Welcome to the Official Website of Traditional Monkey Kung Fu: (Tai Shing Pek Kwar)
If you ever wanted to learn real, traditional Monkey Kung Fu, then here it is. No made-up forms, no fake titles, all put together by the 6th Generation Grandmaster Michael Matsuda. The entire system is on “18” DVDs on Amazon.
CLICK HERE for DVDs 1-18
Monkey Kung Fu, in Chinese it’s Tai Shing Pek Kwar. It is a very unique style of martial art. It is unlike any other artform because its foundation is low to the ground, its movements are unpredictable and it has one major factor that separates it from all the other styles, it is extremely deceptive.
Contrary to belief, Monkey kung fu is not a hard art to learn. The ultra flexibility used by only one Monkey teacher was incorporated only because he was a yoga expert. It was never part of traditional Tai Shing. Monkey kung fu isn’t just made up of forms, but it is filled with extremely vigorous workouts. Monkey was invented by Kou Sze, a tei tong expert who created the art by watching five different monkey characteristics (not six, just five)
CLICK HERE to learn more about Monkey Kung Fu
In reality, there are three primary monkey styles. They include:
1) Tai Shing – Identified by very, very low stances and very powerful blows. There are five monkey characteristics.
2) Wushu or Opera Monkey – This is an extremely popular artform. Used by the Beijing Wushu Team. The stances are quite high, it’s very flowery and the thing that identifies it more than anything else, the monkey stands on the top part of the staff. That is never done in Tai Shing.
3) Shaolin Monkey – Very hard to find. Most of the movements are standing like a man imitating a monkey rather than becoming the monkey.
CLICK HERE to learn more about the three monkeys
I included this page because I think it’s important that you do some research on who you are learning from. Grandmaster Matsuda has been doing the art for over 45 years so he knows everyone and how long they studied. With that thought, there are a few people who say they actually learned the art when they never took a class. While one individual calls himself a grandmaster and says he studied for 20 years. Attending class once or twice a year for 20 years does not count. In reality, he only studied for 7 months. I’m not naming names, I want you to do the research. If someone is making up forms, then you know he has no further knowledge of the art. Don’t spend years of your life only to find out the person you are learning from only knows a handful of forms he does over and over.
CLICK HERE to find out more
Grandmaster Michael Matsuda (Michael Gonzalez-Matsuda), authored a total of three books on monkey kung fu. Unfortunately, the other two are out-of-print. So, he wrote this one, the third monkey book. This is it. Everything you ever wanted to know about Monkey Kung Fu (Tai Shing Pek Kwar). The history of the art as well as the art itself has been kept hidden for many generations. This is not a book on techniques or movements, it is a look at the lineage and history of the art, what the five monkeys are about (and there are only five). It is a look at how it all began and make its way to America. You can get your copy today.
CLICK HERE for more info, it will take you to Amazon.com
It’s important that you look closely at the Monkey Kung Fu Family Tree. Again, there is only a handful of people who have mastered the entire artform and they are listed here. This art is just over 100 years old. It noticed someone put out a family tree that was completely fake because it says their teacher studied with Cho Chat Ling. Sifu Cho only had one student and it wasn’t him. I know this because I was there. So, here it is, the most accurate family tree still out there.
CLICK HERE to view the Monkey Kung Fu Family Tree
Michael Matsuda is the only 6th Generation Grandmaster and named successor of the rare art of Tai Shing Pek Kwar. In his 45 years of Monkey Kung Fu, he has studied the art under his friend and instructor for 35 years, he has been teaching monkey for over 20 years now. Matsuda not only went to the regular, once a week course which was about 2 hours, he was also a private student where he and his close friend would practice all the time.
Michael Matsuda started in Hung Gar Kung Fu in a formal class in 1972 with Lyle Fujioka, under Buck Sam Kong. He moved to the larger school in Hollywood and was part of the advanced class. One day, this college-aged individual came into the class. Immediately, he and Matsuda became close friends. In order to bring his friend up to speed, Michael would go to his house after class and teach his friend the advanced Hung Gar forms. Matsuda wanted him to be part of the advanced class so that could work out at the same time.
One day, Matsuda’s friend was going to college and this guy saw him practicing Kung Fu. He told him Kung Fu was lousy and he had a better art for him to practice. So, in college, this person named Cho Chat Ling started teaching him. A short time later, he told me he was learning another type of Kung Fu and if I wanted to learn it. Matsuda said “Yes” and thus begin Matsuda as his first student in an artform they didn’t know the name of. They later found out it was Monkey Kung Fu, but it didn’t look like it at the time.
So he and Matsuda would work out in both Hung Gar and Monkey for many years. Matsuda, who was 3 years younger, went off to college and stopped training with his friend for a year or two.
Upon finishing most of his studies, he went back to his friend and started learning Monkey Kung Fu. They would train not just once a week at the school in Atwater, but he and Matsuda would go out to dinner and to Chinatown, see the movies and then go to one of their places and practice Monkey together. They were the best of friends for several decades always going out and practicing Monkey.
Matsuda was the only student to begin and end with his instructor. The only student to master all five forms of the Monkey art. The only student to learn everything his instructor had to offer and the only student to record on video, all of the forms of both Pek Kwar and Monkey. He was named several times as the successor of the art. Besides, he was the only student to continue studying with him all those years.
Matsuda was honored by Grandmaster Chan Sau Chung, the 3rd Generation Grandmaster of Tai Shing Pek Kwar, to receive a special, signed poster by the Grandmaster and in his writing, thanking Matsuda for continuing to teach Monkey Kung Fu. Back in the mid 1970s, Grandmaster Chau Sau Chung would bring his fighters to America and it was there Michael would escort him and watch him and his fighters work out doing Tai Shing Pek Kwar.
Michael and his teacher were the best of friends for over 35 years and sadly, a personal situation arose and as a result, they have not seen each other since. It had nothing to do with Monkey, but a sad loss to a wonderful friendship.
CLICK HERE for more info.