This is a strange Wing Chun History Article

[FIRE HAWK]

http://members.tripod.com/~crane69/index6u.htm

[YungChun]

Originally posted by FIRE HAWK
http://members.tripod.com/~crane69/index6u.htm

It starts off where the author says he is fortunate to understand Cantonese, which is what the material from Ting was written in making it inaccessible to English and even Mandarin speaking people. If I am not mistaken isn't any material written in Cantonese entirely readable by Mandarin speaking? Aren't the same characters used in all Chinese dialects with only small variation in syntax?

[Marshdrifter]

Originally posted by YungChun
If I am not mistaken isn't any material written in Cantonese entirely readable by Mandarin speaking? Aren't the same characters used in all Chinese dialects with only small variation in syntax?

I believe there are some extra characters used to write out the
words which have been added in from other non-Chinese
languages.

[aelward]

Tom Kagan writes:
> isn't any material written in Cantonese entirely readable by
> Mandarin speaking? Aren't the same characters used in all
> Chinese dialects with only small variation in syntax?

I think it depends on what level of writing, and where you are. Formal (ex: newspaper) writing is fairly standard, regardless of whether you are in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Taipei, Singapore, or the States. But then, colloquial written language is slightly different. There are certain characters that I've seen commonly used in Hong Kong (like in newspapers and on the side of busses) that aren't common in standard writing. Things like the "chi" in chi sao is also very uncommon in Mandarin, as well.

[anerlich]

Interesting stuff.

Ironic indeed that an article by/about Leung Ting uses animated gif's of his old enemy, William Cheung, to demonstrate chi sao.

As a legend, this is pretty good. As a rigorous analysis, statements like:


Do you realize that "Ning Nan" sounds very close to "Ling Lam", the ancient Muaythai that is also very close to Wing Chun? From this Dr Leung Ting had concluded that they are actually one & the same thing.

and


All these prove without a doubt that although Wing Chun & Ling Lam originated from the same place around the same time, Ven Ng Mui obviously took what she liked from the Flying Monkey style & combined it with her White Crane Kungfu.

with the tremendous leaps of logic involved, IMO prevent this from being a work of serious scholarship. Fascinating stuff, though.

[Grendel]

Originally posted by FIRE HAWK
http://members.tripod.com/~crane69/index6u.htm

Who is the author? He refers to Yim Wing Chun as Madame Yim. Isn't this like saying "Madame girl?"

Otherwise, a pretty fanciful article. Obviously there is some attempt to market WT versus Muay Thai involved. Probably the author had a Thai boxing school open near his WT school.

[reneritchie]

I think examples of WCK like choreography in Thailand is more easily explained by the migration of WCK practitioners in the early decades of the 1900s in seach of economic opportunity, which took the art into South East Asia (eg. Yuen Chai-Wan and Lui Yiu-Chai who went to Vietnam).

RR

[AndrewS]

Adding my 2c,

This is from Leung Ting's 'Roots and Branches of Wing Tsun'. It's an interesting text, definitely stamped by Leung Ting's ego and ulterior motives. While by no means rigorous scholarship, it does include reproductions of primary sources and fairly extensive documentation. You may not like the conclusions drawn, or the commentary, but Ting does expose his reasoning and its basis.

Personally, I'm confused as to the whole Thai connection Ting makes. I don't think this is directly part of some marketing push, and can't figure out what his angle is with this take on history.

Rene,

unless someone can provide more extensive documentation of this Northern Thai style, it would definitely seem that your explanation is most parsimonous.

FWIW,

Andrew

[reneritchie]

parsimonous.

Remind me never to play 'Scrabble' with you. @^*#$! double letter scores and bonuses for using up all your tiles...

[Tom Kagan]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by aelward
[B]Tom Kagan writes:
> isn't any material written in Cantonese entirely readable by
> Mandarin speaking? Aren't the same characters used in all
> Chinese dialects with only small variation in syntax?


:confused:

I wrote nothing before this current message right here. To whom are you refering and why do you think I would even bother to post in this thread?