Origins of Wing Chun?

"No matter that patriotism is too often the refuge of scoundrels. Dissent, rebellion, and all-around hell-raising remain the true duty of patriots. " - Barbara Ehrenreich, The Worst Years Of Our Lives, 1991

What is the difference between the various martial arts? Why is one called Wing Chun Kuen, another called Muay Thai, yet another called Karate-Do? Aren't they just all ways of beating people up?

The answer may be obvious to some, especially those with a MA background. There are many degrees of differences. Some are quite similar: Muay Thai and Savate, for example, are types of kickboxing. The differences here are may be confined to the different ways of kicking, of the way the fighters stand when facing each other, differences in rules, or other minor details. Some MA are wildly different, like Capoeira or Systema. By and large, individual MA are reflections of the needs of the time, the personality of the individual founders(s)them and the cultural background at the time and place of when it was developed. For example, Karate-Do uses farm implements as weaponry because of the policy banning weapons imposed by the Japanese rulers of Okinawa a few hundred years ago.

Even in a single country, like China, there are thousands of different styles of Kung Fu and each may have at least a few variations. Internal, external, animal styles, grappling styles, striking styles, etc., etc., etc. Each may have different movements, defenses or ways of generating and/or applying power. To fight any random person would be, well, random!

Wing Chun is a very young MA in Chinese MA history, being only a few hundred years old, developed during the Qing Dynasty. The Qing were considered foreigners who were cruel and corrupt by the Han Chinese (the natives, as it were). Numerous rebellions were fomented against them during their reign, especially in the restive south of the empire.

Unlike, say, an animal style, which is obviously inspired by the movements of animals, or any other marial art which is externally inspired, Wing Chun seems to depend on a set of principles which cannot be found in any external source. While some movements have an obvious animal inspiration (e.g. a biu jee strike is very similar to a snake strike, which may show some of the shaolin roots of Wing Chun), each and every techniques must conform to a set of principles, i.e. a rooted stance, locked torso and hips, "ging" or "inch" power (a very sudden power expressed momentarily, and only when required), and a centreline focus. All these principles are found in a greater or lesser extent in any style of Wing Chun, whether the various traditional mainland chinese lineages or in the other more mordenized and simplified Hong Kong lineages.

These principles are not natural, i.e. nobody is born with these qualities, and they have to be drilled into a student with consistent practice to make it a natural part of their movement. So why did the founders of Wing Chun design an entire martial art around these principles? It would have been easier to design a martial arts with movements people are already used to. After all, a Karate punch does an immense amount of damage, so does a Tae Kwon Do roundhouse kick, an Aikido lock will incapacitate an opponent, etc. Martial arts have been doing damage to people for thousands of years! Of what use is a new, difficult to train and learn (at least initially) martial art?

Something in the time of the Qing dynasty must have necessitated the creation of Wing Chun by rebels. Wing Chun's principles would have been their response to a threat.

So what would these principles achieve? Discussion in the next post!

P.S. All these are my own hypothesis, based on my limited knowledge of Chinese history, and my personal experience of what Wing Chun is. If you know something to the contrary, or you know something to add to this, please comment!

P.P.S. Welcome to Kahar, my Wing Chun si heng (elder brother), to the world of blogging! Writing as Guan Gung, he has many years of experience in Wing Chun (since '90 or '91), the curiosity of a scientist, the playfulness of an experimenter, the wide-eyed wonder of a child and the single-minded determination and ferocity of a warrior. I look forward to reading his posts.

Hello World! or My Road to Wing Chun

Mushu: "Now punch him in the face - that's how men say hello." - Walt Disney Feature Animation, Mulan, 1998

Hi, and welcome to the Wing Chun Diaries. This is a blog about Wing Chun, my thoughts and impressions I have while training, and miscellaneous ramblings and musings about it. This is not just my blog, other students of my branch of Wing Chun will also be posting as well, and most will probably be more insightful than mine! But first, about me:

I've been a fan of martial arts ever since my father took me to see The Big Boss in 1972. Bruce Lee was my hero. I read his books, about how he produced his awesome power and learned that Wing Chun was his first martial arts training. So I was interested in Wing Chun from quite a young age. I didn't think that Malaysia had any Wing Chun classes back then though, so my first foray into the martial arts world was through Hakko-ryu Ju-Jitsu.

What an experience that was! The sensei, Shihan Goh, was a classic no-nonsense, strong and silent martial arts teacher. Although not so tall, he was built like a wrestler. He was all muscle, hard as nails and had forearms the size of most peoples calves. When he demonstrated a neck chop (by just tapping!) I swear I could feel my neck move sideways! I trained regularly under him for 2 years and was at that time, the most fit and energetic as I have ever been in my life. Unfortunately after 2 years I had to leave for the UK to further my studies and had to stop for a while.

While in UK, I tried 2 other martial arts classes, one was a sort of Kung Fu that must have been "mordenized". It was ok, but felt a bit lightweight in terms of content because during sparring, many of the students I sparred against were just kicking and punching, and I felt it wasn't really Kung Fu, just another form of kickboxing. The instructor belittled my previous Ju-Jitsu training, which wasn't polite of him, and he also thought I was putting the moves on his girlfriend! Needless to say, I left after only a few classes. The other art I tried was Ninjutsu and that was pure fun! In fact, probably the most fun I had in any martial arts training to date. It was somewhat like the Ju-Jitsu I did earlier, except more mobile, and with some ingenious twists of their own. The group, including the instructor, was also easygoing and friendly. I loved it! But I only found the class during my final year of studies there and had to stop after a few months because exams were looming.

Coming back to Malaysia, I looked for the same Ju-Jitsu class I had done only to find Shihan Goh retired and his class taken over by one of his senior students. The new instructor was a nice enough chap when we were fellow students together, but as an instructor, I didn't seem to take to him as well. I probably wasn't the only one, because the school closed down some time after.

For years after that, due to the pressures of working life, and eventual marriage, I didn't do any martial arts, but the interest stayed with me.

And then, after a long long while, I found a Wing Chun class. And it was just behind my office as well. I eagerly joined, as the instructor was a great guy. Easygoing, funny, intelligent and dedicated to the art. This was one of the local schools of Wing Chun, and the instructor was one of the graduates.

After a few months though, it began to feel more and more as if I had rejoined the Kung Fu class I had joined earlier in the UK. It looked like Wing Chun, and seemingly had elements of Wing Chun I read about and described in numerous articles about Wing Chun, but somehow I felt there were some things missing. I began reading more and more about Wing Chun on the web, and later joined the Wing Chun Kuen Mailing List (WCKML), in a subconscious effort to find out if there was more to the art than what I was learning. Amidst the discussions, I found clues about concepts in Wing Chun, which, although discussed in class, I never seemed to feel I was developing, certainly it felt nothing like what was described in WCKML. Around this time, I met Kahar, a fellow Malaysian, through the WCKML. He had been recovering from an injury and needed a training partner to get back into condition.

This is where the story takes a strange turn. This school claims that its Wing Chun is from the Yip Kin lineage. Kahar was also from the Yip Kin lineage. But the two styles were completely different. The Wing Chun I was doing seemed to be similar to Leung Ting's, one of the Yip Man lineage, which itself was somewhat different from other Yip Man lineages. Even the uniform was a copy of Leung Ting's. I asked Kahar for his views about it, but he politely refused to give me his side of the story, preferring not to be seen as promoting "sectarian warfare" among the Wing Chun lineages. Doubts grew, but being still sold on the publicity around the Yip Man lineages, I still continued to go to class, giving it the benefit of the doubt. (Note: this school now claims to represent a Hong Kong Wing Chun lineage from one of Yip Man's sons, in spite of an official letter from the Association in Hong Kong denying it.)

Practicing Wing Chun with Kahar was a revelation. He had done Yip Kin Wing Chun for many years and also a few years of a Yip Man lineage in the UK when he was there for studies. Since my Wing Chun was closer to that of Yip Man's, he would practice only Yip Man style Wing Chun with me. He told me that he went to UK after doing only a few forms in Yip Kin Wing Chun but when he was there, he was very quickly included in the advanced class because he had some proven skills that even some long-time students in the UK class didn't. That proved to me that Yip Kin Wing Chun, while outwardly different from Yip Man's, was very much the same at its core. He could also answer all my questions satisfactorily, even going so far as to demonstrate the value of some of Wing Chun's concepts. The Yip Man lineage Wing Chun he had learned in the UK seemed to be much more complete in terms of content than the Wing Chun I was learning. My respect for his Wing Chun skills grew.

Time came when the school head himself decided to take over the class from my original instructor, to my instructors chagrin (nothing he said, but I noticed a change in his facial expression). At first I was quite excited, hearing the glowing reports about "The Grandmaster", as he preferred to be called, but as time went on, he seemed even less knowledgeable about Wing Chun concepts than his graduate! At least my original instructor talked about those concepts, even if I didn't feel I was actually learning them, but "The Grandmaster's" training seemed to include a bit of Tae Kwan Do modern style of fitness training, e.g. jogging before class, western style limbering up, etc. In other words, things I could get from any "Aerobic Boxing" class. He even told me to change my shoes, as I was wearing the same type of shoes he was wearing (Adidas Tae Kwon Do shoes), because it was "Only For Instructors"! He collected quite a sum of money from us to get our official Wing Chun uniforms, and all I got in return was a key chain. He also did not seem to earn any respect from his students, as everyone joked about him behind his back!

The last straw came soon, after just a few weeks, when he told us that we were "ready" for the "instructor course", which was a 2 or 3 month intensive course, costing RM7,000 (payable in 6 monthly installments by post-dated cheques - because we care!) or roughly equivalent to almost 3 1/2 months of my net salary at the time, a very hefty sum to me. Imagine that, from zero to hero in 3 months flat, all you need is the money! And he was trying to sell us weapons (not Wing Chun weapons) which seemed poorly made, but for which quite a high sum was being charged. He was also preparing "butterfly knives" which were actually cut-outs made from plywood for us to practice later! I was getting loud alarm bells by then, especially since I had read about similar schemes in the WCKML and which was referred to as "McDojo" by several people there.

When I told Kahar about my predicament, he looked sorry for me, but still did not outright advise me to leave. When 2 of my fellow students and I did make the decision to leave, the 3 of us talked to "The Grandmaster" about it. It was a pretty tense time, as he gave us the third degree, complete with some threatening looks, gestures and innuendo. In fact, one of the students, whose name I shall not mention here, actually gave in and agreed to continue, in spite of his brave words before. 2 of us still held out and we got our money back. I still remember as we were leaving, "The Grandmaster's" father himself came to us and seemed happy that we were getting out of a bad situation, and advised us to steer clear of his son! That was when I made the hard decision to jump ship to Kahar's class.

For which I Thank God almighty. Because the real Yip Kin Wing Chun has been a revelation from the start. It is most awesome in scope and depth and yet the most pure and focused martial art I have ever learned, and simply the most intellectually rewarding and physically satisfying thing in my life now. It still, after a few years of admittedly on-again-off-again training, gives me the best results in training and humbles me with how much more there is to learn. And Sifu Yip Fook Choy (Sigung Yip Kin's grandson and the current Master of Yip Kin lineage Wing Chun) himself is an inspiration. A man of humble means with a down-to-earth nature. A man of principles, he will absolutely refuse any talk of commercialization. He will teach anybody who wants to learn, without exception, and sometimes even in spite of his own misgivings. And he always stays calm, in control and centered despite challenges to him from other quarters (usually only through rumours, gossip or outright lies. Nobody seems willing to challenge him in a duel! ;). He dislikes pride and bravado. A true father figure, a man I respect and want to emulate. Indeed, Yip Kin Wing Chun Boxing is one of my life's anchors, making me more centered in my hectic professional life. I LOVE IT!

Which brings me back to this blog and why I am writing it:

1. The first and foremost reason is that as I move along this journey, many of the thoughts and impressions that I have about this art has changed and developed. So I want to keep a record of them to see how I have changed as I learn more and more. I only regret I didn't start this blog earlier, because there may be some things I have already forgotten.
2. Thoughts kept to oneself has limited value. If I share them, and get feedback, I enrich not only my own knowledge but that of everyone who reads it (hopefully!). I also would like to share the lessons from my Wing Chun mates, which will be useful, because everyone has their own perspective, even from a shared experience. Although we talk about it verbally after class, nothing beats writing it down for focusing and analyzing, and therefore enriching ones own understanding. So feedback please!
3. I know that this life-enriching, satisfying feeling, i.e. what I am experiencing is not unique to me, or to my martial art or even to martial arts in general, for that matter. I know that many have experienced the same doing whatever it is that moves them, whether in another Wing Chun lineage, in another martial art or any other activity and I would like to encourage them to share their lessons to the world and let me know about them too. I love reading about this kind of stuff and be inspired, so give us a shout!
4. Finally, there's so little knowledge of the Wing Chun outside of the oft-publicized Yip Man lineages, therefore this is my contribution to opening up Yip Kin's legacy to the world. Let it be known that there are many, many other Wing Chun lineages around and I hope to chat with and compare notes with all of them.

So with Sifu Yip Fook Choy's blessing, I say "Hello World!"