As a Senior Instructor and Master in The Chinese Kung-Fu Wu-Su Association, under the aegis of Grandmaster Alan Lee, I have been involved in the martial arts for a while.  Since my childhood, I had been fascinated with self-defense. This was a practical consideration.  I had been raised in Spanish Harlem and the South Bronx, was slight of built and not very strong, making it essential that I learn how to fight.  Yet I never really focused my skills in any particular way until the Vietnam War came along, and then I became a Marine. In wartime, as an infantryman in the Marine Corps (what is commonly called a “grunt”), being shot at constitutes daily life.  That’s what happened to me: On a mission

In wartime, as an infantryman in the Marine Corps (what is commonly called a “grunt”), being shot at constitutes daily life.  That’s what happened to me: On a mission into the Ashau Valley in northern Vietnam, I was wounded in the left knee and right hand. Thankfully, I was medivac-ed out of the combat zone to a field hospital in Da Nang, and then flown to a hospital at the naval base in Yokosuka Japan where I underwent two surgeries. During my recuperation period, I ran into fellow marines who had studied Japanese Karate, among them Sergeant Nunnery, who had a black belt in the Isshin-Ryu style. He told me that if I wanted to be walking in ten or twenty years I should learn martial arts. When I was well enough to move around (albeit, first with crutches, then a cane, and then on my own power) we visited dojos together so that I could begin to understand why he might be telling me this. I was mesmerized by what I saw: the technique, the form, the vigor. It was all new to me, and it was riveting. Even though I was in no condition to join a dojo at this juncture in my life, Sergeant Nunnery had just handed me my future.

Upon my discharge from the Marines and return to the U.S., I spent one year at my parent’s home in Puerto Rico writing my first novel. Fire and Rain, which depicted my Vietnam experience. After finishing the book, I returned to New York City and immediately started searching for a martial arts school that replicated what I had witnessed in Japan. Having completed Fire and Rain, I felt the war slowly coming to a close inside me, which filled me with a newfound freedom to move into my future. Although this was the early 1970s and the country was in the midst of a martial arts boom influenced by Bruce Lee, I could not find a school in the metro area that offered either Isshin-Ryu or Kempo, the two types of self-defense I was interested in.

One fine day, in 1973, in the throes of my search, I walked into Alan Lee’s Chinese Kung-Fu Wu-Su Association, then located on West 30th Street. And what I saw completely revolutionized my thinking. Not only did I witness the raw linear power associated with Karate, but these students displayed an additional dimension of fighting that was defined by fine, deft movements, almost ballet-like in their execution. The movements were more circular in motion, and seemed more complex in detail when compared to the straightforward movements and stop and go style of Karate. This was aesthetically eye-catching to watch: precise strikes and kicks designed to easily disable an opponent but combined with a visually graceful look.

Yet what fascinated me, even more, were the other aspects of this particular system, the breathing, the meditation, the self-control, the part that Grandmaster Lee calls “health-life.” It is the idea that through Kung-Fu one can build a fully-functional, life-affirming individual, instead of someone who is simply a fighting machine. More than anything else, this was exactly what I needed after my ordeal in Vietnam. I had come home to the next stage of my healing process.

Forty-four years have now gone by and Kung-Fu Wu-Su continues to be my stepping-stone to new awareness and greater wonder. It remains the vital energy that is always in me.


 

Master Oswald Rivera

Warrior training embraces both Combat skills and Healing skills, Externally and Internally.

( Master Oswald Rivera speaking on camera about The Chinese Kung-Fu Wu-Su Temple in New York City)

“Our Mandate is NOT to create a ‘Fighting Machine’.

Our mandate is to create a total individual within that realm of Kung-Fu”

 

Master Rivera

   “What we offer here is something unique.

   Unique in that it’s traditional, it has a pedigree.

   It has a creed that goes back thousands of years.”

 


The Chinese Kung-Fu Wu-Su Temple in New York City is currently the only official Temple teaching Grandmaster Alan Lee’s Chinese Kung-Fu Wu-Su system and is also one of the few schools in the ( West ) which offers training in the Classical Northern and Southern Chinese ( Internal and External systems of ) Kung-Fu.”
( –Black Belt Magazine– )

 

The Chinese Kung-Fu Wu-Su Association is located at 28 West 27th on the 8th floor, in the heart of the flower district.

It is accessible by most of the major subway lines; most conveniently the ‘F’ train at 23rd Street, the ‘1’ train at 28th Street, and the ‘R’ and ‘W’ trains at 28th Street.

The phone number is 212 725 0535

(An excerpt from The Chinese Kung-Fu Wu-Su Association website )

 

” Celebrating 41 years of martial arts excellence in 2008, the Chinese Kung-Fu Wu-Su Association is a non-profit organization dedicated to the teaching and preservation of the traditional Chinese martial arts. Kung-Fu Wu-Su was fostered by the legendary Yellow Emporer, Huang Ti, more than 4,000 years ago and has been perpetuated by the renowned warrior-monks of the Shaolin Temple, the Wu Dan, Kun Lun, Qu’an Lon and Yellow Mountain regions and the O’Mei Mountain Monastery for centuries. “

” Grandmaster Alan Lee, a Taoist priest and Kung-Fu Wu-Su Grandmaster, is the driving force behind a system which effectively blends the traditions of the ancient East with the vibrancy of the awakening West. “

Video: Chinese Kung-Fu Wu-Su Association ( Fall of 2007 )
(3 minutes 38 seconds on HIGH SPEED )

(Some quotes from the Film by Master Oswald Rivera)

“Here, What we Emphasize is the TOTAL Individual.”

“Mainly our system is a very traditional style of Kung-Fu. What we call Chinese Kung-Fu Wu-Su.”

“Master Lee studied under 26 different instructors, What he did was combined these 26 different styles into one coheasive fold. So we teach all the animal Styles. Snake , Leapard , Crane, Praying mantis, Monkey, Tiger.”

“We go Extreamly Slow, We take our time with our students”
“Conditioned upon the Individual … Some of us are stronger than others, some of us are faster than others, some of us are weaker than others.”

“So basically .. we “go” at the level of the individual.”

“What we offer here is something unique, Unique in that it’s traditional, it has a pedigree, it has a creed that goes back thousands of years.”

“We also have comprehensive techniques in terms of breathing, in terms of meditation, in terms of concentration.”

“Our Mandate is NOT to create a ‘Fighting Machine’, our mandate is to create a total individual within that realm of Kung-Fu.”


“Our premise is ‘The more you know .. the better you are’.”

 

(Some quotes from the Film by Master Robert Thomas)

Master Robert Thomas

(Master Robert Thomas)

“Discipline techniques and skill in Chinese Martial Arts , with or without weapons… That’s the true meaning of the whole term.”

“It teaches you about your body, it teaches you about health, balance in life…”

“Meditation in Kung-Fu helps you to calm your mind so you’re prepared to do things that may be unexpected for you.”

(An excerpt from The Chinese Kung-Fu Wu-Su Association website )

 

“The Association is a community of men, women and children who range in age from 7 to 70 and are committed to the cultivation of mind, body and spirit.”

“They pursue this through the Grandmaster’s unique combination of classical Kung-Fu Wu-Su, qìgong, nèigong and wàigong, as well as Daoist and Buddhist meditation techniques.”

“Wu-Su, Chi Kung and Taoist and Buddhist meditation techniques. The teachings of the Chinese Kung-Fu Wu-Su Temple emphasize the development of the complete kung-fu wo/man, concentrating on both aspects of ‘chi’ development; combat and healing.”

 

Video: Alan Lee Kung Fu 1995
(6 minutes and 17 seconds on HIGH SPEED)

(An excerpt from The Chinese Kung-Fu Wu-Su Association website )

“The teachings of the Chinese Kung-Fu Wu-Su Temple emphasize the development of the complete kung-fu person, concentrating on both aspects of qì development: combat and healing. Grandmaster Lee , Master Rivera , Master Thomas and their students welcome the community’s interest and encourage you to visit.”

Actual Demonstration of knife fighting techniques taught at Alan Lee’s Chinese
Kung-Fu Wu-Su Association.