Long Tou Shan school was founded by Master Luo Mei Juan, who teaches internationally at a number of locations, and regularly at the Long Tou Shan school. Throughout the year, instruction is also carried out by her assistant instructor, Master Zhou Da Zhu, an experienced instructor trained extensively by Master Luo. Masters Luo and Zhou instruct in English and have a great deal of experience teaching foreign students.
Master Luo Mei Juan
Master Luo Mei Juan is a 7th Duan Tai Chi Master of the Chinese Wushu Association, certified competition judge, and founder of the Long Tou Shan Martial Arts School in Yangshuo, China. In competition, she has been awarded fifteen gold medals in regional, national, and international competitions in China. A very outgoing, attentive and approachable instructor, she is known by everyone as Mei, and has twenty-five years of experience teaching Tai Chi and Qigong to students from around the world. Mei speaks Chinese and English.
Mei teaches internationally at a number of locations, and in Long Tou school when she is in China.
From her youngest days with her father, a Kung Fu master, Mei loved the martial arts. However, as her father was very traditional, he refused to teach his skills to a girl. Mei took up dancing until she was old enough to learn martial arts by herself, when she started taking lessons in Yang style Tai Chi from local teachers. She practised both the long and short forms, and later the Yuan (circle) Neng (energy) Gong with a Taoist Wudang Master. At the age of seventeen she learned acupuncture and traditional medicine from Doctor Lei Long Hui. Mei also intensively studied tai chi sword and fan, push hands, and meditation, as well as an-in depth exploration of yoga with well-known instructor Richard Baimbridge. Practising Tai Chi every day Mei wanted to learn more styles and this led her in 1996 to Chen Village, the home of the Chen Family and 19th Generation Grandmaster Chen Zheng Lei, recognized by the government as one of the ten great martial arts masters of China.
In 2003, while regularly teaching students by the riverside in Yangshuo, Mei applied to become a Tai Chi Master and took the written and practical exams, as well as the required demonstration of teaching skills before the examination panel at the Chen Village Tai Chi Training Center, and was accredited as a Master under the supervision of Grandmaster Chen Zheng Lei. Encouraged by her teachers she began to enter competitions, winning numerous gold and silver medals in both taijiquan and sword.
Since 2003 Mei has been apprenticed to Chen Zheng Lei, and returns to Chen Village for three weeks every year to study with him.
In 2004 Mei founded the WuWei school of martial arts, moving the school in 2006 to a new location under Long Tou (Dragon Head) mountain and giving it the name Long Tou Shan Martial Arts School that it has today. Over the years, students from all over the world have come to study and practise at the Long Tou Shan school.
In 2007 the Chinese Wushu Association invited Mei to be examined as an Advanced Level Wushu Coach and she was subsequently invited to participate in the 2008 Beijing Wushu Competition, held alongside the Olympics, where Mei won two gold medals and a ticket to watch the Olympic events.
Perhaps most important from the point of view of her students, in 2009 Mei won a gold medal as best Tai Chi instructor as she led her student group to success at the regional competition in Guilin, China, where several students brought home medals. She also led students to gold medal awards at the CFWS (Chinese Martial Arts Association) competition in Beijing and at the Kung Fu Championship event in Denver, Colorado, USA in 2011.
In 2012, Mei trained in Tai Chi Kung Fu fan techniques with renowned Professor Li De Yin at a special event conducted at the studio of Master Sitan Chen at Long Island, New York, U.S.A.
Though Mei is proficient at and teaches traditional sword and hand styles, she also has developed a freestyle Chen form selecting steps from the Lao Jia and the Xin Jia (long forms) and improvising her own sequence called the Chen-style 13 form.
In addition to leading the Long Tou Shan Martial Arts School and being present there for some time each year, Mei has been a guest instructor in southern Thailand and Bali, Indonesia, and has taught students in Colorado, U.S.A. Her son, Zhou Da Zhu, trained in depth by his mother, now carries on the tradition of teaching throughout the year at the Long Tou Shan school.
John L Payne, author of ‘The Presence of the Soul & The Healing of Individuals, Families and Nations‘, wrote:
“Mei is the most wonderful Tai Chi teacher I have ever worked with. She radiates enthusiasm, passion and genuine concern for each of her students. It was a great pleasure to work with her. For Mei, Tai Chi is not a dance as many others would have you believe, but the enhancing and realisation of our inner authentic power in the form of Chi. Mei is truly a master!”
Master Zhou Dazhu
Zhou Da Zhu is a Tai Chi Master and the lead instructor at the Long Tou Shan Martial Arts School. Da Zhu speaks English and is well-regarded by students at the school.
Zhou Da Zhu, like his mother, Luo Mei Juan, loved martial arts from his youngest days, and studied Qigong and Tai Chi with her. In addition to training extensively with his mother, he has studied Xinyi liu he ba fa (心意六合八法) with Master Zhang Xiao Yuan, and with well-known Qigong Master Chen Jing (中华传统武术名师 陈靖), and has trained with Grandmaster Chen Zheng Lei atthe Chen Village Tai Chi Training Center.
In 2008 Master Da Zhu started teaching at the Long Tou Shan school in Yangshuo. In 2009 Master Da Zhu won a bronze medal at the national Chinese Wushu Competition in Guilin, and in 2011 he was awarded a gold medal at the national CFWS (Chinese Martial Arts Association) Competition in Beijing.