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Teachers have passed down Tai Chi Chuan training for hundreds of years. Since very little was written down until recently, the concept of lineage is crucial to ones involvement with the art. Please see the History section of this website for a discussion of the early teachers of Tai Chi Chuan. The following paragraphs are short biographies of two very important teachers of the recent past who brought Tai Chi into our modern world. Professor Huang was Chinese, Dr. Ho'o Chinese American. Together, they created the National Tai Chi Chuan Association, which has had the longest continually running (rain or shine) class on the West Coast.

Wen Shan Huang

Professor Huang was a well-known author, sociologist, anthropologist and editor. Among his writings are:

SYSTEM OF CULTUROLOGY, 1968
ESSAYS ON CULTURE, 1972
FUNDAMENTALS OF TAI CHI CHUAN, 1973
Translations of Bertrand Russell's PROBLEMS OF PHILOSOPHY & ROADS TO FREEDOM
Pitrim Sorokin's CONTEMPORARY SOCIOLOGICAL THEORIES
Joseph Needham's SCIENCE AND CIVILIZATION IN CHINA
.

Professor Huang was Department Head of Sociology at National University of Shanghai, Dean of the Law School at National Sun Yat-Sun University, President of Chien Shek University of Shanghai, on the faculty of the New School for Social Research, NYC, University of Southern California and Columbia University.

He received Tai Chi instruction from great masters all over China as well as studying philosophy in the 1920's with Bertrand Russell and Dr. Hu Shih and obtaining a masters degree from Columbia University. His studies with Tung ying-chieh, the eminent pupil of Yang Cheng-fu, made him an outstanding lineage-bearer for the Yang Style of Tai Chi Chuan.

With Marshall Ho'o, he created the longest running Tai Chi class on the West Coast (over 40 years in Bronson Park, LA), and the National Tai Chi Chuan Association, based in Los Angeles.

 

Marshall Ho'o

Dr. Ho'o was instrumental in the certification of acupuncture in the State of California. He is the only Tai Chi Master to have been elected to the Black Belt Hall of Fame. He was Dean of the Aspen Academy of Martial & Healing Arts, on the faculty of California Institute of the Arts, and taught Tai Chi and Acupressure at many educational institutions. In 1973, he created a series for KCET, Los Angeles, teaching Tai Chi and was a consultant to Prevention Magazine's THE DOCTOR'S BOOK OF HOME REMEDIES.

A Chinese American, Dr. Ho'o was America's first Tai Chi Chuan Grandmaster. His influence is far-reaching in both the fields of healing and martial arts.

 

Jeffrey A. Fisher

Studied with Dr. Ho'o and his former students AriEl, Doria Cook-Nelson and others. Also workshops with Shen H'ai Min, Don Miller, Elaine Imbrie and others.

Classes with Shifu Y.C. Chiang in the early 1980's. Began teaching Yang Style Long Form in 1994 in New Mexico (classes in Mora, Taos, Springer, Santa Rosa and Las Vegas). Publication of TAI CHI BASICS, 1995. Certified by National T'ai Chi Chuan Association. Board member, Two Fishes Swimming, a Marshall Ho'o Foundation for the Study of Tai Chi Chuan, based in Phoenix, Az.

Also professional jazz musician, composer, artist, poet and Reiki/Reflexologist.

Teaching philosophy

"My meeting with Dr. Marshall Ho'o was a pivotal point in my life. T'ai Chi has not only grounded my energies but allowed a fuller development of all abilities. Helping others enhance their lives by showing them how to remove obstacles to realizing their potential is the completion of a very large circle."

 



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