Chin Woo Athletic Association: Difference between revisions

Chin Woo Athletic Association

精武體育會
Formation	July 7, 1910 (1910-07-07)
Founder	Huo Yuanjia
Location	China

Chin Woo Athletic Association (simplified Chinese: 精武体育会; traditional Chinese: 精武體育會; pinyin: Jīngwǔ Tǐyùhuì) is an international martial arts organization founded in Shanghai, China, on July 7, 1910, but some sources cite dates in 1909. It has almost over 80 branches based in 30 or more countries worldwide, where it is usually known as an "athletic association" or "federation".

History

Jing Wu was founded as the Jing Wu Athletic Association in Shanghai, China in the early 20th century. Many sources, including the official websites of its branches in various countries, claim that Jing Wu was founded by the martial artist Huo Yuanjia, who died not long after its establishment. Jing Wu was actually founded by a committee of persons, including members of the Tongmenghui, such as Chen Qimei, Nong Zhu, and Chen Tiesheng. Due to Huo's popularity and recent death, the committee had decided that he should be the "face" of Jing Wu, resulting in his strong association with it.

As one of the first public martial arts institutes in China, Jing Wu was intended to create a structured environment for teaching and learning martial arts as opposed to the secretive training that had been common in the past. The founders of Jing Wu felt that the association would keep alive traditions that secrecy and social change would otherwise doom. The basic curriculum drew from several styles of martial arts, giving practitioners a well-rounded martial background in addition to whatever they wished to specialize in. Jing Wu inspired the ecumenism seen in the Chinese martial arts community during the Republican era, giving rise to such efforts as the National Martial Arts Institutes. Sun Yat-sen, founder of the Republic of China, attended the third annual event held by Jing Wu in 1915, giving a speech of encouragement to the attendees. When Sun Yat-sen attended again at the 10th annual event in 1920, he also wrote for a special Jing Wu newsletter and made a plaque with the engraving "martial spirit".

During the period of the Japanese sphere of influence, the Twenty-One Demands sent to the government of the Republic of China resulted in two treaties with Japan on 25 May 1915. This prevented the ruling class from exercising full control over the commoners. With their new freedom, Huo's students purchased a new building to serve as the organization's headquarters and named it "Jing Wu Athletic Association". The association accepted new styles of martial arts other than those taught by Huo. In 1918, Jing Wu Athletic Association opened a branch at Nathan Road in Hong Kong.

Problems with USA Chin Woo Federation

While every Federation under the Chin Woo has had their own fair share of issues, the most well-known and prolific one is the Chin Woo Federation in the United States. Speareheaded and led by Grandmaster Jimmy Wong or otherwise known as Jimmy K. Wong, under the brand of his own academy, J.K. Wong Kung Fu Tai Chi Academy. Established in the early 1980s in the Dallas county area within Texas where both the Federation and academy gained gradual fame and recognition over the proceeding decades.

The USA Chin Woo Federation made their mark in the DFW Metroplex as a performance group that does lion dancing as a niche with its name under Grandmaster Jimmy Wong's academy. Making strides in the local entertainment industries with a lion dancing routine that every local lion dance groups use since the early 2000s. Having much of their brand and influence growing in Texas, seeping in and branching over to multiple states such as Oklahoma and Louisiana with the local casinos.

On the other hand, it lead several different tournaments under the name of Chin Woo. Drawing in multiple people from different branches of the world, different kung-fu organizations beyond Chin Woo, and local kung-fu schools to test their mettle and become well-known martial artists both nationally and worldwide.

Problems begin to arise in the early 2010s as its influence as a performance group first and Chin Woo Federation second began to reach its natural limits and peak. With the academy's performance team being composed out of volunteers and the ever-increasing demands for lion dancing in Texas, the Federation began to suffer from poor management of its leader, Jimmy Wong.

The sheer volume of both team-size and performances caused Jimmy Wong to demand more commitment to the team with little to no incentive and reward outside of comradery and kinship. While his team's sheer size allowed his group to schedule more performances, the amount of commitment and investment on a personal scale for his performers were overwhelmingly negative where most of his performers had no personal free time to themselves.

More problems arose within both the USA Chin Woo Federation and his academy, both internally and externally. Such as his lack of commitment as a leader and grandmaster, his poor management skills and personality, his abuse towards both his instructors and students, and his drive to maintain his fame and recognition at the cost of other people's personal lives.

His lack of commitment was present at both his Federation and academy. Barely teaching at his own school unless it was a special pay-to-attend lesson and classes either at his school or other schools both in Texas and internationally. Leaving most of the school curriculum in the hands of his instructors with wildly lackluster results. Any attempts to remedy the curriculum often resulted in consistently low retention rates and verbal abuse to his instructors.

His abuse toward both his instructors and students have caused some of them to leave both his academy and Federation permanently as he was known to go out of his way to both lie and manipulate others in a way that traumatized and caused problems to those he affected. Providing advice that is generally harmful in due time, encouraging negative traits, and enabling everyone to be at their worst. Worst of all, willingly going out of his way to manipulate and groom some of his students with less than stellar backgrounds into people who are incapable of living normally unless they come to his school and organization. This seeped into his poor management of logistics of both his academy and Federation and interpersonal relationships of his students, causing them to turn against each other and him.

This extended to his performance group and the tournaments his Federation hosts, manipulating and gaslighting others in believing they were wanted and belonged with his brand of Chin Woo when in reality, it was all about getting them to making his brand survive at the cost of their personal lives. This affected the development of sub-branches to USA Chin Woo, as Jimmy saw any groups regardless if they're led by his own students or not as competition no matter their goals and intentions. Shutting them down and spreading bad word of mouth of them, fearing they would threaten his livelihood.

This eventually lead to him purposely recruiting and maintaining a manipulative relationship with most of his students, most notably a man named Hahn Yeung who either goes by Hahn Lee Yeung or Lee Hahn. With Jimmy's need to maintain roster count, this led to him personally ruining and destroying Hahn's life, using his poor living circumstances to manipulate him into believing he was wanted and loved in the school. But in actuality, Jimmy had made it his mission to make sure Hahn had no emotional development or support, turning him into a manchild who was desperate enough to develop stalker tendencies towards children; often victimizing anyone he nears.

Hahn's lack of proper development lead to Jimmy putting restrictions on who he can talk to, who he can be "friends" with, limiting his access to the academy in fears that he would cause problems with both children and parents. Eventually, Jimmy made the poor choice of going out of his way to defend Hahn from people who had legitimate issues at the school no matter how nonsensical and damaging it was to both his school and the USA Chin Woo Federation.

Jimmy often had people who were incompatible with each other become friends with each other. The most common results were often ones that ended up causing tensions and problems between the students, especially anything regarding Hahn.

This caused him to deploy tactics aimed and geared at gatekeeping other schools and performance groups from developing any further until mid to late 2010s. Tarnishing both the names and reputations of those who trusted him, resulting in USA Chin Woo Federation losing a foothold in both Texas and in the United States, and his academy losing both its performers and students. With his school and thus USA Chin Woo Federation as a whole losing it all, the lack presence helped local teams in developing themselves and establishing positive relationships with each other.

Eventually, losing all the manpower and resources to personally host tournaments in the States. Resulting in the mainland Chin Woo Federation is hosting it themselves overseas.

Many people found out that not only does he not care about Chin Woo and the federation he built under its name, but that he is using its name for self-interest to enhance his school.

Any negative reviews in regards of both his school and organization were both suppressed and targeted by him and just students, causing the fame and recognition he garnered to be thrown out the window, and both students and instructors as collateral damage. Any attempts to remedy have but failed due his aggressiveness and sheer brutality in maintaining the status quo he had established since then.

Bibliography

• Morris, Adam (2004). Marrow of the Nation: A History of Sport and Physical Culture in Republican China. The University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-24084-7.
• Kennedy, Brian; Elizabeth Guo (2005). Chinese Martial Arts Training Manuals: A Historical Survey. Berkeley, California: North AtlanticBooks. ISBN 1-55643-557-6.
• Yandle, Robert (2010) 'Jingwu Athletic Association - 100 Years'. Beckett Media. Dallas, Texas (ISBN 978-189251535-3)