About Qi Yu Sifu

Few men can claim that they have studied and lived at the Shaolin Temple Fighting Monks School, China and who is actually certified as a Master by the temple’s Master and appointed as the Representative for the International General Association of Shoalin Temple Disciples in South Africa. Qi Yu Sifu is one of these view men.

Qi Yu Sifu, who is a proud father of 2 boys and a daughter, was born on 7 December 1949 as the eldest of five children, 1 brother and 3 sisters in the Hunan province, China, which is located in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River and south of Lake Dongting.

Sifu started his martial arts training at the age of 6, under his father Wei Zhe Yu whom was an adept kung fu master and also a high-ranking officer in the military forces. Sifu was taught kung fu as taught to his father by his grandfather and his father’s uncles as well as China’s army boxing.

Sifu as a small build boy growing up in the city of Hunan had to constantly fight of bullies and the mental and physical kung fu training came in handy more often than needed. Sifu recalled with amusement that as a young boy he started to enjoy fighting and was challenged by a boy much bigger and stronger than himself and won the fight by biting his opponent. He added that to survive an attack you must do anything to get away from a situation, even biting.

Qi Yu Sifu entered the Shaolin Temple at Dengfeng, China in 1984 and continued his training in Qi Gong, Shaolin Temple Kung Fu, Sanda Kick Boxing, Chin Na and Pressure-Point Fighting and was subsequently bequeath as a 34^th generation fighting monk and renamed Shi Yan Qi Sifu.

In 1996 Qi Yu Sifu was commissioned to South Africa to teach kung fu under the banner of The International General Association of Shoalin Temple Disciples and to establish relations between China and the South African martial arts community. Sifu mentioned that he has a dream to establish a curriculum of health and fitness based on the principles of kung fu in the schools of South Africa.