Yang Style Tai Chi Chuan will be represented at the Symposium by Grandmaster Yang Jun, a 6th generation descendent who officially became the 5th generation direct-line inheritor of Yang Family Tai Chi Chuan in 2009.
Grandmaster Yang Jun was born in 1968 in Taiyuan, Shanxi, China. He grew up in a martial arts family, living with his grandparents and watching his grandfather, Grandmaster Yang Zhenduo, train students. He began training with his grandfather at age five.
In 1989, he graduated from Shanxi University with a degree in physical education. He often assisted his grandfather teaching domestically, and in the 1990s began assisting his grandfather internationally. In 1995, he received the title of “Shanxi Province Famous Wushu Master” by the Chinese Wushu Association. He was also active in the Shanxi Province Yang Family Tai Chi Chuan Association and is a former Vice-President of that organization.
In 1999, Grandmaster Yang Jun created the International Tai Chi Chuan Association and moved to the US, with his grandfather’s support, to develop the Association. The Association was created to bring traditional Yang Family Tai Chi Chuan practitioners together to promote a system that would bring the family’s standard of practice to a worldwide audience, and also develop teachers. It has one of the most complete systems of training, allowing members to make progress from being a beginning student with little knowledge of Tai Chi Chuan to becoming a highly qualified instructor. The Association is organized to include a ranking system, judge registry, instructor registry, and teacher academy.
One of Grandmaster Yang Jun’s finest achievements has been the global growth and development of the Yang Family Tai Chi Chuan Association. Starting with no members, today the Association is the largest organized group of Yang Style Tai Chi Chuan practitioners outside of China. He has grown it to thousands of members, with teachers in 22 countries and 62 Yang Chengfu Tai Chi Chuan Centers and affiliated schools. Grandmaster Yang Jun has been especially successful in spreading his family art widely in Europe to now eleven European countries and has also greatly expanded the number of countries in South America. He has also grown greatly the number of centers throughout Asia and North America. As a result, thousands of people worldwide have been able to benefit from learning Tai Chi Chuan. He has also produced a variety of training DVDs, including teaching and demonstrating the traditional 103 hand form and 49 hand form, sword, saber, and push hands.
Grandmaster Yang Jun currently lives in the Seattle area and is the Director of the Yang Chengfu Tai Chi Chuan Center in Redmond, Washington, USA. Every year he travels widely nationally and internationally to teach numerous seminars. Since 2012, he has been a guest professor for the Tai Chi Chuan program at Handan University, China. Recently, he created the Yang Family Tai Chi Chuan Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting health and longevity to all through Tai Chi Chuan, educating teachers and practitioners, and preserving traditional Chinese martial arts culture and training. He is the President of the 2014 International Tai Chi Chuan Symposium; a project of this Foundation.
It is an honor to have Grandmaster Yang Jun at the 2014 Symposium.
