Tiger Claw Elite KungFuMagazine.com Championship
Tiger Claw, the Masters’ Choice for Martial Arts Gear, launched the Tiger Claw Elite Championship (TCEC) in 2006. Initially, TCEC was a series of tournaments, held in cooperation with Disney. It was a unique martial arts venture, the only of its kind that involved a major corporation like Disney. TCEC began each year at Disneyland® in Anaheim California and concluded with an annual finale at Disney’s Wide World of Sports® Complex near Orlando, Florida. In between, TCEC traveled through about a dozen tournaments across the nation every year. TCEC featured divisions for Chinese, Korean and Japanese arts and was nested within regional participating tournaments. The local San Francisco Bay Area event was RDK’s Ultimate Internationals, held at the Santa Clara Convention Center. Tiger Claw headquarters is based only a few miles away in Fremont, with an East Coast facility in Knoxville, Tennessee.
The San Francisco Bay Area is home to dozens of Karate and Taekwondo tournaments every year, but only a few that showcase Chinese martial arts. TC Media International, a division of Tiger Claw, publishes Kung Fu Tai Chi, a bimonthly print magazine focused on the Chinese martial arts. With the influence of Kung Fu Tai Chi, the Chinese martial community responded the most enthusiastically. Consequently, the Chinese divisions quickly dominated the Bay Area TCEC in Santa Clara for its three-year run.
TCEC’s final year was in 2008. Eleven days before that event, tragedy struck China with the disastrous Sichuan quake. Immediately Tiger Claw’s charitable arm, Tiger Claw Foundation, called upon leading local martial artists and produced the Martial Arts Benefit for Quake Victims, a fundraising performance, to conclude the tournament event. The project raised over $73,000, which was donated to construct a new school in Sichuan.
In the following year, popular demand from the local Chinese community inspired Tiger Claw to re-launch another tournament, Tiger Claw Elite KungFuMagazine.com Championship, held in the spacious South Hall of the San Jose McEnery Convention Center. Initially, Tiger Claw Elite KungFuMagazine.com Championship was held in partnership with a Karate tournament, the Shark City Nationals.
In 2012, Kung Fu Tai Chi celebrated two decades of publishing with KUNG FU TAI CHI 20 YEARS. The celebration combined Tiger Claw’s KungFuMagazine.com Championship with a Gala Banquet and KUNG FU TAI CHI DAY, a street fair in downtown San Jose. KUNG FU TAI CHI 20 YEARS was an overwhelming success. It was reported in a special issue of Kung Fu Tai Chi (SEP+OCT 2012) as well as with over two thousand photos on Kung Fu Tai Chi facebook albums and dozens of videos on Kung Fu Tai Chi’s YouTube channel.
In 2013, the Tiger Claw Elite Championships was reborn as a one-day event, coupling with the Tiger Claw Elite KungFuMagazine.com Championship with the Tiger Claw Elite Taekwondo Championship. In 2016, with the Tiger Claw Elite KungFuMagazine.com Championship expanded into a two-day event, with the internal divisions and showcase championships combining with KUNG FU TAI CHI DAY, all in the McEnery Convention Center.
For 2017, the Tiger Claw the KUNG FU TAI CHI 25TH ANNIVERSARY FESTIVAL. The Tiger Claw Elite KungFuMagazine.com Championship added a very special show at the California Theater on Friday Night, Grandmasters LIVE! featuring many past Cover Masters, as well as a Banquet Gala on Saturday Night.
In 2018, the Tiger Claw Elite KungFuMagazine.com Championship and KUNG FU TAI CHI DAY resumed as an annual two-day event, all in the McEnery Convention Center. However due to the pandemic, the 2020 Tiger Claw Elite KungFuMagazine.com Championship and KUNG FU TAI CHI DAY was canceled and Kung Fu Tai Chi folded. Undaunted, KungFuMagazine.com continued publishing weekly fresh unique articles and bi-weekly sweepstakes, as well as maintaining its longstanding online discussion forum. A special Tiger Claw Elite KungFuMagazine.com Online Championship was held over five weeks, starting in November 2020. However, the event remained on hiatus from then onward. This was extremely disappointing as 2022 would have marked the 30th Anniversary of Kung Fu Tai Chi, as well as the Year of the Tiger, the mascot of the parent company Tiger Claw.
2023 marks the return of the Tiger Claw Elite KungFuMagazine.com Championship and KUNG FU TAI CHI DAY. We are very excited to host our epic gathering once more, and look forward to seeing everyone again. Stay tuned to this website for updates and thank you for your continued support during these challenging times.