Hey All,
Until the early 90's the West pretty much thought that all Wing Chun came through Yip Man. When he died it was unclear who was his successor as the claim was voiced by more than one individual. The William Cheung fight with Boztepe was short. Boztepe was 17 at the time. And the fight was an attack from behind. It's my understanding that Cheung was also jet lagged and sick as well having just flown in from Australia to Germany that day. There's sound to the video and it seemed to me like neither was speaking the same language either, German vs English (Australian English). It was a short fight and you used to be able to see it on Leung Ting's site or some site linked to it.
In the early 90's several other branches of Wing Chun came to be known and their legitimacy was unquestionable. Their histories went back hundreds of years. Complete with pictures and names of students. So the whole Yip Man successor thing died down. The battle for legitimacy between them all has calmed down.
I live in LA and so does Boztepe. I fought one of his guys at the Dog Brothers in 2000 and his student was pretty good. He was also a very nice guy. The Wing Chun community has become much more friendly to the different branches of Wing Chun since other styles came into the mainstream. This is for the better.
The principles of Wing Chun are pretty much the same, no matter what style. The difference lies in training methodology and in the techniques in the forms. Some of the stances and transitions are very different in the forms between WC and VT. I think this is where the Center/Central Line divergence comes from. In one style, the Gu Lao style of Wing Chun, they don't use the forms at all but rather postures instead.
Until the early 90's the West pretty much thought that all Wing Chun came through Yip Man. When he died it was unclear who was his successor as the claim was voiced by more than one individual. The William Cheung fight with Boztepe was short. Boztepe was 17 at the time. And the fight was an attack from behind. It's my understanding that Cheung was also jet lagged and sick as well having just flown in from Australia to Germany that day. There's sound to the video and it seemed to me like neither was speaking the same language either, German vs English (Australian English). It was a short fight and you used to be able to see it on Leung Ting's site or some site linked to it.
In the early 90's several other branches of Wing Chun came to be known and their legitimacy was unquestionable. Their histories went back hundreds of years. Complete with pictures and names of students. So the whole Yip Man successor thing died down. The battle for legitimacy between them all has calmed down.
I live in LA and so does Boztepe. I fought one of his guys at the Dog Brothers in 2000 and his student was pretty good. He was also a very nice guy. The Wing Chun community has become much more friendly to the different branches of Wing Chun since other styles came into the mainstream. This is for the better.
The principles of Wing Chun are pretty much the same, no matter what style. The difference lies in training methodology and in the techniques in the forms. Some of the stances and transitions are very different in the forms between WC and VT. I think this is where the Center/Central Line divergence comes from. In one style, the Gu Lao style of Wing Chun, they don't use the forms at all but rather postures instead.