Our History

It is ironic how people meet. It is interesting how lives intersect. On such a serendipitous meeting at a Chinese martial arts tournament, Master Tat-mau Wong and Master Gao Mei-jian had been invited. Though both individuals were known to each other by reputation, this fortuitous meeting led to them learning a lot about each other, and it led to them discovering that they shared many similar viewpoints about the Chinese martial arts.

Master Gao Mei-jian, formerly of the Beijing Wu-shu and sanshou team, is teaming with Master Tat-mau Wong in the instruction of Chinese sanshou.

Master Gao Mei-jian began learning various Chinese martial arts from 1970 to 1978. From 1978 to 1982, he attended the famous Beijing Sports College. In 1979 he was selected to be among the very few in China to be taught and to compete in the full-contact fighting sport of sanshou.

Master Gao became the All-China national champion in fighting in 1981. The following year saw him as a champion competitor and coach for the Shandong Sports College. He began full-time coaching in 1988, and he served as the official instructor for the China Military Police. He led the first sanshou team to compete in Japan where he also taught. He coached the Chinese team in the 1992 Asian Games. In 1996 he was selected to become an ambassador-research scholar in Chinese kickboxing for the People's Republic of China. He taught the French sanshou national team in 2000. Eventually he would make his way to the United States, particularly California.

Just as lives intersect, there are parallels in lives. Master Tat-mau Wong began his own training in Hong Kong in kungfu, notably Choy Lay Fut, garnering further accolades by competing and winning full-contact championships in Hong Kong and throughout Southeast Asia from 1972 through 1978. Since the twenty years that have passed after he opened his kungfu school in San Francisco, his students have competed and won championships in forms and in sparring. In fact, Master Wong was the first to open a true kungfu tournament in Northern California and made it both a national and international tournament for all styles of Chinese kungfu as well as wushu. Prior to this, many kungfu schools would be cloistered behind closed doors.

Master Wong relates how in the early 1980s he was bewildered to hear of the stereotype that early Chinese kungfu and wushu competitors would participate in other tournaments in the mornings only but disappear in the afternoons when the sparring competition would commence. He knew from first-hand experience of the efficacy and success of Chinese kungfu in tournament sparring and full-contact fighting. Master Wong would teach his students how to spar, and many of his Choy Lay Fut students would win the sparring contests against non-kungfu competitors at these open tournaments. Master Wong's students made the irrefutable statement that kungfu students do spar, do full-contact fight, and kungfu students do win.

Master Gao Mei-jian paralleled Master Wong's martial experiences. Master Gao was schooled in wushu and similarly won forms championships. However, he would make his mark before 1 billion Chinese inhabitants by winning the Chinese full-contact kickboxing of sanshou. Sanshou is the sparring component of wushu, though it is often overlooked and truly underappreciated by many other martial artists. He has been such a successful trainer and coach of Chinese sanshou as evidenced by the fact that of the present 30-odd sanshou "clubs' in China, 1/3 of the coaches of these "clubs" are students of Master Gao. He is of the shared opinion with Master Wong that the fighting element of Chinese martial arts has been often vilified.

Both Masters Wong and Gao feel that students need not make their mark in Chinese martial arts by merely and only fighting. But the true Chinese martial artists must train in ALL aspects of martial training - philosophy, history, forms, fighting, medicine, and teaching others in the martial arts, as well as living an exemplary life that is truly representative of the martial arts.

They are joining forces in dedicating themselves to develop and advance Chinese sanshou. Though Master Wong is proud of his Choy Lay Fut martial lineage and Master Gao of his wushu lineage, both want to teach, train and coach Chinese full-contact fighting.

Master Gao Mei-jian will be teaching and conducting sanshou classes, workshops, private lessons, and seminars at:

Tat Wong Kung Fu Academy
601 Clement Street
San Francisco, CA 94118

Both Masters Wong and Gao insist that they will teach, train and coach Chinese full-contact fighting to all, regardless of martial styles and systems. Instead of the "closed doors" of past kung fu schools in refusing to teach outsiders, Masters Wong and Gao welcome ALL martial systems and schools in this "open door" teaching of Chinese full-contact sanshou.

Both may be contacted at wongja@iskfederation.com