| Master Yang Li Hua |
Master Yang Li Hua was born in Hohhot, Inner-Mongolia. She was born into a family
with strong martial traditions. Her Grandfather, Yang Jian Jiu , had a rigid daily training schedule which included Traditional Yang style Tai Chi,
weapons and fist arts.  "Playing" with her grandfather was her first introduction
into Chinese Wushu. Her father had decided that out of the three children, Master Yang Li Hua's future would lie in Wushu.When she was 5 she started her formal Wushu training with the Inner-Mongolian Wushu Team. She was trained daily for 4 hours in all aspects of Wushu from empty hand techniques to weapons and sparring. The winters in Inner-Mongolia are very harsh with temperatures often dropping to -30 degrees, yet her training would continue daily outside in the harsh conditions. Master Yang took part in her first Wushu competition at the age of 7. When she was 9 years old, Inner-Mongolia held a large cultural festival where performing troops from all over China displayed their cultural dances etc. The Beijing Wushu Team came to perform Wushu demonstrations at this festival. As the Beijing Wushu Team was the most well-known and successful Wushu team in China, the Inner-Mongolian team went to meet them and to train during their stay in Hohhot.  This demonstration sparked Master Yang Li Hua's fathers ambitions for his daughter to become the best and at the age of 11 she joined the Beijing Wushu Team. When she joined the team, many of today's famous members were training such as Jet Li, Zhang Hong Mei, Lu Yan, Wang Jian Jun, Yu Shaowen and others. The professional level and teaching methods of the Beijing team pushed Master Yang to improve very rapidly and was learning numerous empty hand and weapon styles but was specializing in changquan (longfist), jianshu (straightsword) and qiangshu (spear). As her father was a personal friend of Wu Bin, Master Wu kept a close watch on Master Yang and pushed her to her limits often, which helped her improve much faster. During her time in the team, Master Yang also entered numerous Wushu compertitions in China and took top places for her divisions, and the Autonomous Region Competitions always invited her to compete and thanks to her training at the Beijing Team she always took top honours and many gold medals. 
When Master Yang Li Hua was 16, the Chinese Military was creating a Wushu team to compete in National Army competitions and called Master Yang to
form part of the first female specialized team due to her Wushu level. She was sent to her barracks straight away from the Beijing team and she was the youngest member (as well as the only female in the army wushu team). Her Wushu training continued daily in the Army as well as learning other skills (qin na, motor bike stunts, shooting etc), when it was close to competition time, Master Yang was always sent back to the Beijing Wushu Team to train. She represented the army many times in competitions and military demonstrations and won many awards throughout China. During training exercised between the US Military and the Chinese Army in 1987 (Master Yang being 17 years old) she was called for a challenge match with the US Female Self-defense tactics Instructor, which Master Yang easily won. For this she received a military honor, and she was photographed and written about in many magazines and newspapers. During that same year she was called to star in 2 movies (one for TV and one for cinema) which were only released within China. She continued training and representing the Military Wushu team for many years. 
 Master Li Hua is currently ranked 6th dan by the IWUF and is a certified international standard coach. Master Lihua was certified as an international standard Wushu Judge by the International Wushu Federation (IWUF) in 2004. Master Yang Lihua is the Head of the South African Wushu Federation Technical Committee and the National Wushu Coach. She is currently preparing the SA National Wushu team to compete at the 8th World Wushu Championships in Hanoi, Vietnam in December 2005. 
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