Chinese Martial Arts – Culture And The Future

19/02/2025 (Wed) 12:45-14:20 @ LE3

Join us for an inspiring lecture with Kung Fu Master Rudy Ibarra, as he shares his journey into Chinese Martial Arts and Kung Fu and its profound connection to Chinese cultural heritage. Master Ibarra will share how Kung Fu has acted as a cultural ambassador and reflect on how it serves as a living link into Chinese values, identity, and history. The talk will also highlight the practical aspects of Kung Fu for today’s world, comparing it with other martial systems and types emphasising its relevance for the future, despite modern skepticism of “Traditional Arts”. He will share his experiences training in Beijing and Fuzhou and teaching in NYC and now in Hong Kong as a foreigner. Master Ibarra will focus on his specialisation in Ziranmen, or “Natural Style,” and offer a live demonstration, ending with a Q&A.

Master Rudy Ibarra is a distinguished martial artist with over thirty-five years of experience. As a child, he was inspired by iconic Hong Kong Kung Fu movies like “36 Chambers”, “5 Venoms,” and the American TV series “Kung Fu”, which exposed him to Buddhist, Daoist, and Chinese philosophy. Starting his martial arts journey in 1985, he earned two black-belts in traditional Okinawan Karate. After having researched and understood the Chinese roots of Karate, he began studying Chinese martial arts in New York City’s Chinatown in 1995 and later met a teacher from Fuzhou, who introduced him to the rare art of Ziranmen. His commitment to mastering Chinese martial arts took him to Beijing Physical Education University in 1998 to study martial methods and again in 2001 to Tsinghua University to deepen his language studies and his knowledge of the internal martial arts. He also travelled to Hunan and Fujian Province researching Ziranmen, eventually becoming the first Westerner formally accepted as a disciple by Grandmaster Lu Yao Qin of Ziranmen. In 2013, he settled in Hong Kong and continues to teach Ziranmen, embodying and promoting the profound cultural and philosophical roots of Chinese martial arts. Rudy holds a BFA with Honours from Pratt Institute.

All are welcome. 

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