Jing Wu (Chinese: 精武; pinyin: Jīng Wǔ) was founded as the Jing Wu Athletic Association in Shanghai, China around 1910. It has at least 59 branches based in about 22 countries worldwide.
Jing Wu was actually founded by a committee of persons, including members of the Tongmenghui, such as Chen Qimei, Nong Zhu, and Chen Tiesheng, but it’s creation is most popularily associated with the martial artist Huo Yuanjia.
As one of the first public martial arts institutes in China, Jing Wu was intended to create a structured environment for teaching and learning martial arts as opposed to the secretive training that had been common in the past. The founders of Jing Wu felt that the association would keep alive traditions that secrecy and social change would otherwise doom. The basic curriculum drew from several styles of martial arts, giving practitioners a well-rounded martial background in addition to whatever they wished to specialise in.
Jing Wu was closed by the People’s Republic of China government in 1966 and was allowed to reopen after the Cultural Revolution.
(From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chin_Woo_Athletic_Association)