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Our Story

武有七德

Our Purpose

We had two main reasons for starting Wushu Unlimited. First, we wanted to promote Chinese culture through wushu and secondly, we wanted to help keep at-risk youth off the streets. The American wushu community is very small as wushu is somewhat of a niche sport. The term “wushu” is unfamiliar until you mention that it is otherwise known as “Kung Fu”. The sport is gaining more notoriety, however, most Chinese wushu schools get started with the coach starting out as a teacher at another school until they decide to branch out and start their own school, usually taking a portion of their current students with them. As our goal was to spread Chinese culture, we did not want to take other studios’ existing students, but start fresh and reach out to a completely new set of students.
In 2013, we were presented with the opportunity to bring wushu to a brand new demographic when LA County asked us to develop and teach a wushu curriculum tailored to children who were orphaned and in foster care. The idea was to teach wushu to these underprivileged youth in hopes to promote good health, safety, teach discipline and self respect while broadening their horizons and having them learn about Chinese culture. So while we were trying to find a facility that was suitable to teach wushu, we decided to start classes in the park.

禁暴、戢兵、保大、定功

We could not yet have these foster kids bussed to the park, so we offered free wushu lessons to the local community kids. It was very slow going at first. There was much skepticism from the community as, after all, who offers anything for free anymore with no strings attached? However, slowly, we grew our student base. We held classes in two local parks in Monrovia. Some kids would come and try a class and never come back as they were just stopping by the park to play, but others came back week after week and were really dedicated. We had uniforms printed, and gave them to these kids who were so excited to be a part of a class. They would diligently learn the movements; most of them could count to ten in Chinese by this point, and we held our first ever belt testing. The amount of pride that was shown on the faces of both these kids and their parents was so uplifting to see. We were definitely making a difference and we had our first group of students.
When we found the facility we wanted to move into, we sat down with these kids and talked to them. We knew it would be difficult for them to come as many of them did not have transportation, and this was their local park that we were leaving, but we told them that if they could find a way to get to the school they would never have to pay for classes. We had grown attached to them and even though we were starting a business, we did not want them to get lost in the shuffle. The funding from LA County, unfortunately fell through and ended up being spent elsewhere, as often happens with optional programs, but we decided that we wanted to continue anyway. We felt that what we were doing made a difference, and when our kids from the park walked in to take classes at our new facility, it felt like it really was the right thing to do.

安民、和众、丰财​

Those kids stayed with us for quite some time as we started to grow. Some moved on and got jobs or did other sports through school, but they all graduated from high school, four went on to college, one of which got early acceptance to college and was class president. Eight of them took Chinese classes and have since come back and showed off their Chinese to us. One girl who had scoliosis took taiji with us and now is totally cured of it, and her mom credits us for it as the other things they were doing beforehand had not been making a difference. The last of them have moved on now, as kids do when they grow up, but we still see them from time to time, and it is always a sweet reunion. Not only did we help them, but they helped us to solidify our desire to do this and to reach out to the local community and bring the benefits of wushu and Chinese culture to everyone.
Since we started in 2013, we have taught over 1000 students. We have an afterschool program that teaches martial arts, helps with homework, and teaches Chinese language. We do performances around the area at Chinese festivals and schools for free, and help build strong, healthy, respectful kids with an appreciation for Chinese culture. Now we are hosting a competition to let these kids show what they can do and promote healthy competition to build self respect. Also, getting a medal for your performance is not a bad thing either! We are excited to be a part of the AAPI community, and look forward to helping support each other through education and awareness in our children.