Biography
Wu Ying-hua began studying Tai Chi Chuan at age nine, and by age seventeen, she was a full-time teacher in her father's school. In 1921, she was invited to teach Tai Chi Chuan in Shanghai. In 1928, her father followed her to Shanghai and she became his teaching assistant. In 1930, she married Ma Yueh-liang who was Wu Chien-ch'uan's senior disciple. In 1935, Wu Chien-ch'uan founded the Chien-ch'uan Tai Chi Chuan Association (鑑泉太極拳社) in Shanghai. Wu Chien-ch'uan died in 1942.
After the Cultural Revolution, at about 1980, it became possible to teach Tai Chi Chuan publicly in China. About this time her brother Wu Kung-tsao was released from prison and moved to Hong Kong. Wu Ying-hua and Ma Yueh-liang, remaining in mainland China, created a simplified Wu Tai Chi Chuan Form and were again able to have public meetings of the Chien-ch'uan Tai Chi Chuan Association. They taught a large number of students in Shanghai and in their travels to New Zealand, Germany and elsewhere. Together with Ma Yueh-liang, Wu Ying-hua published several books on Wu-style t'ai chi ch'uan. The books “Wu style Tai Chi Chuan: Forms, Concepts and Applications of the Original Style,” “Wu Simplified Tai Chi Chuan,” and “Wu style Tai Chi K'uai (Fast) Chuan or Wu Style Tai Chi Fast Form” have been collected in a single volume in China. They also co-authored a Wu style sword book. Wu Ying-hua was the senior instructor of the Wu family from 1983 until she died in 1996.
Ma Yueh-liang and Wu Ying-hua are survived by several children and grandchildren, including: Ma Jiangchun (b. 1931), Dr. Ma Hailong (b. 1935), Ma Jiang Bao (b. 1941), and Ma Jiangling (b. 1947). Ma Jiang Bao lives in the Netherlands and teaches traditional Tai Chi Chuan in Europe. Their adopted daughter Shi Mei Lin now lives and teaches in New Zealand. She also has students in France and in the United States (Tucson, Arizona).
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