The Zhang San Feng Festival was founded in 1975 in Chinatown, NYC, by the late tai chi & Taoist master, Jou Tsung Hwa. A trained Chinese scholar, he authored three books on the subject of tai chi: Tao of I Ching: Way to Divination, The Tao of Meditation: Way to Enlightenment, and The Dao of Taijiquan: Way to Rejuvenation (Tai Chi). The last title has been translated into six different languages and continues to be a bestseller.

Workshop at the Tai Chi Farm in Warwick, NY

Throughout the 1980s & 90s, the Zhang San Feng Festival was hosted at Master Jou's rustic center for tai chi studies in Warwick, NY, the 103-acre Tai Chi Farm. In 1990, the master accepted an apprentice, Loretta Wollering, who became Operations Director of both Farm and Festival. Under her direction, the Festival blossomed to an event attracting nearly 700 people a year, earning it the nickname, "The Woodstock of Tai Chi."

In 1998, tragedy struck when Master Jou was killed in an auto accident. In 2003 Loretta, together with her husband, James Donnelly, founded an educational organization, the American Society of Internal Arts, or A.S.I.A. Under A.S.I.A., they revived the Festival at a new location. Today the Festival remains a labor of love and dedication as Loretta and James, staying true to Loretta's promise to protect and preserve her teacher's legacy, continues nurturing this 33-year-old event into the largest and most time honored tai chi, qigong and Chinese arts convention in the country.

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