Name your top five tigers of southern siulum!!

[Gowgee]

Who would you chose as the five top southern (HG, CLF, WC, BM, etc) siulum martial artists of our times - in terms of skill and attributes?

I'm only interested in you guys concensus, so keep it clean - no flames ok! :)

Here's mine (in no particular order):

* Wong Shun Leung (WC)
* Frank Yee (HG)
* Tat Mau Wong (CLF)
* Chan Yong Fa (CLF)
* Augustine Fong (WG)
* Buck Sam Kong (CLF/HG)

Woops that's six ;)

[CLFNole]

This is a nice little idea but to put Tat Mau Wong ahead of his sifu Lee Koon Hung is a joke. Picking well-known names from magazines and the internet doesn't make you a top five person.

Peace.

[Gowgee]

OK cheers - no harm meant, CLFNole :cool:

I don't know that many people in the chinese martial arts world outside my own training, and would like to know which people KFOers consider top southern fist martial artists.

So.... who's your top five? :)

[CLFNole]

It would be very difficult to take five people from all the southern styles let alone all the major southern styles.

There are numerous masters both alive and dead that could be argued for. There are many sifus people would know of in the states and Canada, but there are that many more in Hong Kong, China and Taiwan.

Plus how do you judge it? On commercial success? Fighting prowess? How nice forms look? Without having seen the people you can't make a judgement.

For every great martial artist there is always someone better. To try to pick 5 is an exercise in futility. It makes for nice conversation and we can argue until be are blue in the face as to why so and so sifu should be included or not included but in the end its pointless.

Better to have respect of all sifus and their accomplishments. Sifus who have spent there lives promoting and spreading their arts. That is what is important.

Peace.

[Gowgee]

I can definately see that too. Hmm... let me take a step back here and rephrase: At the Athens Olympics recently, the people across the globe saw world-class athletes competing in their chosen sports. Now there is no way that those present at the Olympics represent every excelling athlete in their sport, but what they do represent is the top levels of performance in that sport. So when you're looking at the winners of the gold, silver and bronze medals, you're looking at athletes who excel in their sports. :)

What I'm really interested in then, is who a handful of martial artists are in the different southern fist arts that are fairly visible out there today in the internet, videos etc, so that I can understand what some of the best physical performance of each of those arts is about. CLF Nole, you gave a good call when you mentioned about contributions to society, practitioners who don't come under the media's spotlight etc, but in this thread I'd like to talk about who some of the top athletes of southern fist are in, say, Hung Gar, Choi Li Fut, Bak Mei, Bak Hok, Wing Chun, Lung Ying etc...

Any thoughts, people?

[joedoe]

Not to mention that there are some great masters out there who are not famous. And how do you judge the skill of a master through a video? I am sure there are masters out there who have awesome skill but don't show it when on video.

To use your Olympic analogy though, what you woud be comparing would be which runner would be best out of the 100m, 5000m, and marathon champions. All the same sport but different events, so it is not a fair comparison. :)

[David Jamieson]

ted, fred, ned, red and jed.

not necessarily in that order, but there you have it.

[Rhat]

Here's mine:

1) Jason Lau (WC)
2) Chan Yong Fa (CLF)
3) Law Mong (STL)
4) Lam Jo (HG)
5) Mai Yu Keung (BM)

[Gowgee]

Originally posted by Kung Lek
ted, fred, ned, red and jed.

not necessarily in that order, but there you have it.

Hey, aren't those the names of all the original Village People members? :D

Thanks for your thoughts gents :)

[SifuX-HSK]

hey guys,

i have a question, when it comes to styles such as Choy Lee Fut which has 3 familes how can 1 man represent all of Choy Lee Fut. we all know chan yong fa does not represent all of choy lee fut just his family's branch.

i agree with clfnole that to put tat mau wong in front of lee koon hung is a little iffy. it is unfair to openly compare sifu's out there.
i am sorry, there may be some real good studio teachers out there and are only good for the business aspect of gung fu. those sifu's are known as paper sifu's. there is one very well known choy lee fut teacher whose students claim he is godlike but this sifu has never been in a real fight in his life. how do i know, shoot, everyone who was around this sifu's time all say it is the truth. they knew him personally.

but all 3 branches of choy lee fut should be considered when speaking for all of choy lee fut. without the hung sing and buk sing branches all you have is 1/3 of the style.

My pick of the top 5 hung sing choy lee fut sifu's :

1- Dino "Jew Tien Loong" Salvatera- for being the first non-full blodded chinese to inherit Professor Lau Bun's Hung Sing Kwoon legacy with a history of over 80 years. Plus his reputation speaks for itself.

2- Lee Koon Hung- for the great impact he had on the Choy Lee Fut world as a whole. He will forever be a legend.

3-Chia Yan Soon- for becoming the Current Jerng Mun Yan of the Singapore Hung Sing Kwoon.

4- the late Ho Cheurng-one of the eldest surviving fut san hung sing kwoon elders-until his recent death.

5-Great Sigung Jew Leong- for being one of the last surviving high ranking senior students of Professor Lau Bun.


(i am not forgetting people like Mak Hin Fai, Li Siu Hung, chan kum fai in NY, etc.)

My reasons for choosing these Masters are for their great contributions to our lineage, not for any commercial reasons. and once again, this is only my personal opinion, and can be debated over.

Picks for the BUK SING branch would be:

1-Elder Lun Chee -for being the last and eldest surviving student of Buk SIng founder Tam Sam

2-Carey Wong in Hong Kong
3-Kong Hing
4-The Lacey brothers
5-Buk sam kong

Chan Family-

1-Chan Yong Fa
2-Fu Hang Ng
3-Chan kit fong
4-Master fred spencer
5-bill leung

i could be wrong and my opinion is subject to change.

sifu

[Fu-Pow]

Originally posted by SifuX-HSK
[B]hey guys,

i have a question, when it comes to styles such as Choy Lee Fut which has 3 familes how can 1 man represent all of Choy Lee Fut. we all know chan yong fa does not represent all of choy lee fut just his family's branch.

Haven't we been over this again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and?????????????

[Fu-Pow]

BTW, I think the 5 tigers list should:

a) Only count people who are alive.
b) Should include all Southern Styles............

Anyways, any list like this is pretty ridiculous.

[Eddie]

what about 5 tigers from this forum?
Based on informative posts and stuff. We call it the Tigers of the Southern Forum?

In alphabetical order

AlecM
Ao Qin
Ben Gash
Cerebus
CLFNole
Extrajoseph
Fiercest Tiger
Fu Pow
Kung Lek
Serpent
SifuX-HSK
Sow Choy
Straightblast 5

and there are more…

ok, not really only 5, how about the 20 tigers of Southern Shaolin forum?

Eddie