Duncan Leung on Yip Man

[black and blue]

Funny, interesting... maybe a little sad. This is what Duncan Leung had to say. Enjoy.

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The Yip Man I knew was soft spoken, gentle, liked jokes, walked very firm, never complained, not in front of me anyway, never talked behind anybody's back, seldom to talk about himself. He was being very smooth never saying anything to upset anyone.

When I was in the regular school whenever a student asked him a question he would always ask the student to tell him the answer after the student thought about it and he would always compliment the person and tell him he was right regardless right or wrong. When I got into private lessons with him he was much different then. He did show more concern and gave many details and when I had a question he answered without hesitation always direct to the point. Even though he was not a scientist or doctor the amazing thing about him was whenever he explained theories and techniques he would always come up with some kind of example from life that made it completely clear and these things always stay with you.

He smoked a lot.

He only had a few friends that I knew of that he was close to. Basically, they were from the same place he came from.

I did Chi Sau with him every time we met all through the years he taught me never more than 15 min. because of his age. When we met it was about 1 or 2 times a week the rest I work out myself. The lessons were one hour sometimes he stayed 2 hours to check and see what I did. He would read the papers a lot in the bathroom and stay in there for a long time. When he would come out the smoke just poured out of the door. My servant hated him.

All the time with him I only have one time seen him fight. It was over in less than a second. At that time I was just a beginner in his school.

I only saw him demonstrate one time. He took a 6 and a half point pole and drove a long coffin nail all the way into a thick wall with one strike.

That is all I saw him do.

Every time I had time he wanted to go to a place to eat nearby and order Dim Sum and wanted someone to pay for it that is why he asked me to go. He would not eat very much but would read the newspaper again and I would sit there. He looked like he really enjoyed himself.

Sometimes he wanted to talk about his past and I was too young and not a good listener for these type of things so I never remembered it.

At the time I had to leave him to go to Australia at the end of my training he had quite a few senior students with him and his older students had schools around him. When I was with him personally mostly he only talked about Jiu Wan and Jiu Wan's students. He seldom talked about his own students. He was closer to Jiu Wan and somehow the direct students of Yip Man were not close to Jiu Wan's students. I never figured out why.

Yip Man was the kind of person that you could never tell inside his heart if he liked you or didn't like you. Once in a while when we were talking and some person's name came up I could tell the way he said things he actually hated the person very deep, but you would never realize it if you were to see him and the person together. He would never show know how he felt but was always nice and polite.

These are some of the memories I now have left with me of my SiFu.

[gnugear]

Very interesting!

The most personal account of Yip Man I've read. I wish more stuff like this would come out.

[Starbuck]

What is the source of this information? Just curious.

[Sabu]

A very good story indeed.... Touching.

[kungfu cowboy]

Would you like a tissue?:p

[Martial Joe]

I didnt find anything sad about that...

[diego]

Well mj i think the general consensus is ipman lost everything during the japanese occupation and eventually was living in a cardboard box in hk, i think most find it sad that its probable in his later years his crutch to opium declined in his health...and if i went threw what he did i prolly would be hitting the pipe religious to!, look at hunnga gm LamJo the guy is 92 bet he could play a good game of tennis"fit as a fiddle"..ipman died lungcancer at 73? in 72!...bet if minor depression and general attitude of dont give a ****, he could still be teaching if he didnt kill himself?.

Thats what i get anyway, peace

[black and blue]

The information I posted comes from a question on Duncan Leung's forum.

I also asked him about Yip Man's footwork and kicking (having heard his feet - incredible as it may seem - were better than his hands).

This is the response Sifu Leung gave....
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"I cannot tell you whether his hands or legs were better. I can tell you this. In all the years I was learning from him I only saw him fight for real one time. Someone attacked him and he ended it with a single kick."

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I'm not of the Duncan Leung lineage, but what I like about the man is his willingness to answer whatever question you post. If only there were more direct students of Yip Man that talked so openly about one of the great men in Kung Fu's long history.

Duncan (not Leung, I'm sad to say :) )

[yuanfen]

Yip Man actually kicked quite well from what I have heard. But the story- a student of mine went on to opena Yoga school. He hada a Chinese girlfriend(originally from Hong Kong)- they broke up- she moved to Singapore.She told the story -a relative was a well to do private Yip man student-well to do of course-Yip Man's private tuition was substantial-: In an inside courtyard Yip Man gave lessons to the relative. One day a couple of young tough
"kickers" vistors-friends were present. They didnt think that wc was effective against good kicks. To show application to his own curious private student student- Yip man had the young men trying to kick him. The kickers ended up on the ground-fast.
I am sorry that I didnt interview the girl before the breakup and before she went back to Asia.

[diego]

Black&Blue what is Duncan Leungs webpage?.

Yuanfen i recently read some orgs are selling ipman video footage, do you know how much actual footage is out thier?, even if its not open to the public!. Do his sons have more footage, and in his one sons wooden dummy book by leung ting, was that actual pictures or stills tooken from old 8mm?.:cool:

[yuanfen]

By no means am I a wc media history expert or student.. The so called
Yip man dummy book published by leung Ting appeared to be assembled from loose pictures with some pictures missing.So you have Yip Chun posing on some stills. The first Yip Dummy stills
published with English notes appeared in the form of two small books published by an ex student of Yip Bo Ching.The ex student
had another sifu after Yip Bo Ching died and the student lives in Toronto I believe. Yip Chun did not know how those pictures got out. Yip Ching's UK people have some YM footage in a video but it is not available in a US format. David Williams and/or Rene would perhaps have updates. The footage sold by Leung Ting according to some is not the original footage.
Incidentally- while there are many stills of Yip Man with differnt groups of his students- more rare is Yip man with one of his senior students with the student's students- a real 3 generational picture. One such picture has appeared with several articles about Augustine Fong.That picture is not in the books published by Leung Ting. Yip Man used to visit Ho Kam Ming's school and there is that picture of Yip Man, Ho Kam Ming and Ho Kam Ming's students including Fong in the sixties. In those class visits- Yip Man as sigung corrected motions by Ho's students in class.

[diego]

That was really usefull, YAWN:) /JK

Thanks for sharing your info Yuan!.:cool:

[tnwingtsun]

A long time friend of mine studied under Duncan,good guy,alot of Duncan rubbed off on him.


Did Yip smoke the white horse??

So what if he did,he seemed to keep it under moderation,I tried a O-JAY in Korea(weed laced with OP),great stuff!!!
Only once,that was enough for me.

All about moderation,in anything you do with your life and others we effect.

Bottom line.

[black and blue]

The website address for Duncan Leung's forum is...

http://www.dream-tools.com/tools/messages.mv?index+wingchun

One of the posts on there is from Whipping Hand... ah, a name from the past :)

Sifu Leung's main website also has a bucket load of mpegs and an interesting article from a KF magazine. In it Sifu Leung mentions the over-attention people are giving to Chi Sau. The man's not backward in coming forward, that's for sure.

Duncan

[fgxpanzerz]

How exactly does one prove she or he was a "private" student of Yip Man? All the pictures of him that I've seen, I've seen them everywhere! I'm sure there's a yip man.com or something like that. Anyway, I know a sifu who takes on private students. He charges them a lot of money(not as much as those crooks in China charged or charge, Yip man being one of them) and doesn't teach them that much. Now these guys brag about being a private student. How do all of you know that Yip Man didn't do this as well? I'm starting to see a lot of Yip Man's "private" students on the internet. Soon i'm going to say that I was Yip man's private students and unless someone does the math(he died in 1972) i'm could become world famous. All I'd have to do is go to some small town in the midwest of the U.S and put up a website. hehe, it's all so hilarious.

[yuanfen]

He charges them a lot of money(not as much as those crooks in China charged or charge, Yip man being one of them) and doesn't teach them that much. Now these guys brag about being a private student. How do all of you know that Yip Man didn't do this as well?
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[fgxpanzerz]

if u read my last post in the wingchun + what topic carefully, u'd realize that the story didn't involve me. I was just retelling it. It sounded very sexist, but it wasnt my story! I was quoting the guy from the story.

[yuanfen]

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[Phil Redmond]

Yuanfen

>>The first Yip Dummy stills
published with English notes appeared in the form of two small books published by an ex student of Yip Bo Ching<<

I have two small red books of Yip Man stills in mint condition that I purchased years ago. Are these the books you're refering to?
Phil

[yuanfen]

Likely- but cant tell for sure without looking at yours. The second one had some pics of Yip Ching and the guy who published the books showing some applications.
Yip Chun later wondered how those pictures got out.

[mun hung]

fgxpanzerz - so what point are you trying to make by your comment? Are you trying to dispute that Duncan Leung was a private student of Yip Man?

You seem to have alot to say about an art that you are far from being good at.

[Dave Farmer]

I actually bought my copies of said books at one of Ip Chun's UK seminars around 1991!

I'm suprised he didn't know who printed them, because he, Ip ching and Ip Bo ching along with Arthur Chan were the editors.

They do fill the gaps from the rest of the 'Missing' photo's in the other LT dummy book, but still have a couple of movements missing.

Regards

Dave F.

[Phil Redmond]

Yup, these are the books. Glad that I kept them. One is Red with Gold inlay. I wonder what they're worth now?
Phil

[yuanfen]

Before posting...count slowly till 1000.
You just might communicate better.

[yuanfen]

nota bene-NOT directed at criticizing any single person. A general cultural comment:Breast beating and proclamations of legitimacy by name dropping
is not uncommon in the martial arts not just in wing chun. CLF, Baqua, taiji--- you name it --they all have it. The search for knowledgeable masters has never been easy. The world of advertising and now the internet just magnifies the problem.
Add to this the wiseguy culture on the net. Anyone can be attacked(ex:VTAA nihilistic style of minutes of fame for one and all).
Look at the past attacks on Chen man Ching in taichi, Frantzis in pakua, Hagood in southern mantis,even Doc fai Wong in CLF is being raked over in the Southern forum.If Christ claomed he knew some MA(whippind hand?) he would have been crucified early if the vtaa or even kfo existed..
So unfortunately the old incomplete guard for newbies- still applies- caveat emptor.
Any fool can have a website.

[Dragonhand]

Mun Hung, I like the way you think...But why waste it on stupid people?

[mun hung]

williamsremo - Yip Man did'nt "make" anyone a SiFu. He never granted the title of "SiFu" to anyone.

[TenTigers]

Now, i'm not claiming to be God's gift to kung-fu, far from it...BUT I have studied under several Wing Chun 'Sifus' and have traded hands with lots of guys, but truth be said, Sifus Alan Lee and Duncan Leong are light years ahead of all of'em. I'm not saying everyone, I haven't seen everyone, and it would be pretty stupid to put down someone I've never met, let alone trained with(some people are touchy about touching hands;-) but out of the wing chun people that I HAVE seen, no comparison. They are pragmatic, practical, quick and to the point. The pull no punches, both literally and figuratively, and will tell you when someone is full of it, or if someone is good. Plain and simple. Instead of mudslinging, you should really come down and get in there and play. You can keep your anonyminity, nobody really cares anyway, just keep an open mind.

[TenTigers]

bottom line: Alan Lee or Duncan Leong's Wing Chun might not be what you want out of your wing chun. I understand that. I have seen some wing chun that,although it worked for the guy teaching it, and his students seemed to like it, just wasn't what I needed in my training. Sometimes it has to click with the individual. You have to find a path with heart.

[fgxpanzerz]

Do you think they're wing chun is light years ahead of Sifu Micheal Manganiello's?

[Phil Redmond]

I guess you don't know but when Duncan Leung first came to NYC he made an open challenge to any WC sifu. Trust me neither you nor Sifu Micheal Manganiello would want some. People like you are tooo funny. I am a Sifu under William Cheung now, but I was a student of Duncan Leung's in the 70's. Allen Lee was my Si Hing.

[anerlich]

panzer,

Phil didn't say anything insulting about Michael Mangenello. No, I don't know who he is. That's a statement of fact, not an insult.

You keep making unsubstantiated claims about people (Bruce Lee getting beaten up by Mantis guys, with William Cheung having a letter to prove it - do you know if he does, Phil? - Yip Chun having certain sexual proclivities, some guy you can't name allegedly dissing Robert Chu about how if RC can't teach a girl to beat Mr X in 5 years therefore Wing Chun is crap, and no doubt more to come) and then throw a hissy fit when people are sceptical.

Take some anti-gullibility pills and grow up.

[TenTigers]

Panzer or whatever sn you are using at the time: On one hand, it is commendable that you want to promote your Sifu's school and website, but I really don't think Sifu Manganiello would approve of you trying to bait me, and everyone else on this board in some childish and disgraceful effort to incite discord between schools. I know Sifu Manganiello-quite well, and he would be embarassed if he was made aware of this humiliating and dishonorable display by one of his own students. I suggest to you, that you quit making a total fool of yourself, and behave like a big, grown-up boy. You not only dishonor your Sifu with your childish behavior, but you dishonor all of us, as martial artists. Ask your Sifu what Mo-Duk means. Learn to be a Sik-Jo-Yan. Then, by all means, join all of us on these boards in friendship and brotherhood.
Rik Kellerman

[TenTigers]

"Mo-Lum hai Yat Ga" -The Martial World is One Family

[fgxpanzerz]

I was asking a question which u didn't answer. Would this incite discord between the two schools? If it did then I'd laugh cause it's stupid. There's an underlying threat in yor response. If you feel this will cause some sort of humiliation go tell him all about it. I can see it now. "One of your students was posting on the internet."

Dont infer motives because you dont really know what I was trying to do with that question. Lighten up, man. A little controversy helps to make things interesting on this board.


No hard feelings from my corner. I hope there aren't any from you either.

[yuanfen]

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