About Us
Embracing the Future to Safeguard the Past
The Institute
The Institute for Martial Arts Research is a study group founded by Grandmaster Tian Jian in 2017 to resurrect, preserve, and promote traditional Chinese martial arts worldwide. The Institute offers distance learning and certification courses to its members, the first of which (our black sash ranking program in Shaolin Pao Chui) was released in 2023. Over time, the Institute plans to add to these courses, saving traditional styles from extinction and providing accessible, low-cost, training options for students with an interest in these historically important styles of kung fu.
In 2013, Tian Jian was awarded 7th duan black sash in Shaolin Pao Chi and the title of "Grandmaster" by 34th generation Shaolin Temple Warrior Secular Disciple Shi Yan Zhi (a disciple of Abbot Shi Yong Xin) and Grandmaster Gu Ping, Professor of Wushu at Beijing University (and 32nd generation Shaolin Temple Secular Disciple). Nine years and a dozen students later, he was awarded the rank of 8th duan black sash. In addition to these ranks, Grandmaster Tian Jian has cross-trained in Xingyiquan and Northern Shaolin Iron Fist and Body since 2012. He studied these arts under Master Jake Reeves, a student of Master Guy Sandy, an instructor in Grandmaster Xu Hongji's lineage. Grandmaster Tian Jian was awarded the rank of instructor in Xingyiquan in 2019, then advanced instructor in 2021. He was awarded the rank of Master in Northern Shaolin Iron Fist and Iron Body in 2019.
IMAR President
The Institute's founder, and first President, is Grandmaster Tian Jian (Ted Evans). Tian Jian was born and raised in Great Britain, and studied martial arts from childhood. He spent a decade learning the Yang and Chen styles of Taijiquan under family lineage holders, and studied Wing Chun under a senior student of Grandmasters Yip Ching and Yip Chun. In the early 2000s, while studying and researching the Chen family's Pao Chui routines, he discovered Shaolin Pao Chui. He resolved to study this art not as part of the expanded wushu curriculum taught at the new Shaolin Temple, but rather in its original form, as a complete martial art in and of itself.
