The 28th of May 2009 marked a very special day for the history of Chinese Martial Arts in New Zealand, the celebration of the 40th Anniversary of Chinese Martial Arts Association (aka CMAA 中武会) in Wellington.
Chin Woo NZ was honored by the invitation extended by CMAA’s current head Sifu Stan Lytras. Peter Yu represented CWNZ as one of the two speakers in this landmark celebration and remembrance of the association’s founder and Chief Instructor Sifu Bill Young on 28th May at the Chinese Anglican Church Centre, Glenmore Street, Wellington.
The evening kicked off with the first speaker Sifu Stan Chun, one of the founding members of CMAA back in January 1968 and is affectionately known as the 大师兄 (number one Kung Fu brother) to generations of members within this association. He spoke candidly of some of the amusing moments of training in the past and recollects some of the rather novel training ideas then.
The second speaker Peter Yu, representative of CWNZ who also happened to be a member of this association back in 1968, congratulated CMAA for it’s longevity and complimented the dedication and commitment of the many who had a hand in assisting and to continue this legacy started by Sifu Bill Young four decade ago and reflected on how Sifu Bill had touched many lives amongst this gathering.
After the two speeches, all the guests were treated by a video presentation, a compilation of the trainings and gradings as well as showing the people who played important roles in the continuance of the CMAA over the past four decade. Rare footage captured the intensive concentration of Sifu Bill’s training under a waterfall and the training and sparring of the club members in the river in the late 70s looked both fun and painful at the same time.
Thos present were then treated to Chinese martial arts demonstrations given by five local schools.
Demonstrating were:
NZ Wing Tsun Association
NZ Ling Nan Wu Shu Association
NZ Chinese Kung Fu Association
Sifu Stan Chun’s Martial Arts Group
Chinese Martial Arts Association
Gifts were presented by CMAA to each of the above groups and other guests with lots of posing for photographs during supper. One has not seen these many genuine and sincere martial arts people under the same roof since CWNZ’s own 10th Anniversary celebration in October 2008.
The guest of honour during the evening was Simo, Lily Young, wife of the late Sifu Bill Young.
CWNZ would like to thank CMAA for their inclusion of this milestone event and sincerely wishing CMAA a bright future and many happy returns.
