Growing up with a father passionate about Taoism and a sister deep into the study of meditation, native New Yorker Erik Oliva developed his interest in traditional Chinese culture since he was very young. In the early 2000s, he moved to China to study Chinese martial arts and philosophy for eight years. As a foreigner practicing and promoting martial arts in China, Oliva sometimes encountered prejudice, but more often, he met friendly people who helped him achieve his goal of studying traditional Chinese culture. After he returned to the U.S., he developed his own school of martial arts where he passes on what he learned in China.
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