Gene Ching Hurt My Feelings

[MARTIALSTUDANT]

:laughing4 Gene Ching another martial art fraud?

I was wondering if any of you kind men/women new of this gentleman's back ground. for those who are not familure with him he runs a forum were he appears to have all the answers but answers none. I believe he is a reporter for martial art mags but is he a martial artist or just a pen and paper sifu?

[Sam Browning]

Gene is the associate publisher for Kungfu Tai Chi. I've talked with him in person and he did not claim teaching credentials or mastery of any of the Chinese Arts though I know he's studied a few. Unless you can show he's claimed to be a sifu, he cannot be a "paper sifu" as you assert.

[MARTIALSTUDANT]

GeneChing
Associate Publisher Join Date: Jan 1970
Location: Fremont, CA, U.S.A.
Posts: 6,882

I was Wing Lam's head Shaolin instructor...

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

...and it was quite different than my experience at Shaolin, let me tell ya. And I don't say that with any disrespect to my old Sifu. BSL is a wonderful system. But then, so is Songshan Shaolin.

We haven't run anything from Antonio for a spell, but we were first to publish his story, which he later ran in BB and in his book. Ironically, he sent me an email from Korea today. Antonio has his opinion, one that I personally respect but don't agree with. The situation at Shaolin is incredible. If you think you can sum it up by yourself, you haven't even scratched the surface. If you think you can judge it by what some one else says, whether it be Antonio, the Abbot, or me, ha! AT the very least, read some of my tales of Shaolin. You'll find some of them for free in our e-zine. They'll give you another perspective.
__________________
Gene Ching
Associate Publisher
Kung Fu Magazine & www.KungFuMagazine.com

[MARTIALSTUDANT]

Not on a witch hunt Mr. Browning I can take your word if no others know nothing of him. Just his post among others about beign head instructors or sifus in this or that at only 42 leaves a funny stink. Enough said I don't want to be called a troll!

[Sam Browning]

Congradulations, you've established a teaching claim.

In our conversation he didn't mention instructing, but since I did not ask him a yes or no question on this subject, he could have simply not brought it up.

I think you'll have to run down other people who have trained with him, to establish his skill level.

[meng_mao]

I bet that this turns out like that Tsuruken debacle.

Here's the referenced thread for context:
http://forum.kungfumagazine.com/foru...ad.php?t=43011

[GeneChing]

MARTIALSTUDANT, you're being silly

MARTIALSTUDANT was banned off www.KungFuMagazine.com's forum a little while ago. 'nuf said there.

As for questioning my record, I totally confess to being a pen and paper sifu. I like that title, although it's really more like keyboard fu. But what would you want from a writer?

Seriously now, I've never claimed to be a master in any of my work. In fact, I've denied the title of 'sifu' when it has been thrust upon me several times, mostly by event promoters (now I don't bother so much with it because my attachment to being non-titled was growing larger than most people's attachment to having a title). I was Wing Lam's head Shaolin instructor for several years - you can look at the old WLE catalogs and see that I produced them when I held that position - it was in the mid to late 90's. But I seldom teach martial arts anymore. I've done a few introductory workshops in the last few years, but mostly I run writing workshops, since that's what pen & paper sifus are best at. Nowadays I'm horribly out of practice and struggling to maintain what little I had before, like most middle-aged American practitioners. But my banning fu is still good, isn't it MARTIALSTUDANT?

[It is Fake]

:laughing4 Gene Ching another martial art fraud?

I was wondering if any of you kind men/women new of this gentleman's back ground. for those who are not familure with him he runs a forum were he appears to have all the answers but answers none. I believe he is a reporter for martial art mags but is he a martial artist or just a pen and paper sifu?

Ahhhh a banned idiot. Hey, why don't you start your own forum instead of bringing your dumb crap here.

The worst thing I could say about gene is, he tries to hard to stay neutral in his opnions of different MAists.

That isn't a bad thing.

As to his age????

Bruce Lee was instructing way before 42.
Gustavo Machado is teaching before 42.
Many of the Gracies were teaching before 42.


What is your point?

As for now you are a troll.

[GoldenJonas]

RAAAAAHHHHRRRRRRR!!!! BULLSHIDO SMASH TROLL!!!! BULLSHIDO SMASH TROLL!!!!!

Not on a witch hunt Mr. Browning I can take your word if no others know nothing of him. Just his post among others about beign head instructors or sifus in this or that at only 42 leaves a funny stink. Enough said I don't want to be called a troll!

[Sam Browning]

Hi Gene, welcome to Bullshido.

We're building a FAQ for students choosing a martial art. Could you comment on the following two paragraphs? I also know that John Funk has questioned the legitimacy of the new shaolin temple, if you have any suggestions concerning how to reword the following two paragraphs I'd be interested.

"A) Lies about Martial Arts History

A fighting art raises or falls on its own merits, regardless of its history. However as part of the marketing pitch, the martial arts new comer is likely to hear a number of historical untruths. The first is that a particular art is connected to the Shaolin Temple in China, the second is that the art is two thousand or so years old, and the third is that this particular art was formed for combat purposes on the oriental battlefield. If the instructor didn't bring up this swill, it would be irrelevant but since its being used as a marketing tool we'll discuss it. The greater the role these falsehoods play in the sales presentation, the more likely you want to avoid this place.

Many martial arts have claimed a pedigree to the Shaolin Temple because of the prestige associated with such an institution. Be aware that many Asian martial arts like to claim a heritage that can not be supported by historical methods and is frequently the product of what one master told his student orally many years ago. Such assertion therefore is better described as "folklore", unless your master himself flew over to the rebuilt, recreated Shaolin Temple in China, to train. The martial arts world is deluged by westerners who do not speak any foreign languages who claim that they were trained by a mysterious monk in childhood who left no forwarding address. Generally these claims are worthless, and if you care so much about this connection you can book a flight to the People's Republic of China yourself train at the new Shaolin temple and cut out the middleman."

[meng_mao]

As a counterpoint, banning isn't necessarily a positive indicator.
Good people get banned out of bad forums, viz. Pax Baculum, MAP.
You have to have a good take on the character of the forum itself.

[Iscariot]

As Meng Mao points out above why is this automatically a bad thing that this poster was banned on another forum, how many here have been banned on another forum?

It means a grand total of (checks, is in Newbie Town) poo!

Now whilst Samuel's endorsement can never harm, certainly with Samuel's proven track record of exposing frauds in the Martial Arts, the rest of use (or at least I) would like the layman's terms of why it is so easy to disbelieve one poster in favour of another with no posted evidence or definitive testimony.

As is mentioned, Samuel's endorsement does a lot, but a bit of context and background would certainly help the rest of us.

Please?

[yanta]

would like the layman's terms of why it is so easy to disbelieve one poster in favour of another with no posted evidence or definitive testimony.

Honestly, in the absence of any other evidence, I would go with verbal presentation. Examine:

I was wondering if any of you kind men/women new of this gentleman's back ground. for those who are not familure with him he runs a forum were he appears to have all the answers but answers none.

vs.

But I seldom teach martial arts anymore. I've done a few introductory workshops in the last few years, but mostly I run writing workshops, since that's what pen & paper sifus are best at. Nowadays I'm horribly out of practice and struggling to maintain what little I had before, like most middle-aged American practitioners.

One presents him/herself as an immature and incoherent half-literate idiot, and the other can actually spell and follow established language norms. Since this is newbietown I will leave the determination of which is which as an exercise for the reader (yes I'm a noob too, I know).

Literacy != martial arts skills, and I am making no claims either way on that. But communications skills are an excellent indicator of maturity and make a big difference in whether or not I take someone seriously.

~yanta

[Iscariot]

True, and I'm whole heartedly expecting it to go this way, but then there are idiots like Elmore who are capable of constructing a sentence.......

I'm sure the neccessary "Believe it because I say so" will be forthcoming from either Samuel or anyone else who is familiar with this issue shortly.

I'm actually more interested as to why Bloke A seems to be after Bloke B, did Bloke B wear prettier silk to a seminar? Enquiring minds want to know!

[Sam Browning]

First, I should say that I never worked out with Gene and therefore cannot speak to his actual martial arts abilities or martial arts teaching skills. I can just say that in a conversation that lasted at least an hour and a half he came across as a rather modest individual who did not even talk about his own martial skills in more then passing.

The issue is whether Gene taught kung fu about a decade ago, and whether he was qualified to do so at that time. The poster who is holding a grudge because he was banned on Gene's forum has not presented any evidence that Gene lied about being an instructor in this art, or was unqualified to teach at that time.

So at the moment his allegations of misconduct remain totally unproven.