THE CHAT

Tiffany Chen has won more than 40 medals for Yang Style Tai Chi, Fixed-Step, Restricted-Step and Moving-Step T ' ui Shou. She is the daughter of Grandmaster William C.C. Chen and she and her brother, Max, star in the DVD "The Kung Fu Kickboxing Workout."

Is it an intimidating thing to have your dad be a Tai Chi Chuan Grandmaster and Chinese boxing legend?

It is actually. It's kind of hard. Everything comes with its plus and minuses. It's hard to find your own place in a sport. As a figure skater, no one is your friend because of the natural competitive nature and borderline cattiness from the skaters and especially the parents.

It made me sort of nervous. Because I never realized how big my dad was in the martial arts circle until I started competing. It took me a little while once we got to Asia. Little by little, once I started winning everything and they're like, of course she won, she's Grandmaster Chen's daughter. But when I lost, it was like, look who I beat.

You end up feeling guilty, like, oh [darn], I let my Dad down.

You mentioned figure skating. H ow did you get involved in so many sports so young?

My mom grew up very, very poor. So when she had children, she wanted us to experience everything we could and wouldn't limit us. And since my dad taught us martial arts, she insisted that if we wanted to do it, we could. But we were exposed to everything--ballet, hula dance, gymnastics, ballroom dance, figure skating.

Okay, wait, how do you get into hula dancing in New York City?

We went to a restaurant called Hawaii Thai in Times Square that is no longer there. We were sitting at dinner and I said, "Mom, look at that, I wanna try it." And my wonderful mother went and asked the lady, who had hula lessons in her home.

What is the difference between the perceptions of martial arts here as opposed to Asia?

The biggest problem is that both countries have their share of charlatans, which can be very dangerous when it comes to Tai Chi Chuan. Because of all the health benefits, people start abusing it.

How so?