Mimi Chan (born in

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the capital city, state capital and List of municipalities in Massachusetts, most populous city of the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financ ...

, MA) is an American martial arts instructor and performer.

Early life

Chan moved with her family from Boston, MA to

Orlando Orlando () is a city in the U.S. state of Florida and is the county seat of Orange County. In Central Florida, it is the center of the Orlando metropolitan area, which had a population of 2,509,831, according to U.S. Census Bureau figures r ...

, FL, in 1980, where her training in martial arts began under her father,

Pui Chan Pui Chan (陳培) within martial arts, is the leader of the Wah Lum Pai Martial Arts Organization. He is a sixth generation successor of the Wah Lum Pai Tam Tui Northern Praying Mantis style as well as also being a 33rd generation successor of th ...

. Upon the family's move to Orlando, her father built the Wah Lum Temple, the first traditional Chinese martial arts temple to be built in the United States. By the age of 5, Chan was already performing in local exhibitions. She specialized in Kung Fu, open hand and weaponry. Chan has won Grand Champion Titles and gold medals in multiple international martial arts tournaments, in which she was undefeated. She was also featured in articles in

Kung Fu Magazine __NOTOC__ ''Kung Fu Tai Chi'' (also commonly known as ''Kung Fu Magazine'') is a United States magazine covering martial arts and combat sports (mainly Chinese Martial Arts). ''Kung Fu Tai Chi'' magazine began publication 1992 and is owned by T ...

, and entered the Martial Arts Hall of Fame deemed "Woman of the Year" by

Inside Kung Fu ''Inside Kung-Fu'' was a monthly United States magazine founded in December 1973. Its last issue was in April 2011. History The magazine featured articles on modern wushu and kung fu as well as tournaments and events in the United States and ...

Magazine in 1999.

Education

Chan earned a Bachelor of Science in Marketing and Business Administration from the

University of Central Florida The University of Central Florida (UCF) is a public research university whose main campus is in unincorporated Orange County, Florida. UCF also has nine smaller regional campuses throughout central Florida. It is part of the State University ...

in 1999. In 2022 Chan became the director of Make Us Visible Florida, a coalition dedicated to developing a preventative solution rooted in education as a response to anti-Asian American violence. Chan worked to pass legislation in 2023 in Florida that requires the instruction of AAPI history in the K-12 curriculum.

Film and television appearances and ''Mulan''

Chan's performed in exhibitions at (

MGM Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and abbreviated as MGM, is an American film, television production, distribution and media company owned by Amazon through MGM Holdings, founded on April 17, 1924 ...

EPCOT Epcot, stylized in all uppercase as EPCOT, is a theme park at the Walt Disney World Resort in Bay Lake, Florida. It is owned and operated by The Walt Disney Company through its Parks, Experiences and Products division. Inspired by an unr ...

Universal Studios Universal Pictures (legally Universal City Studios LLC, also known as Universal Studios, or simply Universal; common metonym: Uni, and formerly named Universal Film Manufacturing Company and Universal-International Pictures Inc.) is an Americ ...

, and

Splendid China Splendid China Folk Village ( Chinese: 锦绣中华民俗村, pinyin: Jǐnxiù Zhōnghuá Mínsú Cūn) is a theme park including two areas (Splendid China Miniature Park & China Folk Culture Village) located in Shenzhen, Guangdong province ...

). She was chosen as the model and martial arts video reference for Disney’s animated feature, ''Mulan''. Character drawing sessions and live-action video reference shooting was done over the course of three years. Chan’s cousin, George Kee, was chosen to play the part of Captain Shang Li. Together, they choreographed fight sequences for the film's song “ I’ll Make a Man Out of You” and the film's end finale. She worked with supervising animator

Mark Henn Mark Alan Henn (born April 6, 1958) is an American animator and film director. His contributions to animation have included several Walt Disney Animation Studios leading or title characters, most notably heroines. His work includes Ariel in ''The ...

. She has also appeared in television shows and worked with Hong Kong stunt teams.

Film Directing and Stage Choreography

In 2011, Chan directed and produced a documentary about her father’s life, ''Pui Chan: Kung Fu Pioneer''. The film world premiered in 2012 at the Central Florida Film Festival where it won two awards, "Best Documentary" and "Audience Choice." Chan choreographed the Mulan and Shang fight sequence in

Disney's Hollywood Studios Disney's Hollywood Studios is a theme park at the Walt Disney World Resort in Bay Lake, Florida, near Orlando. It is owned and operated by The Walt Disney Company through its Parks, Experiences and Products division. Based on a concept by Ma ...

2022 reimagined live show

Fantasmic ''Fantasmic!'' is a nighttime show at Disneyland and Disney's Hollywood Studios. The show formerly operated at Tokyo DisneySea. It features fireworks, characters, live actors, water effects, pyrotechnics, lasers, music, audio-animatronics, sear ...

! directed b
Mark Hamel

References

External links

Official site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Chan, Mimi Living people American wushu practitioners University of Central Florida alumni Martial artists from Boston People from Orlando, Florida Year of birth missing (living people)