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James Chin, a martial artist, practices one of the Yang style 24 form tai chi chuan movements at the RAC-C inside Campus Building B on Nov. 25.

Martial artist fights for Chinese culture

By: Rie Nakanishi

Posted: 12/4/08

More than a decade.

That's how long it took James Chin, a martial artist who works for Spartan Shops, to get promoted to black belt.

But the black belt he earned through the years of hard training now sleeps somewhere in his closet with his other "general kung fu memorabilia."

"In this modern day and age, a black belt doesn't mean anything," Chin said. "Black belts

hold up my pants. You can go buy one for $4.95. (Martial arts) is what's in your heart, how much time commitment you put into
your training."

IT RUNS IN THE FAMILY

Chin, who is not a student, is a martial artist with more than 35 years of kung fu training experience, specializing in northern Shaolin long fist, swai jiao and tai chi chuan.

Gong Chen, an activity coordinator at SJSU's kinesiology department and a tai chi instructor, wrote in an e-mail that Chin is a well-known figure in the field of Chinese martial arts in this area.

"He has a very positive attitude toward Chinese martial arts and tai chi and he has been promoting both on campus and in the community," Chen said.

Chin is a martial artist who holds a seventh-degree black belt, but he's not the typical Chinese master depicted in Hollywood movies - characters who are as hard as flint and wooden.

"He is an easygoing person and students feel comfortable working with him," Chen said. "He is willing to take his time to help other people."

Born in New York City, Chin grew up in a martial arts family. He had a great uncle who was a martial artist. His father's brother was a bodyguard for former President of Taiwan Chiang Kai-shek, Chin said.

Being exposed to martial arts culture at a young age, there was no doubt that he wanted to learn one of the important elements that defines the Chinese culture.

"I'm pretty much a fourth-generation martial artist," Chin said. "I was pretty fortunate in that I grew into a family that had a martial arts background."

LEARNING TO TEACH

Although Chin said he realized that he wanted to learn martial arts, he didn't start learning until he was 18 years old. His top priority, he said, was always education.

He first started training northern Shaolin long fist kung fu in New York, where he learned traditional martial arts breathing, meditation and fighting techniques.

In Chinese culture, masters introduce good students to another master to further their martial arts skills, he said.

Following that tradition, a Shaolin master referred him to Grand Master Jeng Hsing Ping, who taught swai jiao. Swai jiao is a form of martial arts that is taught exclusively for self-defense purposes in police academies in Taiwan for both officers and civilians. It encompasses throwing, kicking, striking and joint-locking techniques.

All students attending the police school must get a black belt before they graduate or stay until they can.

"My training with him was quite eventful," Chin said.

He trained three times a week while attending other martial arts lessons.

"Sundays were from 10 o'clock in the morning to four in the afternoon," Chin said. "No breaks except when we had to go to bathroom or drink some water."

During those six hours, he said he did throwing and combat fighting, one hour for joint locking and one hour for whatever he liked to work on.

"(Martial arts) is not the power, speed or showing off," Chin said. "People train their minds - that's what martial arts does."

In 1986, he founded his own kung fu academy in New York. In the late '90s, he moved to California, where he continues teaching martial arts to this day. He has his own academy in Pleasant Hill, where he teaches three styles of kung fu to his students between 5 and 58 years old.

David Yee, one of Chin's students, who mainly studies Shaolin, said Chin is a big influence in his martial arts philosophy.

"Sifu Chin is very different from kung fu masters, at least I've seen or known," he said. "A lot of martial arts schools these days … quite frankly, it's business," Yee said.

But Chin has an attitude that "I'm not here just to teach (martial arts) as business. I want to pass on the arts, pass on these traditions."

Yee said it is important for Chinese culture that Chin practices and teaches traditional martial arts, instead of wushu, which is more of a performance-oriented kung fu.

"I see that Sifu Chin is very valuable to the culture because he's preserving traditional kung fu," he added.

Chin doesn't believe in charging people for teaching martial arts.

"In good conscience, I don't feel it's appropriate to charge people $100 or more a month," Chin said. "If you want to learn from my culture, I'll teach you."

TAI CHI CHUNG

He has been offering tai chi chuan class, yang style 24 form, twice a week to all SJSU Campus Village residents as well as housing faculty and staff free of charge from Oct. 30 to Dec. 18. Yang style is a simplified
taijiquan.

"Tai chi is an element of kung fu," Chin said. "Most people learning tai chi now don't understand that it's martial arts. They think it's an exercise for health."

In Chinese culture, tai chi was originally developed as a martial art, not as a sport or health exercise.

"(People) learn tai chi for health, which is fine," he said. "But if you learn tai chi for health, you are still missing a part of it."

He exemplified a similarity in people learning all of the alphabet, but not knowing how to form a word using letters.

"It's like someone taught you the alphabets, all 26 letters in a right order, which is great," he said. "But can you form words?"

As a tai chi instructor, the first thing he asks new students is their purpose of learning tai chi because he doesn't want to waste either their time or his, Chin said.

"If you want to learn the exercise, I'll teach the movement. If you want (to learn) for health, I'll teach breathing and meditation. If you want to learn for martial art, I'll teach you how to fight," he said.

Tai chi has an application of self-defense techniques, as part of kung fu. But does it have a practicality in terms of hostile situation?

"It's the matter of how you play it," he said. "Tai Chi has a blend of … long-range kicking and close-range elbow and grappling range."

The other important element in tai chi is reputation, Chin said. The general American public may be familiar with the scene of old people practicing tai chi to slow-tempo Chinese music early in the morning.

"People look at (tai chi) and say, 'Oh, yeah, it's just movements for old people,'" Chin said. "But I'm telling you, if you approach some of these people, they'll kick the crap out of you."

He trains his students all in one group, which is one of his philosophies in teaching to provide practicality to self-defense skills of tai chi that students are learning.

"In the streets, bad guys are old, all genders and all nationalities, right?" he asked. "Why would you want to train the teenagers with only the teenagers? Bad people (could) be big people or they could be little kids."

MARTIAL ARTS COMES SECOND

Chin has a day job. He is the assistant director of corporate safety and risk management for Spartan Shops.

From a time commitment and monetary standpoint, he doesn't think choosing tai chi as his profession is realistic and practical. To him, he teaches martial arts because it would pass on Chinese culture to all nationalities and to all generations.

"It's part of my heart and my family," Chin said.