User:Professorhuo

Professor Huo Chi-Kwang was born in the Hopie province of China and was a graduate of Beijing University. Professor Huo shared his family heritage with sixteen generations of calligraphers which has produced recognized Chinese scholars since the Ming Dynasty. Professor Huo, also known simply as the Professor, was a master of calligraphy, painting and poetry; a scholar of Chinese literature, history and philosophy, as well as a great Chinese boxing master. He was adept in the eight different styles of Chinese calligraphy, some of which are practiced and read only by scholars. In his native Beijing, Professor Huo was taught first by his mother and then his father, a noted calligrapher. He studied painting and calligraphy under the masters, Yao Mang-fu, Huang Pin-Hung, Wang Chen, Chen Shih-Tseng, and Chen Pan-Ting. The Professor studied literature and calligraphy under the masters, Wu Ch-ang Shih, Chuang Yun-Kuan, Hu Pu-An and Chang Pin-Lin (Tai-Yen). Several years prior to World War II (1934) Professor Huo collaborated with a group of distinguished calligraphers in Beijing to advance the theories and practices of the art of calligraphy. During World War II, in Chungking, he researched the inscription of divination on the central part of a tortoise shell and ox scapula. This historic style of Chinese calligraphy dates from the Yin-Shang Dynasty (circa 1450-1000 B.C.). Also during World War II, Professor Huo was president of the National Oriental Languages College in China. After World War II, and while in Paris, France, Professor Huo met and exchanged paintings with Pablo Picasso. Professor Huo Chi-Kwang has the first elected representative of the Nationalist Party and an associate of General Chiang Kai-Shek. The Professor was that governments representative to France and General Charles DeGaulle, the Vatican and made presentations of paintings and calligraphy to three Popes including Pope Pius XII, and several cardinals in Italy, in addition he made presentations to General Franco of Spain. While in his late twenties Professor Huo became president of the news publication "I-Ser Bao" and the "I-Ser" news agency, which were famous in Tientsin, Hopei province. Under Chiang, Kai-Shek he was the head of the Military Judicial Agency. In his official capacity as a good will ambassador for Taiwan Professor Huo traveled extensively and gave exhibitions and demonstrations of his painting and calligraphy in China, France, Spain, Italy, Germany and Switzerland. He exhibited and demonstrated in the United States at St. John's University, Connecticut State University, West Virginia State University, The Sino-American Institute in New York, Illinois State University, Trinity College, Wheaton College, the Evanston Arts Center, Cleveland State University, St. Louis State University and Richmond, British Columbia, Canada. Although the Professor primarily considered himself to be a scholar, many came to know him as a remarkable martial artist. From the young age of four the Professors father (a scholar serving in the court of the last emperor of China) saw that he received a complete training in the Chinese physical disciplines. The Professor's father was an advisor to Sun Yat-Seng during the establishment of the Republic of China and the Professor's brother Huo Chang-Kwang taught Buddhist doctrine to the Dali Lama and health methods to many famous martial artists of the era. Professor Huo is the nephew of the legendary master Huo Yuan Jia. Played by jet Li in the movie “Hero”. He studied Old Style Yang Tai Chi Chuan with Yang Shao-Hou, the elder brother of Yang Cheng-Fu. Professor Huo was a third generation Pa Kua Chuan master. His teacher, Lee Tsun Yi, was a student of Tung Hi-Chuan, the first master of Pa Kua Chuan in China. Lee Tsun Yi was considered one of the top masters of Pa Kua Chuan and Hsing Yi Chuan in China. Professor Huo studied both disciplines from Lee Tsun Yi. Professor Huo also was a Pa-Kua Chang student of the legendary Taoist "Immortal" Li Chun-Yuen. Professor Huo Chi-Kwang learned sword from Lee Ching-lin, the former governor of Hopei and reputed to be the best swordsman of his era. He also studied sword with Cheng Chih-Chiang, the former governor of An-Hui and president of the Chinese National Boxing Association. Professor Huo, with notable associates from North China, founded the Tai Chi Chuan Learning Society, in Taipei for the study and research of Tai Chi Chuan. Prior to this time, there was no Tai Chi Chuan performed, demonstrated or taught publicly in Taiwan. Professor Huo is thought to have been the first person to teach Tai Chi Chuan in the Chicago area and founded the Chinese Cultural Academy in Evanston, Illinois. At the close of his years of public service and upon arriving in the US and residing in New York City, Professor Huo Chi-Kwang shared an apartment with Cheng Man-Ching and T.T. Liang. The Professor was a life long friend of Kuo Lien Ying the recognized founder of Guang Ping Yang Tai Chi Chuan. Kuo Lien Ying and Huo Chi Kwang were classmates in school from an early age and later served together as congressmen in the Nationalist legislature. Professor Huo was also a known associate of the Legendary Flying Butterfly Grandmaster Chang Dung-Sheng and the famous Lu Hung Ping one of the worlds authorities on Pa-Kua Chuan. Lu Hung Ping's name is inscribed on the tomb of the founder of Pa-Kua Chuan in Beijing. At the age of 82 Professor Huo Chi-Kwang handed the Chinese Cultural Academy over to Kongo Roshi, the Abbot of the Zen Buddhist Temple of Chicago, and eventually returned to Tientsin, where he established a children's orphanage. Professor Huo Chi-Kwang joined the ancestors on January 23, 1998 at the age of ninety-two.

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Used with permission from the Traditional Chinese Cultural Academy http://taichicertification.org/ProfessorHuo.aspx

CHI-KWANG HUO EDUCATION FOUNDATION, 225 9TH AVE APT 325, SAN MATEO, CA 94401-4264 Inside Kung Fu, June 1998, Page 13