Dancing with Mr. Bee and Mister Gee

June 28, 2000

MISTER Gee is as soft-spoken chinky-eyed middle-aged man with a friendly smile and a youthful chuckle that makes you forget his age and thinning hair. More than five years ago, he was a somewhat awkward man not quite confident of his physical power.
That was before he studied tai-chi-chuan and Dragon Fist.

Mr. Bee is a loquacious showoff who can make a believer of the infidel – a kinder way of saying makabuhi og patay (the English translation is not flattering). That was many years after he studied tai-chi-chuan and Dragon Fist.

Spot the difference between the two monsieurs. Never mind the similarities. Then quote that Roman Catholic priest demonphobe: “That’s the work of the devil.” Then that Cebu Daily News report on “meditation in motion.”

Having spent a good (or was it bad) part of my teens in a Catholic seminary, I know enough to recognize meditation and having moved from there to here...motion. And also having dabbled in tai chi and a few other Asian martial arts, it’s not difficult to distinguish between contemplation and unarmed combat and to spot a fraud 1.2 kilometers away.

Mr. Bee is one such fraud. He even ran away with the money of the company he once worked for. And in this very paper he had his photograph complete with name pasted on one-fourth of a page in the classified ads section, with the warning: _____________ has ceased to be connected with _________ (name of pilfered company). Any transaction with _________ will not be honored.

That’s the word. Honor. No honor, actually. How can one be honorable after challenging one’s longtime martial-arts teacher to a fight, and denied the opportunity to be pummeled to a pulp, resorts to badmouthing that teacher and calling him unprintables in his presence and behind his back.

Now here comes that very same dishonorable mention of a man trying to show off before hundreds of people who know practically nil of “meditation in motion” “work of the devil.”

Once a con man, always a con man. It wouldn’t be half as bad if only Mr. Bee hadn’t dragged the whole martial-arts community with him into the mud he still loves to wallow in. The impression that martial artists are saints without halos should not be encouraged. The movie images of the serene Shaolin monk mouthing: “Buddha bless you” at every turn has added to their mystique and reverence. (To be concluded)