Flowery Hands Embroidery Kicks

[5thBrother]

Flowery Hands Embroidery Kicks

does anyone know the cantonese version of that?

i'd guess at


Fah Kune ? Gerk

????


thanks


or similar sayings of similar meaning

[TenTigers]

Fa Kuen, sow geurk

[Wong Ying Home]

Fa Kuen So Tuei

Flower fist - brocade kick

[chasincharpchui]

if u want the literal translation then its wat tentigers said

[GeneChing]

We often run a calligraphic piece of some kung fu chengyu, painted by a noted martial arts master, on the last page of the issue. We call it Kung Fu Wisdom. In our Nov/Dec 2006 issue (http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/magazine/article.php?article=680), which should be on the newsstand already, we had GM Tu Jin-Sheng write 'Flower Fist, Embroidered Leg'. If you read this issue, I think you'll get why we used this one for this issue. ;)

[Wong Ying Home]

Open to corrections..but does Geuk not mean leg and Teui mean kick??:confused:

[hasayfu]

Close.

Actually, in Cantonese Gerk (腳) means foot - Jiao in Mandarin
Toy(腿) means leg - Tui in Mandarin
Tek(踢) means kick - Ti in Mandarin

I looked at latest issue caligraphy (Great article on Zhao, Gene) and Maser Tu uses Toy/Tui.

I'm not familiar with the second half of this phrase. Most people just say Fah Kuen (as mentioned in the mag). Saying "Sow Toy" just sounds weird to me. "Sow Gerk" sounds more cantonese. Is this a mandarin/cantonese colloquial thing or is the phrase really "Fah Kuen, Sow Toy"

[chasincharpchui]

Open to corrections..but does Geuk not mean leg and Teui mean kick??:confused:


geuk, tui, tek

all 3 of these are used for 'kick', the trick is to know which to use in context

tek is the only 1 out of the 3 that literally means kick


its how u use it

sun geuk(thrust kick?)
so geuk, so tui(roundhouse kick)
jut tek( side kick)

[hasayfu]

Great point. I forgot to mention that. While Tek is officially kick, Gerk is used most often used to mean kick. Like Fu Mei Gerk (Tiger tail kick).

I don't hear Toy much but that is just me.

Chasincharpchiu, do you find "toy" used much in cantonese? I see you used it for the roundhouse but again, I'm more familiar with Sow Gerk.

[chasincharpchui]

Great point. I forgot to mention that. While Tek is officially kick, Gerk is used most often used to mean kick. Like Fu Mei Gerk (Tiger tail kick).

I don't hear Toy much but that is just me.

Chasincharpchiu, do you find "toy" used much in cantonese? I see you used it for the roundhouse but again, I'm more familiar with Sow Gerk.

i find we use toy more not as part of the name of the kick, but more on the action or object we kicking

like sow toy, wen we do this technique. which is sweeping leg, its more sweep opponents leg. if u get me

where as sow gerk is sweeping kick/ roundhouse kick. name of the kick

does anyone understand me?
lol

[Shaolin Dude]

fa kuen sau tui. that's how people say it in movies all the time

[5thBrother]

thank you for the informative replies everyone :)

[Wong Ying Home]

An excellent discourse, thanks for everybody who chipped in very usefull...:)

[GeneChing]

I was looking up the character for xiu in hua quan xiu tui for a piece that I'm working on and this here thread led the way. So for future reference, here is the Chinese characters: 花拳繡腿

And just for the record, as this is the Southern forum, the Cantonese is fa kyun sau teui. This is what Wong Ying Home posted (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?43533-Flowery-Hands-Embroidery-Kicks&p=712412#post712412), but using the Yale romanization.

:cool:

[LFJ]

"Flower Fist, Embroidered Leg" or similar is much too literal a translation.

Better would be "showy boxing with fancy footwork".

"All show and no go", in other words, to give it an equivalent English expression.

[Firehawk4]

One might ask is there kung fu that they practice like this or is it ridgided like a robot .

[Jimbo]

"Flower Fist, Embroidered Leg" or similar is much too literal a translation.

Better would be "showy boxing with fancy footwork".

"All show and no go", in other words, to give it an equivalent English expression.

IMO, "showy boxing with fancy footwork" still doesn't really capture the exact meaning as it relates to CMA. Because in western boxing (and American-style kickboxing), everyone has seen showy boxers with fancy footwork who are (or were) nonetheless very effective with it and, in fact, were great fighters: Roy Jones, Ali, Leonard, etc., and kickboxers Bill Wallace, Jerry Trimble, etc.

"All show and no go" is a good one, but I've often heard it applied to bodybuilder-types with big muscles who couldn't fight. My personal favorite expression for it in English is "All flash and no substance".

I believe that "Hua Quan/Xiu Tui" was a mocking variant of the expression "Nan Quan/Bei Tui" (Southern Fist/Northern Leg).

[LFJ]

I think "Flower Hands, Embroidered Leg" just sounds weird and doesn't really tell us what the literal reference is, i.e; showy boxing moves and fancy footwork. Context would tell us it's meant in a pejorative sense. An equivalent English expression would then make it particularly clear (no go; no substance).

I'm just thinking WTH is an embroidered leg? Oh, it means no substance. But what is of no substance? A leg? WTH does that mean exactly? Weak stances? No balance? Inflexibility? Oh, it means fancy footwork that doesn't work. Okay, makes sense.

[A Joyful Proces]

This is a very interesting thread for me. I learn Lau family Hung Kuen, & in my lineage we regard a set called "Fah Kuen" as one of our most important. This has been passed down directly from Lau Kar Leung.

I'm an English guy & my knowledge of Cantonese extends to but kung fu terms only; I was told the set's name, fah kuen, means "flower fist", but not any more than that. The attention I have been shown with it is just towards the movements within, not towards the concept behind the name.

The set is fast as possible with numerous multiple strikes in all sorts of manners & ranges, with fast footwork... if LKL considered this a finest treasure, how can "fah kuen" in part be a pejorative term in all instances?

Anyone have any more insight?