Dear Students and Friends,

How time flies! Who would have thought that at 38, I am in my 20 th year of being a Kung Fu master? Please allow me to be proud of myself for a second! This is a memorable moment for me. Therefore, I decided to write down my testimonial on teaching Kung Fu for two decades. 

I started to be a master in the year 2002. If you see photos of that time, you may say I am such a skinny boy. That is Joy's first impression as well. To tell you the truth, I even grew 3 cm in the first year of being a master. 

If you are interested in my learning experience and Kung Fu journey, you can check this video , where I share my story on how I became a Kung Fu Master:

Watch this video here: https://youtu.be/x4VjBjHP-e0

After living with Kung Fu for more than 30 years,

I started to get my own understanding of life and Kung Fu that I wanted to write down to remember and share with my dear students out of the nature of a teacher. Allow me to share these nuggets of wisdom with you: 

• The process of growing is full of pain.

• We need to have the courage and wisdom to “let it go”.

• Achievements and happy moments will keep you going.

• The future is beautiful and worthy.

The process of growing is full of pain. Let's take Kung Fu training as an example: Daily full-time training makes your body ache, but if you keep doing it you will also feel your improvement. I gradually understand that life is the same.

I started my own school: Qufu Shaolin Kung Fu School, after teaching in 2 different schools and leaving the second one is the first pain in my life. 

Joy nearly experienced everything with me so she wrote it down for me and then we decided to make a video to explain the reasons for changing schools and the relationships between the schools and headmasters. If you are interested you can check it out here.

Watch this video here: https://youtu.be/y15nZC6jlDc

I just came out with the idea to explain this in late 2021. It is 13 years after I left the school that I feel I can already bear that pain. I just started to understand that unhappy staff is like a scar; to linger on, but it is also a treasure we can learn from. Then view this as the most important “grown-up lesson” in my life. 

So, I want to share with you, my students, and my friends, that it is important to look back with a positive attitude, and have the courage and wisdom to let it go. This means you are bold enough to face yourself.

Do you know what you will get after the pain? Let's come back to our training: No pain no gain. If you feel the training pain every day, you will feel your improvement very rapidly. 

In 2008, Joy and I set up Qufu Shaolin Kung Fu School. We remember clearly that the first new students came on the 22nd of February, 2009. Before this we only have my old students coming back. I feel encouraged even though I am the only master in the school and we have Joy cook for us.

On March 28th 2013, we moved to our current school campus. On that very day, we eagerly got up at 2:30 in the early morning and we were very happy to go to bed at 11:30 pm. Lighten the midnight dark sky, I feel fulfilled to settle in the new campus.

In 2017 and 2018, we went to the UK and Europe to do workshops. Peter picked us up from the airport and stayed with us all the time. Sabina let us live in her flat when we are in Geneva. Also, Gidion and his parents let us stay at their house. These nice students give me warmth. This can be 10 pages long if I keep counting all the warm experiences and good deeds my students shared with us. 

A few days ago, young master Zhang who used to teach at the school from 2010-2012 messaged Joy saying he missed the school cooking. This also makes me feel happy that the former master also remembers us for good reasons.

These Achievements and happy moments give me the power to keep teaching. I also hope my students and friends can be keen on their own life and feel encouraged by their own Achievements and happy moments that can keep them going.

Currently, after three years of lockdown, I am also learning and growing. I believe the Future is beautiful and worthy. This is the faith I hold all the time.

I have so many plans for the future: in the past three years, we have been training local Chinese students. This will be part of our school teaching from now on.

As the online training program starts, I also plan to have live classes. 

Students always ask me how long we need to study Kung Fu. I always tell them that “learning is endless”. Now, I feel learning is endless in my life as well. 

Thank you for reading until here. Those I have mentioned are the four important lessons I want to share with everyone.  

People also ask about the meaning of training Kung Fu, I think it is to give yourself the time of your own to challenge yourself, and time to think over to get a better understanding of life. I believe as my teaching goes on, I will Also understand more and have more to share with everyone.

Regards,

Wei Shifu