The Need to Be Recognized as Superior

Nobody Important

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I found this article & thought I'd share it. I've heard the background story before, there is some truth to it. The incident with Yip Chun, Si Kwok and the grandsons of Yiu Choi & Yuen Kay San is also true, verifying the back story. This post isn't meant to be offensive towards anyone, rather to highlight a growing blight within the Wing Chun community, the need to be recognized as superior.

Yuen Kay San was THE top Wing Chun Sifu!
For all those who have been misled by marketing and been disrespectful to Sijo Yuen Kay San and Sifu Sum Num.

Yip Man's son, Yip Chun, and movie producer, Si Kwok Lam, apologized to Yuen Kay San's grandson for disrespect:

YOUTUBE
And the Yuen and Yiu families voicing their displeasure about the movie (with actual interviews):

FLASH

Profound respect from Si Kwok Lam, director of the movie “Ip Man” and Yip Chun, Yip Man’s son, is offered over insulting Yuen Kay San and lying about Yip Man being senior in Wing Chun to Yuen Kay San. Yuen Kay San was the top Wing Chun sifu alive throughout his lifetime. When he passed away this mantle fell on his sole disciple, Sifu Sum Num.
It’s unfortunate that this apology couldn't happen before Sum Num, who had been grossly misrepresented in Leung Ting’s Book “Roots and Branches of Wing Chun” similarly, passed away. If a reader reverses the names “Yip Man” and “Yuen Kay San” in Leung Ting’s stories they will be much closer to the truth!

Movie producer Si Kwok Lam and Yip Chun, who co-produced the movie "Ip Man", which glorified Yip Man with an incredibly fictitious heroic life, apologized six times and "served tea" to Yuen Kay San's grandson, Yuen Jo Tong, (left in the Youtube picture, wearing glasses) for misrepresenting, and being disrespectful to, the legendary death duel champion during the 1920-1950s, Yuen Kay San. During a news conference in China, Si Kwok Lam and Yip Chun admitted in front of witnesses and acknowledged documents that showed that Yuen Kay San, not Yip Man, had represented the Wing Chun family and answered all the public death duel challenges in Futsan in those years, and admitted that he is senior to Yip Man in the Wing Chun family tree.

Mr. Si Kwok Lam (a student of Yip Chun and the movie producer of the Ip Man 3 movie) apologized and served tea to Yuen Jo Tong for misrepresenting his grandfather, Yuen Kay San’s reputation and status in Wing Chun history. (In the movie, Yuen Kay San was portrayed as Yip Man’s younger gung fu brother, not as skillfull as Yip Man)[9]. As is well known to any Wing Chun practitioner on the Mainland, this is ludicrous and laughable!

Yiu Wing Ken (Yiu Choi’s grandson) explains that, in the old days in Futsan, Yuen Kay San, his grandfather Yiu Choi, and Yip Man were called the "Three Heroes of Wing Chun" and were often mentioned together. Yuen Kay San student, Leung Jan Sing, also provided an ancestral document indicating that Yuen Kay San studied with Fung Siu Ching, who learnt Wimng Chun on the Red Boats, while Yip Man and others studied under Yuen Kay San himself. This record was actually made public in the 1970's but had not been publicly disseminated in the West. Yip Man was not Yuen’s official student, having only learnt a little from him. Yuen Kay San taught Yip Man all the chi sau Yip knew - but this was not all that Yuen Kay San knew. In the order of seniority on the family tree, Yuen Kay San ranked at the first level, that is, he was unarguably the top Wing Chun man during his lifetime, with Yip Man being listed the last. It would be normal, therefore, as he did, for Yip Man to ask Yuen Kay San for instruction.
Yip Chun also misrepresented the facts of Leung Jan’s biography and reports on his life from several independent sources in claiming to have known Leung Bik whom he portrayed in the movie. He did not know Leung Bik. No Leung Bik ever taught Yip Man. Yip Man was taught by Ng Chung So. Leung Bik was a romantic fiction derived to promote Hong Kong Wing Chun in the early days. Yip obtained superior skills to his class-mates in Futsan by learning from Yuen Kay San. In fact, Yip’s father at one stage, asked his friend,Yuen Kay San’s father to teach Yip Man some Wing Chun. Yip Man had been disrespectful to Yuen Kay San several times, so he was reluctant - but agreed to his father’s request begrudgingly. Below is the original Chinese quoted from the original article in the Dayoo Newspaper of Guangzhou:

还原历史: “咏春三雄”齐名 姚永强介绍,当年在佛山,他的爷爷姚才与叶问、阮奇山并称“咏春三雄”,三人齐名,武功不相上下。阮奇山 的徒孙梁湛声还提供了祖传的记录,记录上写明, 阮奇山师从冯少青,而叶问与其他多个咏春武者一同在阮奇山的门下。“这本记录是上世纪70年代 留下的, 这也不能说叶问是他的徒弟,但论资历,阮奇山排第 一,叶问最后,叶问向他请教很正常。


^ "冼国林向阮祖棠斟茶道 (Si Kwok Lam serves tea to Yuen Jo Tong)". Yang Sing National Newspaper (China). 2010. Retrieved 2010-07-16.
^ "还原历史: (Restore History)". Dayoo Newspaper (Guangzhou, China). 2010. Retrieved 2010-07-18
 
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anerlich

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So ... we have to apologize for screenplays now?

I wrote a moderately irreverent piece of fiction about Yip Man, and another about Jee Sim and Wong Wa Bo. Awaiting the b*tchkrieg from those offended. If anyone ever finds them.

Imagine if some of the direct descendants ever stumbled across posts on these and other Wing Chun forums ... we'd all be serving tea to them until doomsday and beyond.
 

wckf92

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Yuen Kay San student, Leung Jan Sing, also provided an ancestral document indicating that Yuen Kay San studied with Fung Siu Ching, who learnt Wimng Chun on the Red Boats, while Yip Man and others studied under Yuen Kay San himself. This record was actually made public in the 1970's but had not been publicly disseminated in the West.

Wow! Hadn't heard this before. Interesting. Thanks for posting NI
 

anerlich

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"a growing blight within the Wing Chun community, the need to be recognized as superior."

This particular blight is not "growing". It's been going on since at least the 1970s and probably for centuries before.
 

KPM

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Wow! Hadn't heard this before. Interesting. Thanks for posting NI

This has been pretty widely talked about for several years now. There is no questioning the fact that YKS was older than Ip Man and was at least one generation up on Ip Man in the Wing Chun family tree and therefore his senior. YKS learned from Fok Bo Chuen, who was Leung Jan's classmate. Leung Jan was Ip Man's Si Gung (grand Si Gung if you consider Ng Chun So as really being the guy that taught him most of the system). It is also widely known that YKS, Ip Man, and Yiu Choi were friends and hung out together. So if you were "hanging out" with someone that was older than you and one generation up the Wing Chun family tree from you and also had quite a reputation for their skills.......would you not try to train with them and learn as much as possible?

Leung Ting's book "Roots and Branches" has been shown to be very inaccurate in a number instances over the years. Its pretty clear that any "history" he put in that book was very self-serving and meant to promote his organization. I've heard from more than one source that most of the stories told about Ip Man while he was in mainland china were actually stories of Yuen Kay Shan.

Now all of this is not to denigrate Ip Man's own skills or innovations with the system. Its just setting some of the, what did Joy call it?...."pseudo-history".....straight. ;)
 

wckf92

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This has been pretty widely talked about for several years now. There is no questioning the fact that YKS was older than Ip Man and was at least one generation up on Ip Man in the Wing Chun family tree and therefore his senior. YKS learned from Fok Bo Chuen, who was Leung Jan's classmate. Leung Jan was Ip Man's Si Gung (grand Si Gung if you consider Ng Chun So as really being the guy that taught him most of the system). It is also widely known that YKS, Ip Man, and Yiu Choi were friends and hung out together. So if you were "hanging out" with someone that was older than you and one generation up the Wing Chun family tree from you and also had quite a reputation for their skills.......would you not try to train with them and learn as much as possible?

Leung Ting's book "Roots and Branches" has been shown to be very inaccurate in a number instances over the years. Its pretty clear that any "history" he put in that book was very self-serving and meant to promote his organization. I've heard from more than one source that most of the stories told about Ip Man while he was in mainland china were actually stories of Yuen Kay Shan.

Now all of this is not to denigrate Ip Man's own skills or innovations with the system. Its just setting some of the, what did Joy call it?...."pseudo-history".....straight. ;)

Thx KPM. Yes, I'd heard this before but had not heard about the 'document'.
I'm betting YM learned a thing or two from YKS and YC ;)
 

geezer

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It would be a stubborn and stupid man indeed who would not take advantage of and learn from such contacts. Heck I learn openly from my si-dei ...and have even learned from my students. And from people outside WC.

Now if teaching is your business, the stories you tell would be a different thing altogether. Yip man had good stories. So did my old sifu. KPM knows what I'm talkin' about. But whether all the stories were true or not, Those guys had some good gung-fu. ;)
 
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It would be a stubborn and stupid man indeed who would not take advantage of and learn from such contacts. Heck I learn openly from my si-dei ...and have even learned from my students. And from people outside WC.

Now if teaching is your business, the stories you tell would be a different thing altogether. Yip man had good stories. So did my old sifu. KPM knows what I'm talkin' about. But whether all the stories were true or not, Those guys had some good gung-fu. ;)
I agree. I get the whole promote your school thing too. What I don't get, & the point of this thread, is the rampant act of throwing others under the bus to promote yourself. I see this alot, mostly from descendants of Yip Man's line. I'm curious as to how this came to be.
 

wckf92

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It was prevalent on "that other forum" too...
 

wtxs

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I agree. I get the whole promote your school thing too. What I don't get, & the point of this thread, is the rampant act of throwing others under the bus to promote yourself. I see this alot, mostly from descendants of Yip Man's line. I'm curious as to how this came to be.

Hot damn ... I feel WW III coming on.

Hey wifie, can you pick me up some more beer and popcorn?:p:D
 

geezer

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I agree. I get the whole promote your school thing too. What I don't get, & the point of this thread, is the rampant act of throwing others under the bus to promote yourself. I see this alot, mostly from descendants of Yip Man's line. I'm curious as to how this came to be.

^^^^ ...er ...human nature? I mean look at the nasty political campaign we (in the US) just went though. Anyway, people are what they are. Meanwhile, I gotta get back to work... What are the odds this thread will be locked before I get back on? ;)
 

drop bear

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I agree. I get the whole promote your school thing too. What I don't get, & the point of this thread, is the rampant act of throwing others under the bus to promote yourself. I see this alot, mostly from descendants of Yip Man's line. I'm curious as to how this came to be.

There is no real goal to work towards so they squabble
 
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^^^^ ...er ...human nature? I mean look at the nasty political campaign we (in the US) just went though. Anyway, people are what they are. Meanwhile, I gotta get back to work... What are the odds this thread will be locked before I get back on? ;)
Yeah that's true, to an extent anyways. If we had more political parties and less money involved, I don't think it would have been as bad. That being said, outside a couple of nuts I don't see non-Yip Man branches of Wing Chun condemning Yip Man branches as illegitimate. Always seems to be the other way around. At what point did this happen? When Yip Man was alive the Wing Chun community was much more open & accepting.
 
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Tony Dismukes

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Given that just about nothing else in the Ip Man movies is historically accurate or particularly realistic in any way, it would be surprising if the presentation of lineage seniority was correct.
 

geezer

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There is no real goal to work towards so they squabble

In other words, if there was an agreed upon format for competing and testing the results of WC training, people could compare actual achievement instead of squabbling endlessly over minutia and meaningless claims of seniority, supposed (but unprovable) superiority, and so forth.

----Yeah, that's about right.
 

KPM

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I agree. I get the whole promote your school thing too. What I don't get, & the point of this thread, is the rampant act of throwing others under the bus to promote yourself. I see this alot, mostly from descendants of Yip Man's line. I'm curious as to how this came to be.

I think its largely a function of numbers and percentages. With Bruce Lee's help Ip Man's Wing Chun has become THE Wing Chun worldwide. People practicing it outnumber any mainland branch easily by 1000 times. Ip Man lineage has far more people trying to actually earn a living teaching martial arts than any mainland lineage. So there is far more marketing pressure coming from the Ip Man lineages, far more people percentage-wise to that are willing to "throw someone else under the bus", etc. Essentially with so many more people doing Ip Man Wing Chun than any other version, that means Ip Man lineage is that much more likely to have a higher number of egotistical idiots. Its just a numbers thing. ;)
 
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I think its largely a function of numbers and percentages. With Bruce Lee's help Ip Man's Wing Chun has become THE Wing Chun worldwide. People practicing it outnumber any mainland branch easily by 1000 times. Ip Man lineage has far more people trying to actually earn a living teaching martial arts than any mainland lineage. So there is far more marketing pressure coming from the Ip Man lineages, far more people percentage-wise to that are willing to "throw someone else under the bus", etc. Essentially with so many more people doing Ip Man Wing Chun than any other version, that means Ip Man lineage is that much more likely to have a higher number of egotistical idiots. Its just a numbers thing. ;)
Good assessment. I've had the privilege of meeting reps from several lines coming from Yip Man. Some we're very open, nice, knowledgeable & confident. Some we're close minded, overconfident & arrogant and others were clueless. The clueless ones undoubtedly were due to poor instruction and quick promotion.

That being said, no matter what I think of them, if their training is legitimate, I honor it and don't dismiss their lineage or methods as illegitimate. I may be an a$$ sometimes online, but not usually unprovoked. In person I always extend Mo Duk even when I vehemently disagree, doesn't mean I won't disagree though.
 
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LFJ

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Wasn't there a Wing Chun axiom;

"Do not speak of senior and junior. The one who attains the skill first is the senior."

Too much focus on chronology instead of skill.

When I was 14 I knocked the teeth out of a guy who had been training longer than I had been alive.

Plenty of people with 20, 30, or 40+ years experience still can't fight.

I will serve them tea when they serve me my @$$.
 

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