Matthew Lee is a lover of sanda — a form of modern competitive wushu — and a former member of the US wushu national team. Coming to Houston from Maryland, he joined hundreds of others to take part in the first International Kungfu and Taiji Festival held last Friday to Sunday.

"It's a rare opportunity to learn from the best in the country, and it's also a fun opportunity to learn some other things," Lee said.

The festival was a gathering of "who's who" in the US world of wushu. Some are legendary: "Tai chi Prince" Chen Sitan, who won more than 30 medals before he retired from competition; tai chi grandmaster Chen Zhenglei, who was named one of Top Ten Martial Arts Masters of Present Day; and Gao Jiamin, who was once called "Queen of Tai chi".

The last time a gathering of this caliber occurred in the United States was in 1995 when he was just a baby, Lee said. He eagerly seized this opportunity and took quite a few classes.

Besides taking sanda and taolu classes, he also registered to learn traditional wushu such as fanzi quan and two-handed sword from master Narcyz Latecki. "He learned from authentic traditional wushu master Ma Xianda, who taught Jet Li," he said.

Latecki, who now lives in the Boston area, is originally from Poland and immigrated to the US on account of his wushu talent. Growing up in a tough neighborhood, Latecki said wushu had given him purpose and confidence, and saved his life.

Besides performing at the opening event and teaching classes, he said he enjoyed the early morning exercise to learn the basics of tai chi and qigong from the masters.

For three days, the tai chi masters led a one-hour exercise beginning at 6:30 am. More than 200 people participated and it became one of the highlights at the festival.

"What I see from all the qigong classes is how tai chi should embrace health. I think that's a very good direction," Latecki said, adding that wushu practice is good to help people to get away from drugs, staring at phones and being glued to chairs.

Lee also took a class to learn hung gar under Jacob Brinnand, a fifth-generation disciple of direct lineage from the legendary master Wong Fei-hung.

Brinnand has studied hung gar in San Francisco and moved to the Houston area a few years ago. He is currently running Iron Wire Martial Arts Academy with more than 200 students.

"It made me so proud because kungfu is used to help. It is used to heal. It is used to build you up," he said of the festival. "To see all these masters together, it just makes me very, very happy. I'm very humbled."

Brinnand said the festival brought a sense of brotherhood or sisterhood. "Instead of arguing about who's No 1, who's the best fighter, we are coming together as family to bring up the culture. This is the greatest thing that I've seen."

Shi Xinghao, founder of Houston Shaolin Kung Fu Academy, echoed a similar view. He taught Shaolin kungfu at the festival, his two children took some classes, and he, along with his wife, worked as event volunteers.

"This is the first time we came together not to compete but to exchange. It's a great way to come together to learn and promote wushu," Shi said. "Everyone is happy to be part of it."

That was exactly the goal for Anthony Goh, founding president of the United States Kungfu Wushu Federation, who created and organized the event.

According to him, more than 30 masters offered more than 70 classes to over 300 participants, including competitive events, traditional wushu, acupuncture, and coach training.

"Tai chi proved to be the most popular. The festival turned out better than we expected with very positive feedback. The masters told me that they learned from each other too," Goh said. "The success is encouraging. It means that we are on the right track, and we will definitely continue to organize this event next year."

mayzhou@chinadailyusa.com