In the most current issue of Inside Kung Fu there was an article about a rare southern style of kung fu called Mel Gar. This style was supposedly a leopard kung fu style that is no longer practiced by itself.

It is taught by Grandmaster Chi-Chung Kwong who is a teacher of Lung Fu Ying Pai (Dragon Tiger Eagle system?).

This article was written by Jason William McNeil. This person is a freelance writer and have yet to find out the type and amount of training he has?

I have searched on the web and found nothing about Grandmaster Chi-Chung Kwong and Lung Fu Ying Pai (Dragon Tiger Eagle system).

I was wondering if anyone has found any information about this system or about Jason William McNeil's background?

Regards,

Steve

Sounds a bit fishy to me for various reasons.

I'd have to read the article to see exactly what he's saying. Most Leopard I've come across is found in the Southern stuff... CLF, Hung Ga, Hung Fut, Ng Ying Ng Ga, etc...

I agree the information sounds questionable. I wonder why Inside Kung Fu will publish articles without having sources that the reader can check?

Cause they're Inside Kung Fu????? Can you scan it maybe?

well at least your lucky enough to be able to find an issue of Inside Kung Fu. I live so far in the sticks that I have to travel 40 miles to pick one up.

i would like to read this article also so I quess I'll be taking a trip this weekend to see if i can find a copy.

where is the school located?

I am sorry I do not know where the dragon tiger eagle school is. I did not buy the issue of inside kung fu I just read it.
Regards,
Steve

Lung Fu Ying Pai

To english readers (even with a translation and maybe even boosted by the need for translation), that sounds like a legitimate style.

To Chinese readers, it's just a bunch of words stuck together.

To english readers (even with a translation and maybe even boosted by the need for translation), that sounds like a legitimate style.

To Chinese readers, it's just a bunch of words stuck together.

I know what you mean, it sounds very contrived.

In a quick search I found references to long ying, long fu, and fu ying (all related to Choi Li Fut), but nothing with all three elements. Couldn't find anything about Chi Chung Kwong at all.

As for Mel Gar. I found references to a Peruvian soccer club, a Columbian hotel, and a singer who once performed with Sammy davis Jnr, but nothing about a martial art.

The techniques that were shown were rather dubious when viewed as anything that might actually work.

Viewed as magazine fodder and as entertainment then it works.

Any others?

So I finally got around to stopping by a local book store & reading the article. Wow... is about all I can say about what I read & what I saw.

I like how it's mentioned that the "grandmaster" of the style studied CLF for a while but then did something to mix his CLF with the family "Mel" (from the ethnic minority) to come up & teach this Mel Ga. All of this is in Taishan (Toi San), an area known for its CMAs.

The "Mel" people must be a minute population because in a list of documented minorities of ethnic Chinese, I see no "Mel". http://www.c-c-c.org/chineseculture/minority/minority.html#table

Wow... again.

On the upside, I did like the leopard print on his clothes, thought that was straight 70's stylin!!!

I recently posted the Mel-Gar question to the Kung Fu Magazine staff and this is what they had to say to me.

Today, 06:55 PM
GeneChing (http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/forum/member.php?u=7658) http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/forum/images/statusicon/user_offline.gif
Associate Publisher
Join Date: Jan 1970
Location: Fremont, CA, U.S.A.
Posts: 9,072


I was inclined to merge this thread...
...My standard modus operandi would have been to merge this with the other inquiry on the TC Media forum (http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?t=51180), but I decided not to do so.

Long live Mel Gar! http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/forum/images/smilies/wink.gif
__________________
Gene Ching
Associate Publisher
Kung Fu Magazine & www.KungFuMagazine.com (http://www.KungFuMagazine.com)



06-09-2008, 09:30 PM
GeneChing (http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/forum/member.php?u=7658) http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/forum/images/statusicon/user_offline.gif
Associate Publisher
Join Date: Jan 1970
Location: Fremont, CA, U.S.A.
Posts: 9,072


You're asking me about an IKF article?
I take no responsibility for anything published in IKF. http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/forum/images/smilies/biggrin.gif
__________________
Gene Ching
Associate Publisher
Kung Fu Magazine & www.KungFuMagazine.com (http://www.KungFuMagazine.com)


Does any one else think that this admission is unreasonable or is it me? If I published anything I believe that I would be responsible for at least checking my sources.

Please give me your opinion and tell me if you think I am being unreasonable or not.

Thank you.
Regards,
Steve

Just to point out that INSIDE Kung Fu and KungFu Magazine are two ENTIRELY different magazines. So that is why Gene would say that he has no responsibility to what is published in IKF.

Inside kung fu is published by Apprise Enthusiast Medica LLC
KungFu Magazine is published by TCMedia, INC.

I tried to "google" Mel-Gar and the only references I can find are people asking if they have ever heard of it.

It seems like I have heard of it somewhere. Did Jane Hollander include it in the book "Complete Guide to Kung Fu Fighting Styles"? I tried to find a table of contents but can't find one online. I think I might have read about it in a book like that under "rare" styles.

I also saw this article on mel gar. It was a bit fishy sounding. Since reading it I've looked for more info on leopard kung fu and can't find much on it. Does anyone know of some good web sites on leopard style?

I confused the owner of the forums and Kung fu Tai Chi magazine hosts the forums for their magazine not Inside Kung Fu.
This was my error and I apologize.
Regards,
Steve

P.S.
=To my knowledge their is not a purely leopard based style. I have heard Choy Li Fut being called a leopard style because of its use of leopard shaped fist but it has the traditional Shaolin five animals in its system as separate forms.
Most Southern systems have combined five animal forms and some have separate animal forms. Some examples are . . .

Hung gar
Fut Gar
Choy Li Fut
Hung Fut

It seems like I have heard of it somewhere. Did Jane Hollander include it in the book "Complete Guide to Kung Fu Fighting Styles"? I tried to find a table of contents but can't find one online. I think I might have read about it in a book like that under "rare" styles.

Definitely not in Hollander's book even though she mentions some pretty obscure southern systems.

I've been racking my brain, and I think the style I was thinking of was "mok gar" although from what I can find on it, the style is more "snake" influenced than other animals.

Mok Ga? Go YouTube & you can see Mok Ga...

I don't see any snake in it... kicking & mid length arms are what strike me.

Mok Ga? Go YouTube & you can see Mok Ga...

I don't see any snake in it... kicking & mid length arms are what strike me.

Here is the link that had the info on it that I got. It also appears that there are two seperate and distinct branches of Mok Gar. Maybe that is part of the difference.

http://www.kungfu-kickboxer.co.uk/bkfa.php

I have never seen it before, so I'll take a look at youtube.

is it me, or does that master in the article look like this guy?

http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&q=fabio&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=X&oi=image_result_group&resnum=1&ct=title

j/k

:rofl:

I was wondering if anyone has an e-mail address for Dave Cater, the editor of Inside Kung-Fu magazine. The magazine's official page does not have any e-mail and I would like to get Mr. Cater's opinion of Mel-Gar.
Thank you.
Regards,
Steve

I was wondering if anyone has an e-mail address for Dave Cater, the editor of Inside Kung-Fu magazine. The magazine's official page does not have any e-mail and I would like to get Mr. Cater's opinion of Mel-Gar.
Thank you.
Regards,
Steve

You can email the publisher through the magazines website. I'm sure they could get you to the editor. :)

I have seen one classmate of mine learn Wudan Shaolin leopard fist but he was the only one and this does not have relationship with the Mel Gar "system"? After all of this time in the art, unless an article provides a geneology tree of a "rare" system or a reknowned source describes it, I am usually skeptical. Well know systems such as ying jow pai, fu jow pai, ba mei, long fist, hung gar, choy li fut, hop gar, etc. all have well documented histories and trees. As a matter of fact, as we all know, a sign of legitimacy in one's art is the ability to trace lineage back at least 4 generations and by running the forms,applications, and fighting well, a true master can recognize another master's style in his/her students' performance of it. That is one reason why at CMA competitions one does not tell style, name, or form. If it is a well known and verified system, the judges will know! As far as Kung fu mag v. Inside Kung Fu, I have met Gene Ching several times, a very honorable man, and he would never comment on the editorial policies of the other mag.

One other comment...Dave Cater is very good at stirring controversy between practitioners of styles but has never heavily trained in the CMA himself so his opinion of a style would be superficial at best.

(I submitted my comments originally to Gene Ching instead of Dave Cater and I have apologized to him on his forum.)

Any good researcher should be able to give the sources for article. I think that if Inside Kung fu comes across an article that was submitted to them by an author that . . .

Performs questionable techniques
Provides no contact information for a questionable style (i.e. Mel gar taught by a master of Dragon Tiger Eagle style?)
And has written other questionable articles.

They should not publish the article.

The reason for providing good sources for any article gives the reader the opportunity to examine the original source material and this is only reasonable.

Regards,
Steve