When you get near the end, you start to think about the beginning. Having trained in Wing Chun Kung Fu in Hong Kong, and Malaysia, many moons ago, I have been on a bit of a Wing Chun nostalgia run at the moment, seeing the Ip Man movies and doing a bit of teaching to my youngest son and a couple of his mates. Naturally, I did some internet work to see what has happened in the last 40 or so years, since I left formal schools and trained on my own on my wooden dummy and other equipment.

One can find recognition of many other schools of Wing Chun other than the Hong Kong Ip Man version that dominates the West today. I knew about this in 1980, and did some training with a Malaysian sifu who trained under Sum Nung and Pam Nam, competing Chinese masters, among many:

There was hostility between the mainland Chinese purists, and the Hong Kong “reductionists,” who dared to teach Whites. Back in the 1970s and 1980s, Western Wing Chun even denied the existence of Chinese Wing Chun, no doubt as a way of keeping market share. Talk about bitchy.

I spent some time looking at the forms performed by the Grandmasters, and there was considerable differences in hand moves. With decades of training I could see what each old bastard was on about; they all had their story to tell. As one progressed through the system, the differences increased. Pole techniques differed greatly. Here is a Chinese school which substantially differs from anything I have seen in the West, Malaysia and Hong Kong:

I was delighted to see this video by angry Chinese American, Jerry Liu “How the Ip Man Movies Took a Dump on Chinese Kung Fu,”

where he says everything that needs to be said about what is wrong with Chinese Kung Fu. He unloads on the Chinese for their love of money, and lack of desire to preserve tradition. For a moment, I thought that he was talking about Anglo-Saxons (WASPS), who are even more deracinated.

Liu says that the Ip Man legend is appropriating the life stories of older masters such as Yuen Kay San, who produced his own tradition:

along with disciples such as Sum Nung. Liu is one really angry guy, and even if classical kung fu bores you, it is worth watching him unload on his own kind. If you are interested in this cultural war, here is some more stuff in Chinese:

In true combat, as Mr Liu acknowledges, there is no room for this sort of turf disputing, and dog pissing areas. When I was in my early 20s I went through a hot fist war with another Wing Chun club, over whose sifu was the true master. There was no fights with weapons, just heaps of mass brawls against masses of brainwashed white cultists. It was the equivalent of taking drugs. In the end, all of these gurus have feet of clay, and hands hot and sweaty with money; think Jim Jones. Any virtues of the system could be removed and isolated from Chinese culture and politics, and placed within a Western framework.

Wing Chun chi sao, or sticking hands, can be used with a traditional Western boxing hand, if the sole change is made to the sun fist, thumb up punch, impact on bottom three knuckles. This needs to be done for the centerline approach to work. Trust me, I can still break boards in this way, and my hands are not conditioned like they were decades ago. You would be surprised how good this sort of punch gets over the years. Sure, the little knuckle is not supported, but after a few breaks, it pops out like a hard-on. Anyway, chi sao can lead straight into grappling, wrestling and Brazilian jiu jitsu, if you like.

The job of the Western martial artist is to sort through the martial ruins of the past, preserving treasures before they are buried under the bullshit of history.

Bruce Lee, got it right. Goodbye “beautiful springtime,” thanks for the bad memories:

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