Chang Dsu Yao

Quick Facts

Date of Birth6/14/1918

Date of Death2/7/1992

Country of OriginItaly

OccupationSoldier

Also known asChang Tsu-yao

Biography

Chang Dsu Yao was born on 14 June 1918 in the village of Chaiji in Pei County, Jiangsu Province, and died on 7 February 1992 in Taipei. He was a master of meihuaquan and taijiquan who after leaving the army taught Chinese martial arts in Italy.

He began training in meihuaquan at the age of six with Liu Baojun; in the lineage of this style he is listed as the 16th generation. In 1938 he trained at the Military Officers' School in Guilin, a branch of the Whampoa Academy, among others with Chang Dongsheng and Chang Ch'ing P'o. He fought in the anti-Japanese war and in the Chinese civil war on the side of Chiang Kai-shek. After 1949 he went to Taiwan, where he taught martial arts to the army and police and associated with, among others, Cheng Man-ch'ing and Liu Yunqiao.

He taught meihuaquan, taijiquan, bajiquan, baguazhang, xingyiquan, hongquan, yuejiaquan and other styles and weapons. In 1974 he retired from the army, in 1975 he moved to Bologna, and in 1977, at the invitation of Roberto Fassi, to Milan, where he founded the school Scuola Chang, divided into waijia and neijia sections. With his students he wrote the three-volume L'enciclopedia del Kung Fu Shaolin (1986–1989), Tai Chi Chuan (1989), Il Kung Fu (1990), Corso pratico di Tai Chi Chuan (1993) and Il Tai Chi Chuan, il segreto dell'energia vitale (1996).

In the Italian federation FE.S.I.KA he led the kung fu section and later founded his own association FeIK. After the world championships in Taiwan in 1986, half of the members split from it and UIKC was formed. His students included his sons Chang Wei-hsin and Chang Yu-hsin, as well as Xu Wenli, Maurizio Zanetti, Enrico Lazzerini and Roberto Fassi.

Associated Martial Arts

Organisations

• SCUOScuola ChangFounder · 1977