A strange interview with Chiu Chi Ling

[wingchunman]

Hi, I´m Achim, a Wing Chun practicer vom Swiss.
Have you read this strange interview from Grandmaster Chiu Chi Ling and Martin Sewer about Hung Gar and Wing Chun ? How he can write that the people will die early if they practice Wing Chun ?

www.swissbudo.ch/news/themen/ChiuChiLing_e.htm (http://www.swissbudo.ch/news/themen/ChiuChiLing_e.htm)

Here a part from this interview:

KUNG FU:
However there are famous Wing Chung masters?

Grandmaster Chiu Chi Ling:
Give me an example! To be famous in China meant over the city-boundary. Most Wing Chung master were slim and weak. Often they died at an early age. What do you want? Have a long and healthy life or die early. Hung Gar stands for a strong body and a long life. Many Hung Gar master are folk heros and well-known even outside China.

Greetings
Achim

[fa_jing]

Seemed like a cool interview, anyway.
-FJ

[anerlich]

He didn't say Wing Chun would make you die young, IMO he was saying that a lot of frail people took it up and that Hung Gar was better for health.

I personally don't think WC is better than anything else for preserving one's health. For health, you might as well do , Boxercise, Tae-bo or a seniors taiji class (not trying to insult taiji here). WC is a combat system.

I think the statements about WC made here are just the old master "giving face". It seems to me that, while we scold each other on forums like these for talking trash about other systems and lineages, the old masters were just as bad and often worse. William Cheung being one example amongst many.

[dbulmer]

Anerlich
Hello to all this is my first post here.

"I personally don't think WC is better than anything else for preserving one's health. For health, you might as well do , Boxercise, Tae-bo or a seniors taiji class (not trying to insult taiji here). WC is a combat system. "

I both agree and disagree with you but from a different perspective. I started WC about a year ago having spent most of the last 20 years doing nothing physical at all. I feel a lot lot fitter than I did a year ago. Had I done TKD or Shotokan or some other style I think I'd never have gotten through the vigourous warm ups. You did say "preserve " but for me just getting to a MA class was an effort. At first I thought WC was easy physically but the more I do (and I can do more than then) the harder I find it because I want to put the effort in. My technique is still embryonic but I am getting better. In the WC we do we have a free spar section where the fitter you are, the easier it becomes to apply technique. As you say WC is a combat system but from my own perspective I cannot think of an MA that could me enthused enough to want to overcome my lack of fitness. The principle of directness is appealing to the bone idle of which I count myself as a member. But in 5 years I suspect my membership might lapse!

[yuanfen]

A month or two ago- Chiu Chi Ling gave a seminar at a wing chun brother's school (Robert Lopez) in north central Tucson. Lopez does both wing chun and hung gar. Chiu Chi Ling moves very efficiently and very fast. He pointed out(I was not there) per my
friend that the hung gar stances are for development but they are
adapted by good practitioners for fighting. He also said that many of the kuen kuit are common to hung gar and wing chun.
But the article we are discussing seems to express some stronger
opinions about wing chun. I do not know whether the articke is well translated. I can tell you that lots of Chinese sifus are mis-
quoted and/or mistranslated. In any case wc folks should not be too upset with the article as it stands. Obviously, Chiu Chi Ling prefers his art as indeed he should. Does not make his remarks
objectively true. He obviously does not know enough about wing chun and bases his opinions on what he has known and seen.
So he claims wc as a little brother of hung gar. Yang of Boston claims wc asa little brother of Fukien white crane. So it goes.
Success has a thousand fathers.
Hung gar folks tend to emphasize more muscle power- hence the
comments on "skinny" folks and wc. In any case lots of wc people have lived fairly long... Yip Man for instance. Ho Kam Ming is 75
plus etc. Some have died earlier. Same for hung gar folks. Hung gar folks
use more dynamic tension in some of their sets including tiger/crane. Harder chi gung in sanchin...not neccessarily better ideas than wing chun. As far as wing chun and health... depends on your routines.(and personal life style and genes etc)..you can have a lazy wing chun routine or a vigorous routine. Just as you can run after your kids or run for health. Jim Fix the running guru died early.I dont sell wc short as a potential building block for health.
I have my vices(never mind)...but wc has treated me well and I have been doing it over 26 years.

[reneritchie]

I have heard nothing but good things about Chiu sifu. Hopefully this interview suffered from strange questions and translations, and nothing more. All in all, rather confusing:

Quote 1: Most Wing Chung representatives have their history based on invented legends.

Quote 2: Hung Hee Gung who named our style was married to a woman called Fong Wing Chung. He was a master of the tiger techniques and she a master of crane techniques. Together they created the legendary tiger-crane set.

The second is not verifiable history, merely a different invented legend.

Quote 3: Every aspect of Wing Chung you can also find in the Hung Gar system.

Since we're all human, and live (mostly) in the same universe, we'll tend to move in similar ways. However, Wing Chun Kuen (Chant Spring Boxing) does so with a methodology different in kind from that of Hung Ga Kuen. If the base method of movement and power generation is different, it is difficult to assert one as a subset of the other.

Quote 4: Give me an example! To be famous in China meant over the city-boundary.

Leung Jan, though not to the extent of Wong Fei-Hong, and probably not Fong Sei-Yuk, is still famous through Foshan, Guangzhou, Hong Kong and surrounding areas. The subject of books, articles, soap operas, movies, etc. Yip Man has also become known, within Chinese martial circles, rather far and wide.

Quote 5: Most Wing Chung master were slim and weak.

What is the factual foundation for this? Yip Man and Yuen Kay-San were slim, but not weak. Chan Wah-Shun was large and strong, as was Cheung Bo.

Quote 6: Often they died at an early age.

Again, what is the factual foundation for this? Chu Chong lived to 104. Both his sons are in their 70s or 80s. His classmates are in their 80s or 90s. Yip Man lived into his 70s, as are his sons and many of his students. Yuen Kay-San lived to 67 and his elder brother into his 80s. And Sum Nung is going strong in his 70s. Fung Chun is also in his 70s. And Wei Yan in his 90s. Historically, Leung Jan and Fung Siu-Ching both lived into their 70s, as did Lok's nephew. And there are many others.

Quote 7: South Shaolin Kung Fu and Hung Gar are exactly the same thing.

Then we should be able to go to Fujian and find it practiced there exactly as it is practiced in Guangdong and Hong Kong.


Rgds,

RR

[wingchunman]

Hi reneritchie,

the interview you can read in english and german language. And sorry, it is no mistake in the translation. The english translation is exactly like the german talking.

I agree with your reply. In different kung fu styles you can find masters who died in a high age and masters who died in an early age. But this has mostly nothing do to with a special kung fu style. My opinion is that it is very important that all people practice their kung fu style for a long life, good health and for themselves as good as they can. Every style is only good as the practicer who is doing it.

For me the interview is only for promoting Chiu Chi Ling and some other strange guys. They should better practice more Hung Gar than talking bad about other styles and masters. Bad talking is very easy but better doing is more difficult.