It’s been at least ten years since Plum really started to gather momentum. We never thought when we started the company it would be so interesting, so important to many practitioners and give us so much pleasure and so many new friends throughout the world. Presented for your approval is a copy of Shaolin-Tai Chi magazine from almost ten years ago. It contains stories on Shaolin self-defense, the Praying Mantis (an article by Adam Hsu himself), Basic Wushu, fighting techniques and Chi Kung.

Anything else? It’s the first issue dated 1995 and therefore the first issue of this periodical that could commemorate the 1500th YEAR of the SHAOLIN TEMPLE. It was published by Mr. Gu You-Yi, the regional head of the area containing the Temple and a Zha champion in his own right (as well as a wonderful person). We have about a hundred of these and we are going to give them away FREE. But there’s one catch. You can’t request one. You can’t buy one. It’s not a discount item or a sales promo. It’s just a gift we will stuff into orders when the thought moves us.

If you wonder why we’re doing it, all you have to do is look at our new letters page to see what great customers we’ve got. We’re conducting a commercial business here but – let’s be honest – it’s more of a hobby.We wanted to do something that retained some semblance of martial dignity and concerns and wasn’t about foisting fake awards on kids too young to know the difference, or promoting anti-social mayhem or even, for that matter, mediocre self-appointed masters. What we got was you – other people personally concerned about this fine art. So from us here’s a thanks…