Grandmaster Suh Chong Kang

My Interview with 10th Degree Black Belt, Grandmaster Suh Chong Kang

My original master did not talk much about his early training years with me as my current master and mentors do. But I knew a little bit on my own. I love history, not only culturally and socially but our own personal histories as well. To go back to our roots and bond with a certain understanding of where we came form in essence to grow further. I also love learning. I love people. And I love teaching. There are many avenues to doing this. So on my YouTube channel, besides talking about topics that come up that martial arts can answer, I also wanted to interview the greatest martial artists of all time.

I always wanted to meet Great Grandmaster Suh Chong Kang. All I knew about him was that he created two of the forms I was taught by my original master, that I continued out of respect for our small lineage. I also knew he was a former Vice-President of the International Taekwondo Federation (ITF) in the 1970s into 80s. I wanted to find him and learn more about him as I felt a connection for some reason because, to me, it was a missing link to the origins of my martial arts.

I also knew he was one of the best and a great contributor to an art that is important to me and that I have been training in for over 16 years. So when I decided on doing my Martial Arts Masters project, the idea to do Specials for the YouTube Channel came to mind. I wanted Grandmaster Kang to be my first Special. But finding him was not going to be easy. I had no clue where to start. My first master was from Brooklyn. So that is where I began searching.

Sure enough there were several Kang schools still in operation in New York area. I contacted each one several times all summer. Until finally I began doing some very deep, and difficult research. I tried to get in touch with the youngest son. One day I got a receptionist on the phone and she told me it was the middle son I would want to talk to. Okay. Where is his school? He doesn't have a school?
 -__- Do you have a phone number I can reach him at? Afraid I cannot. -__- How can I reach him? She responds, maybe Facebook.

I said "Hold on,"...click, click, click, "Okay...spell it." She stayed on the phone until I found the correct name. I friend requested him and sent a message. One night, I see he accepted my request and he was up on Facebook and sent him another message and we began to talking. I told him the idea of my project that would lead into a few other projects. We spoke on the phone a few times and I immediately loved talking with Grandmaster Hosun Kang. Sometimes you talk to people in the industry and you can just tell from the conversation that they are real martial artists. The Kangs are such people. I was told his father does not normally do interviews. But we were able to arrange a day to interview.

Me interviewing Great Grandmaster Suh Chong Kang, founder of Kuk Mu Kwan and great contributor to Taekwondo.

I was absolutely THRILLED to meet both Great Grandmaster Suh Chong Kang and his son Grandmaster Hosun Kang. I was meeting my original master's masters. I am a fourth generation of the Kang legacy and yet this is the first time we met. I was well prepared, as I usually am VERY thorough and had all my questions prepared. Sometimes when I do this, I know more about the person than they know about themselves!

Interviewing Grandmaster Kang was fascinating to me as well. He was so kind, and the history was superb! He just turned 85 years old, yet he is a walking history book and remembered everything to the last detail. We talked about his earlier beginnings in martial arts during the time before Korea's independence from Japan, how he was involved in the first Korean martial art, his founding of his own martial arts, his Korean War experience, his working with General Honghi Choi, his personal accounts with working with General Choi, and some of his well known students such as Jhoon Rhee, Hee Il Cho (Who'se birthday is today), and Hangun Lee.

There were accounts Grandmaster spoke about that have never been spoken about before such as General Choi's involvement in the formation of the art and the beginnings of the World Taekwondo Federation (WTF). It was all so fascinating to me. When the interview went live, I couldn't believe the response we would get. There were so many who knew of Grandmaster Kang who were so thrilled that "the truth has been told" and that it was "about time". I am happy to have done that for the Kangs.

There were also some who did not agree with some of the things said in the interview, but respected a great deal of what Grandmaster Kang had to say. General Choi's granddaughter was NOT happy with the interview, actually. I contacted her asking for an interview with me on her own account of her grandfather's history, but I have not heard back from her. Either way, people know about Grandmaster Kang and Kuk Mu Kwan.

I have to thank my friend Brian who produced the Special. I was a royal pain in the butt in every detail of the Special and it took so much of his time. God bless him, but it looks fantastic. I cannot thank Brian Wreckler enough and if there is anyone who wanted to do a video project with him, he's worth every dollar and comes highly recommended! Thank you Brian, for all your hard work! And thanks to Thomas Cubby and Heather Marte who helped on a few of the in betweens I needed to take care of in its production.

I want to thank Grandmaster Hosun Kang who is a true martial artists through and through. He and I can talk for hours about martial arts and never get tired. It's great to see a Grandmaster with such great values the arts provides as well as a straight forward perspective with such depth of it's history. and of course a special thank you to Great Grandmaster Suh Chong Kang himself! Without him, any of us in this country who owns a Taekwondo school wouldn't HAVE schools if it weren't for this man's involvement in it's history, especially in this country.

PLEASE SHARE AND SUBSCRIBE TO THE YOUTUBE CHANNEL! Below are links to the channel, the interview, and below is the promo video on the interview. My goal is to get 1000 subscribers by Christmas, and I also hope the world gets to know Grandmaster Kang and his contributions to the Korean arts and Kuk Mu Kwan further gets recognized in the world. I also hope the martial arts world continues to learn from other masters that I get to interview on the channel. In the end, we're all teaching the same principles that martial arts has to offer. (BOWS)

Grandmaster Hosun Kang, Great Grandmaster Suh Chong Kang, and I having coffee after the interview. 

Yours in service,
MASTER A TRENTO