R.I.P. Huang 師 父!

R.I.P. Huang 師 父!
Huang Weilun has died.  A really spectacular man, martial artist, and teacher has passed from our art.  As Huang Chien-Liang told me some years back, "LaoMa, cannot retire martial art, only...die!"  Ding YeYe taught classes right up to the end of his 91st year, Jou Tsung Hwa died while taking a break from teaching a workshop at his T'ai Chi Farm.  If I could order my entrance into the Celestial Abode of the Eight Drunken Immortals it would have to be in similar style and fashion.  Huang Weilun has left this ball of dirt too soon, but he left doing his art!

One of the great benefits of being able to judge in 18 years of tournaments was the opportunity to meet, play with, learn from, break bread with, to just enjoy the many great people who live and love the Martial Arts of China.  One such great player was Huang Weilun.  I had the wonderful pleasure of doing all these memorable things, as well as joining him and others in the "Masters' Demonstrations" segment of the annual A Taste of China Tournament, where he performed such spectacular Forms as Liuhebafaquan (a piece of one such demo linked here below), and "Fast Yang-style Taijiquan."  I judged his beautiful and talented wife, and was readying for a trip, with friend and acupuncturist, Tracy Peck, to Grand Teton Mountains to train Liuhebafa a summer some 25 years ago.  A family medical emergency diverted that trip, as it turns out now, forever.  A regret I now hold in my heart, along with unanswered questions meant for Jou Tsung Hwa, that can only be revisited around a brazier and drained wine cups, at a later date for me, in the Abode of Celestials.  Huang Weilun entered my life for the briefest of times but left an indelible imprint.  He has done likewise for countless thousands of others.  Greatness, a learned sage once wrote, is to touch and be remembered beyond a small circle of friends and family.  Huang Weilun will be long remembered...!

https://masterhuangweilun.shutterfly.com/