StormShadow
Blue Belt
- Joined
- Mar 20, 2013
- Messages
- 221
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- 3
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I only had a chance to skim over the article, but it seemed like a whole lot of speculation. For being a "scientific study," it was mostly just speculation, supported only in a few places by possible correlations with rebels and secret societies, which sounds like rather shaky ground itself.
I do think that the story with Ng Mei and Yim Wing Chun is likely fictional -- there's even good reason to believe that Ng Mei herself is a fictional character, as she appears in other folk lore and fiction around the early 20th century, from what I understand. But, this hypothesis doesn't really offer a convincing alternative.
At any rate, I tend to think of Leung Jan as being the founder of Wing Chun as we know it. From what I understand, he was very innovative, and established many of the principles we think of as uniquely Wing Chun, such as the idea of maintaining one's squareness, and "Lat sao jik chung."
Don't believe the rebel thing at all.
The whole argument that it was used to train up soldiers for combat in a short amount of time is B.S in my opinion.
I don't know where this idea comes from that Wing Chun is fast and easy to learn , I'm here to tell you it aint.
The stance takes years to become comfortable with , skill in chi sau takes decades.
It would be quicker and easier to hand them a knife and say "Off you go mate , go and do your best".
If all these rebel people were supposedly taught , wouldn't we have a lot more lineages around today than what we have?
Why was Wing Chun pretty much unknown until Yip Man brought it over to Hong Kong in the 50s ? I mean with all these rebels being taught wouldn't some of these descendants of rebels have been taught by their fathers and been teaching their own brand of Wing Chun in Hong Kong before Yip Man even got there?
There is no other martial art quite like Wing Chun on the whole planet , it's unique stance and way of executing a type of soft force are totally different to anything else.
If it was invented by men why the hell do male students take so long to learn to do the movements correctly as compared to female students who just relax and let the angles and structure do all the work instead of tensing up and using brute strength like the males do?
To me it makes perfect sense that it was formulated by a woman.
I think for some reason there has been some attempt to masculinise Wing Chun from some quarters and try to down play it's feminine origins , whether people are ashamed to say they do a martial art invented by a woman I can't say.
Probably has a bit to do with self promotion as well.
I just think it works , so who gives a toss if a woman invented it .
I suppose all these people were taught by rebels and they all managed to keep it a big secret.
When they mention "easy to learn" I believe they are referring to removing of needless movements. Throwing away what doesn't work and favoring what does. Basically where Bruce Lee got his ideas from. So easy to learn in the sense of, you aren't wasting time learning move for move for hundreds of attacks. Basically making it "easier" to learn in a relatively short amount of time. Personally, it never bothered me in the least that it was invented (or foretold it was invented) by a woman. If and woman did invent it and used it to destroy men in combat than that says even more in the positive about the art honestly. The article does state the penalty for being identified as a martial arts practitioner where your family would be executed down to 9 generations. Thats an extremely heavy price to pay and excellent cause to keep it a secret as long as possible given those times.To me, this story is plausible, as wing chun gains even more steam & popularity in the practiced arts, I suspect the real origins (or most of it) will present itself.
so mook, is it safe to say you believe the Ng Mei - Yim Wing Chun story is legitimate?
Yes I do.
Wing Chun is dominated by men , no doubt about that .
But the women I have met in Wing Chun are really good at it , and the ones that I have taught in the past did the techniques more correctly than the men.
One might say they have an affinity for it , because it was invented by one of them.
Years ago I sparred Sigung's top female student in the pictures below , when she came over from Hong Kong , and I am not ashamed to admit it but I got absolutely friggin mauled by this woman.
I'm not exactly slow , but she made me look like I was standing still.
She was so fast I couldn't get anywhere near her without getting hit all over the head , and after she finished with me she looked at the other guys and said "Anybody else want some ".
Needless to say , not many did after they just saw me get hammered.
Cheung Ng may have existed, but he came from the north and injected a lot of opera-style (long bridge, wide horse) martial arts into the opera. Nothing closely related to Wing Chun, which likely developed later and independently on the red boats themselves. In addition actual records indicated Cheung Ng was an entire generation too early to have taught Wong Wah Bo and co. anything at all. Cheung Ng's place is in opera history, not Wing Chun history.
It's an informed opinion... Check my claims, see for yourself.You speak pretty surely for a man with no facts or citations to back him up. Anything that proves that this is more than just another man's opinion?
It's an informed opinion... Check my claims, see for yourself.