November 2026 · San Francisco → Southeast Asia
A kung fu pilgrimage to document the living masters of Five Ancestors Wuzuquan — and to carry the root of Chinese medicine home, on film, before the lineage disappears.
The Problem
We’re losing the masters.
Traditional Chinese martial arts — the arts that birthed Chinese medicine, Qigong, and the healing systems billions of people rely on — are disappearing. The masters who carry these lineages are aging. Their knowledge lives in their bodies, not in books. When they go, it goes.
The knowledge is oral, embodied, and unwritten.
There is no second copy of a living lineage.
Right now, we still have access — and it may not last.
The Mission
The Legacy Preservation Project is a documentary and content series that films the living masters of traditional Chinese martial arts while they still practice. Not a vanity project — cultural preservation with a teaching mission.
The audience discovers the art alongside the hosts — the way you learn a world by walking through it, not by being lectured at.
Every master we visit shares the three things they’d want their students to know. One preserved video per master.
We film our own transformation with a fixed set of questions — evidence that six months with these arts changes you.
A digital archive — a time capsule of the collected knowledge, open to future students and practitioners.
Martial arts and medicine share the same root.
The same tradition that produced Five Ancestors Wuzuquan produced Tui Na massage, Qigong, and the meridian system that underpins all of Chinese medicine. The Dit Da Jow — the medicinal injury formula famous in kung fu schools — is a healing product, and Chee Kim Thong’s society in Malaysia is renowned for its medicine.
This isn’t only martial arts preservation. It’s root-source medicine preservation. Every Ba Duan Jin movement taught at Orcanit Wellness traces back to these lineages. Sponsoring this trip sponsors the source of the medicine patients benefit from.
The Trip
A team of six American martial artists, led by Dr. Dan Fields, travel to Southeast Asia to train with the masters, pay homage, and film everything. This is not tourism — every participant makes a mandatory minimum donation of $100 to the temple we visit. That is etiquette. That is respect.
The team departs San Francisco on November 3 and lands in Singapore on November 4.
The primary event — representing the United States in an international martial arts exchange.
Train with living masters of Five Ancestors Wuzuquan at the Chee Kim Thong society. Visit the temple. Pay homage.
Dependent on funding and logistics — Sifu’s request to visit Phuket.
Interviews filmed here, bookending the documentary — the “before” captures our expectations, the “after” captures our transformation.
SFO → Singapore → Philippines → Malaysia → Thailand → Singapore
The McNeil Meeting
The Thailand leg centers on Sifu James McNeil — the meeting that captures his “Three Treasures,” the three things he would want his students to know. These become part of the preserved series. The access we have right now — built over years of etiquette and relationship — may not exist in two years.
The Archive
Estimated reach: 10,000+ views in the first 90 days across both YouTube channels — an audience of wellness practitioners, martial artists, and Chinese medicine students.
The “Learn With Us” narrative — the audience trains alongside us and watches our forms change over six months. Evidence-based progress, not performance.
Short 60–90 second clips from training drive viewers to long-form master interviews of 15–30 minutes. Two channels: DrDanCan + Qi Up Academy.
Each master shares the three key teachings they’d want their students to know. This becomes the core of the Crucible archive.
Filmed in Singapore with a fixed set of questions, so the change we document is measurable.
Testing AI animation of historical masters’ photographs, beginning with Master Chee Kim Tong — a first in martial arts preservation.
An on-camera thank-you to every sponsor — filmed with the masters on location and cut into the series.
The Team
A team of six American martial artists, led by Dr. Dan Fields — practitioners documenting their own journey, which is why the authenticity holds.
The Patriarch
He is the reason any of this exists. Andy began in 1977 in a San Francisco garage under Sifu Ernie Salinas, carried his training through a military career, and won a World Championship in forms in Koblenz, Germany. In 1986, Grandmaster Chee Kim Thong invited him to Malaysia — where he became a disciple and trained until the Grandmaster’s passing in 2001.
A Five Ancestors Wuzuquan lineage holder and one of only two teachers in the United States carrying the line, he hasn’t been back to Malaysia in more than twenty years. This pilgrimage is his homecoming — and ours. He leads the expedition and opens every door we walk through.
Joined by Myrna Foster — Sifu Andy’s wife, our Shimu, and the sixth traveler — who brings an outsider’s eye to the tradition.
The Promo Film
A short promo film is in its final edit now — premiering on the Qi Up Academy YouTube channel.
Coming soon on YouTube
Trailer premieres soon · full documentary to follow after the November 2026 expedition.
Sponsor Packages · $250 – $5,000
This is not a GoFundMe. It’s a media sponsorship — sponsors get brand association, documented content, and reach into a wellness and martial arts community. Seven sponsor relationships fund the entire trip.
Presenting
$5,000Anchor
$2,500Patron
$1,000Friend of the Project
$500Friend
$250From the trip, mailed to every sponsor.
See the documentary before public release.
Acknowledgment in the Crucible digital archive.
Micro-Investor Ladder · $25 – $200
Not everyone is a sponsor — but everyone can plant a seed. The ladder lets the community carry a piece of the journey, and your name goes in the Crucible archive.
Give to the Ladder — $25 to $200
The Math
$10,000
Puts the crew on the plane — the full trip costs.
$20,000
Carries the journey onward — post-production of the documentary and the Crucible archive.
Seven anchor sponsors get us to our $10,000 milestone by October 31, 2026 — the funds that put the crew on the plane. From there the Micro-Investor ladder and the wider community carry us to our $20,000 goal by December 31, 2026, which fuels post-production of the documentary and the build-out of the Crucible digital archive. Full financial transparency is provided to all sponsors.
Questions
No. This is a sponsorship, not a donation, and it is not tax-deductible. You are receiving documented content and brand placement in return — a media partnership, not a charitable gift.
Securely by card through Square — each tier links to its own checkout. Prefer a check, Venmo, or an in-person payment? Reach out to Dr. Dan directly and we’ll arrange it, then send a simple one-page sponsorship agreement.
Sponsorship commitments close December 31, 2026. Our first milestone is $10,000 by October 31, 2026; the trip departs San Francisco on November 3, 2026.
Depends on your tier — from a name in the credits and a gratitude post, up to a named Executive Producer credit, VIP premiere tickets, and a featured segment in the series. Every sponsor also gets a signed photo from the trip, first access to the documentary, and a place in the Crucible digital archive.
Our $10,000 milestone (by October 31) covers the master’s compensation, group flights, in-country travel, lodging, mandatory temple donations, film equipment, and food. The climb to our $20,000 goal (by December 31) funds post-production of the documentary and the build-out of the Crucible digital archive. Full financial transparency is provided to all sponsors on request.