usually start with one question:
“Sifu, can I talk with you after class?”
During those talks, I would learn about their hardships like abuse, divorce, bullying, and depression. And somehow, someway, we’d talk through it. More often than not, we could find a solution, if not a path to take. It was this trust they had in me which was and still is one of the greatest honors bestowed upon me: The trust to help someone navigate the challenges of everyday life.
This cycle of learning, teacher to student and student to teacher repeated day after day, year after year, for well over a decade. It seemed like a routine was in place and despite the ever present financial challenges of maintaining a commercial school, there was some comfort in that. It appeared that like our Kung Fu, we had set foundations in place that could not be uprooted.
That is until 2020, when COVID 19 changed everything.
For Closing Doors, Open Arms: Part 2, click here.
