Bow-sim Mark (born 1942) is a Chinese martial arts grandmaster who lives in
Newton, Massachusetts
Newton is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. It is approximately west of downtown Boston. Newton resembles a patchwork of thirteen villages, without a city center. According to the 2020 U.S. Census, the population of Ne ...
, US. She is the mother of martial arts film star,
Donnie Yen
Donnie Yen Chi-tan (; born 27 July 1963) is a Hong Kong actor, martial artist, and action director. Yen is one of Hong Kong's top action stars. Yen is widely credited for bringing mixed martial arts (MMA) into the mainstream Asian cinema by cho ...
.
Training
Mark was born in
Guangzhou
Guangzhou (, ; ; or ; ), also known as Canton () and alternatively romanized as Kwongchow or Kwangchow, is the capital and largest city of Guangdong province in southern China. Located on the Pearl River about north-northwest of Hong Kon ...
,
Republic of China
Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the northeast ...
in 1942. She began studying martial arts at elementary school, training seriously in high school and then at
Wushu training schools, specialising in
t'ai chi ch'uan
Tai chi (), short for Tai chi ch'üan ( zh, s=太极拳, t=太極拳, first=t, p=Tàijíquán, labels=no), sometimes called "shadowboxing", is an neijia, internal Chinese martial art practiced for defense training, health benefits and medita ...
and
Northern Shaolin
In its broadest sense, Northern Shaolin () is the external (as opposed to internal) martial arts of Northern China, referring to those styles from the Northern Shaolin Monastery in Henan and specifically to the style practice by ''Gù Rǔzhāng ...
. Mark learned Fu Style
Wudangquan
Wudang quan () is a class of Chinese martial arts. In contemporary China, Chinese martial arts styles are generally classified into two major groups: Wudang (Wutang), named after the Wudang Mountains; and Shaolin, named after the Shaolin Monaster ...
by training under
Fu Wing Fay
Fu or FU may refer to:
In arts and entertainment
* Fool Us, Penn & Teller's magic-competition television show
*Fǔ, a type of ancient Chinese vessel
*Fu (poetry) (赋), a Chinese genre of rhymed prose
*'' FU: Friendship Unlimited'', a 2017 Marat ...
for 10 years; Wing Fay was the eldest son and top student of Grandmaster
Fu Chen Sung
Fu Zhensong (; 1872–1953), also known by his courtesy name Fu Qiankun, was a grandmaster of Wudangquan martial arts. He was best known as one of the famed "Five Northern Tigers," and a third-generation master of Baguazhang who founded Fu S ...
. She was an instructor at Wing Fay's school from 1968 to 1974.
[
]
Career
After living for years in Hong Kong
Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...
, Mark emigrated to Brighton, Massachusetts
Brighton is a Municipal annexation in the United States, former town and current Neighborhoods in Boston, neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, United States, located in the northwestern corner of the city. It is named after the English city of ...
in 1975, and founded the Chinese Wushu Research Institute in July 1976. She still teaches and performs in the Boston
Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
area. She was one of the first to provide Chinese wushu instruction in the West
West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sunset, Sun sets on the Earth.
Etymology
The word "west" is a Germanic languages, German ...
and is credited with popularizing the term Wushu outside of China. She gave the first demonstration of Combined Tai Chi Chuan
Tai chi (), short for Tai chi ch'üan ( zh, s=太极拳, t=太極拳, first=t, p=Tàijíquán, labels=no), sometimes called "shadowboxing", is an internal Chinese martial art practiced for defense training, health benefits and meditation. Ta ...
in the United States, and published the first description of the technique in 1975. Mark won a gold medal at the first International Tournament of T'ai chi ch'uan in Wuhan City in 1984. She was named '' Black Belt'' magazine's Kung-Fu artist of the year for 1995.
One of her specialities is her Wudang sword dance.[ She played the part of a 'kung fu diva' in a play, Mum and Shah at the Lyric Stage theater in Boston in 1995.
]Black Belt Magazine
''Black Belt'' is an American magazine covering martial arts and combat sports. The magazine is based in Valencia, California, and is one of the oldest titles dedicated to martial arts in the United States.
History and profile
The magazine was ...
named her one of the most influential martial artists of the 20th Century.
Personal life
Mark is married to the newspaper editor Klyster Yen[ and has two children,][ a son, martial arts movie star ]Donnie Yen
Donnie Yen Chi-tan (; born 27 July 1963) is a Hong Kong actor, martial artist, and action director. Yen is one of Hong Kong's top action stars. Yen is widely credited for bringing mixed martial arts (MMA) into the mainstream Asian cinema by cho ...
, and a daughter, Chris Yen
Chris Yen Tze-ching (born August 4, 1974) is a Hong Kong martial artist and actress. She is the younger sister of the actor Donnie Yen. She was noted for her roles in the films ''Protégé de la Rose Noire'', ''Adventures of Johnny Tao: Rock Ar ...
, who placed All-round Third division in the First International Wushu tournament in 1986 as the youngest competitor, and who has also joined the film industry.
References
External links
Profile from the Chinese Wushu Research Institute
(Wayback Machine
The Wayback Machine is a digital archive of the World Wide Web founded by the Internet Archive, a nonprofit based in San Francisco, California. Created in 1996 and launched to the public in 2001, it allows the user to go "back in time" and see ...
copy)
Bookfinder.com's catalog of Bow Sim Mark titles
Profile from Mass. Culture Council
including a video of her performance.
Instructors – United Martial Arts Center
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mark, Bow-Sim
1942 births
Chinese tai chi practitioners
Hong Kong emigrants to the United States
Living people
Sportspeople from Guangzhou
Sportspeople from Boston
American people of Chinese descent
People from Newton, Massachusetts