Duncan Wong by Eliane Carotta

His background comes from San Francisco’s Chinatown, where he was born and had his Buddhist master.

The influence of his grandfather’s Gung-Fu practice and formal dojang (Korean martial arts school) training are very significant in his martial arts knowledge.
In yoga he comes from Ashtanga lineage of Sri K. Pattabhi Jois, and he is also certified in the Jivamukti Yoga method as taught directly by Sharon Gannon and David Life.

He is Duncan Wong, the founder of Yogic Arts, a practice that mixes yoga and martial art.
His body-language-form-of-practice and his inner peace make everybody follow his movements. The soundtrack is unique: a mixing of hip hop and oriental sounds that overcome the usual and transform the mat in a space where you workout body, mind and soul with spirituality, and even humor sometimes. His unique way, his knowledge and humbleness, were far ahead my expectations. It was such an honor has somebody like him to practice and learn from!

What is Yogic Arts?

The Definition:
A Synthesized System comprised of organic movements from the disciplines of Yoga, Martial Arts, Body Work, Pilates + Dance.

The Principle:
Physical Enlightenment through Sacred Touch + True Grounding

The Results:
Rhythmic Movement Therapy + Superior Core Conditioning + Purified Energy
When did you first practice yoga, and how was the beginning in this style?

As a teenager, I turned to yoga as a pathway for healing from my combative urban youth.
As a childhood laborer with early martial artist roots, and later as a yogi and a body worker; I took the multi-faceted teachings of my masters, and intrinsically developed a practice and a natural movement within my own life. Also, my every movement resonated and evolved the Yogic Arts practice, in the same way an animal develops a feeling for its innate balance and power.
As a teacher-practitioner with 20+ years of movement experience to reflect upon, I have a high regard for compassion and wisdom towards those driven to seek their truth and perfection.
How do you feel the connection between you body and mind in your practice?

Two parts of a greater whole, which constitutes the conscious machine which we utilize as the divine instrument to play our sweet lives through.
Do you ever find that yoga takes you more "out of the world" than "into" it?

This all depends on the amount of intention and meditative quality we apply to our practice and the daily actions of our respective lives.
Reclusion into an ashram to attain enlightenment and then remaining there without sharing such acquired insight with others less fortunate enough to have this experience, is the antithesis of the yogic way and tradition.

Since you are a kind of yoga celebrity, what keeps you humble?

The consistent humility exemplified by my teachers, colleagues and students; and also the kind smiles on the faces of all the labor workers of the world, which I am a proud member of.
How do you view the current yoga boom, and what advices would you give to somebody that is just starting?

I view it as a clear global necessity for the continuation of love and humanity on the planet.
First, welcome to the healer-warrior path. You’re a yogi now : )
Secondly, with practice comes a responsibility to love your Self and Others equally. This begins from within, and involves practicing slowly and without inflicting pain on your body, heart and mind.
Remember, if it hurts and your breath is uneven, you’re not practicing yoga.Duncan has recently launched DVD's, Books, an iPod product with Apple, and his own clothing line in Japan, as well as establishing his Yogic Arts
headquarters this year, at the Namaste Yoga Shala in Shanghai. His line of clothing in the US is represented by I Love Yoga (www.iloveyoga.com).
+ info on his work and lifestyle products: www.yogicarts.com