Grandmaster Bow Sim Mark is a world renowned expert in tai chi and wu dang sword. She was named Inside Kung Fu magazine’s Woman of the Year in 1994 and 1996, and has been extensively featured in media coverage of Chinese martial arts in the US and internationally. She is the author of a popular series of books on wushu. Her son, Donnie Yen, is one of Asia’s top action stars.
Mark was born in Guangzhou, China. She began studying martial arts at elementary school, training seriously in high school and then at Wushu training schools, specialising in tai chi chuan and Northern Shaolin. Mark learned Fu Style Wudangquan by training under Fu Wing Fay for 10 years; Wing Fay was the eldest son and top student of Grandmaster Fu Chen Sung. She was an instructor at Wing Fay’s school from 1968-74.
After living for years in Hong Kong, Mark emigrated to Brighton, Massachusetts in 1975, and founded the Chinese Wushu Research Institute in July 1976. She still teaches and performs in the Boston area. She was one of the first to provide Chinese wushu instruction in the and is credited with popularizing the term Wushu outside of China. She gave the first demonstration of Combined Tai Chi Chuan in the United States, and published the first description of the technique in 1975.Mark won a gold medal at the first International Tournament of T’ai chi ch’uan in Wuhan City in 1984.
(all photos courtesty of Bow Sim Mark Tai Chi Arts Association, unless otherwise noted)
One of her specialities is her Wudang sword dance.She played the part of a ‘kung fu diva’ in a play, Mum and Shah at the Lyric Stage theater in Boston in 1995.
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