Master Helen Wu was born in Shanghai, China in 1956. She was trained by her grandfather, the legendary Chinese hero Grandmaster
Wang Zi Ping, and her mother, Grandmaster (Professor) Wang Ju Rong, the first woman professor of Chinese martial arts in China.
Watch
Grandmaster Wang Zi Ping with his daughter Professor
Wang Ju Rong performing with the straight sword. In the background is a young Master Helen Wu, daughter of Professor
Wang Ju Rong.
She was only three years old when she started her traditional Chinese Martial Arts training, including Chaquan, Tantui, Baji, Green Dragon Sword, Qiankun Ring, among many other forms. By the time she was 10, Master Helen Wu had learned many traditional Wushu weapon forms. At that time, she often told her mother that her two favorite weapons were sword and fan.
Master Helen Wu has been judging competitions and teaching Kung Fu, Tai Chi and Qi Gong since 1975. In her school years, she trained with Professor Sheng Rong-Wei (at Shanghai Normal University, Department of Physical Education) and Coach Zhang Fu-Yun (currently the head coach of Shanghai's Wushu team). She has practiced traditional Chen, Yang, and Sun style Tai Chi under the instruction of many famous Chinese internal martial arts' masters, also her grandfather's and mother's good friends, including Master Gu Liu-Xin, Master He Bin-Quan, and Master Fu Zhong-Wen.
In 1982, Master Helen Wu graduated from the Department of Physical Education, Shanghai Normal University and remained on as a teacher of sports medicine. Since then, she has taken advanced courses in China National Training Classes of Sports Care, Traditional Chinese Traumatology, The Research of Physical Fitness in Children and Youth, Rehabilitation Medicine and Treatment of Athletic Injuries. She has carried out further research on the traditional Chinese martial arts from the viewpoint of exercise physiology and sports medicine, and has more than twenty theses published in different Chinese Journals. She is the co-author of several books including Wang Zi Ping and Wushu, Wushu and Chinese Traditional Traumatology, and 500 Intriguing Sports Information.
Master Helen Wu has also studied and practiced traditional Chinese Medicine under the direction of her father, famous Chinese Professor and doctor, Dr. Wu Chengde. She worked and treated patients at a clinic in a factory in Shanghai for four years, studied and had a medical practice in the Shanghai Sixth People's Hospital and Shanghai Xin-Le Hospital where she obtained rich clinical experience.
In December 1989, Master Helen Wu moved to Canada where she has continued an active teaching career, and has served as a board member of the Canadian Taijiquan Federation and the United Wushu Federation of Canada. Since 1994, she has been a Vice-Referee in Chief, and Arbitrator and Judge in many International Chinese Martial Arts Championships in the U.S. and in Canada. Master Wu also maintains her teaching of Kung Fu, Tai Chi, and Chi Kung (Qi Gong) in Toronto.
Since arriving in Canada, Master Wu has been featured in many magazines and TV programs introducing, Tai Chi Chuan, Chi Kung, and Kung Fu to their audiences. She is also in high demand as a guest speaker for major hospitals and universities. Recently, she was invited to speak at the Riverdale Hospital, at the Canadian Memorial Chiropractic College, and at York University. In a recommendation letter written by Dr. Greg Malszecki, about Helen Wu, he wrote "...No other I have met could offer such a lucid, informed, and solid introduction to the subject of Eastern theories of the body than this expert..."
In May of 1997, she taught her first workshop on Tai Chi Fan in Toronto. In fact, these forms were first taught outside of the family in Canada. Her fan students have been successful. They have won championships at the 1997 United World Kung Fu Wushu Championships in Orlando, at the 1999 Taiji Legacy and Kungfu Championships at A Taste of China in Winchester, Virginia. One of Helen Wu's special students is actress Elizabeth Gracen, who performed the family fan form, with Helen, on an episode of "Highlander, The Raven" in 1998.
In 1999, both the U.S. and Canadian leading Kung Fu magazines introduced Helen Wu's masterful experience and extraordinary instructional abilities. Her introduction of the Flying Rainbow Fan has gained high reviews. Additionally, Helen Wu was included in the Great Changes in the Course of Time, a book about the mainland Chinese immigrants' struggles after immigrating to Canada. Helen Wu was written as, the "Great pioneer martial woman that singly ventured into North America".
Visit Master Helen Wu's website at www.masterhelenwu.com.