Yiquan [意拳]

Academy of Chinese Arts has been established since 1976 by Yang Fumai. Yang Fumai is a Dutch national and a pioneer of Chinese internal martial arts in Europe.

Prior to studying Chinese internal martial arts, Yang Fumai originally trained with the renowned Dutch master Jon Blooming in Kiokushin Karate, reaching 7th Dan. Jon Blooming was a personal friend of the founder of Kiokushin Karate, Mas Oyama. Oyama was a friend of Kenichi Sawai the founder of Taiki Ken (Japanese form of Yi Quan) in Tokyo. In 1975 Kenichi Sawai´s son in law was invited to teach Taiki Ken in Amsterdam. This is when Yang was first introduced to Taiki Ken (Japanese form of Yi Quan).

Later Yang connected and trained with the top Yi Quan 2nd generation masters in Beijing, Wang Zhang Jie, and Li Juan Lu, and of course expert 3rd generation master Xue Si Qi.

As well as Yiquan, Yang Fumai has studied Taiki Ken (Japanese form of Yi Quan), Sun Tai Chi, Bagua and Hsing Yi.

For the past few decades Yang has primarily been focusing on the art of Yiquan.

Yang's most senior student in UK/Spain is Martin Godfrey. Martin began studying martial arts in 1974 mainly external styles like Goju Ryu Karate, and was introduced to internal martial arts by Yang in 1978. Yang first introduced Martin to Xing Yi and Ba Gua, and other styles of Tai Qi. During this time he was also exposed to Taiki Ken (Japanese form of Yi Quan).

Later as Yang connected with Yi Quan 2nd & 3rd generation masters in Beijing, Martin got the opportunity to train in Beijing.