does anyone practice the original nan quan

[golden arhat]

as opposed to the wushu version ?

[B-Rad]

Lots of people. The "wushu" nan quan is a composite of a few southern styles with some chang quan added in and flashed up with more acrobatics in current day competitions. So the "original" nan quan would be Hung Gar, Mok Gar, Choy Lay Fut, Wing Chun, etc. This being the Southern forum it should be pretty easy to find info on plenty of original southern styles ;)

Or are you asking if anyone practices the very first Southern style kungfu ever? If that's you question, I'd have to say probably not, and I doubt there's any way of knowing what that would have been anyway...

[golden arhat]

as in the original straight from the horses mouth (gee sin)
and i know what nan quan (wushu) is as i practise it

[Ben Gash]

OK, first we have to deal with the fact that Gee Sim may or may not have been a real person, as opposed to a myth created to protect the identities of senior anti Qing revolutionaries or a creation of pulp swordplay fiction writers.
Secondly, if he was a real person then he would have died 200-250 years ago. NO style survives that long completely unchanged.
Thirdly, pretty much EVERY Cantonese Sil Lum style (by definition), several Fujian styles and a few Wing Chun branches claim direct descent from Gee Sim. Hung Hei Gung and Li Yao San were supposed to be senior disciples of Gee Sim, and produced arts that are at once similar yet different, so who knows what his style (which was supposed to be Songshan Shaolin anyway) looked like?

[golden arhat]

minus all the acrobatics modern nan quan is the closest we have got to the original nan quan as it is an amalgamation of the southern arts lol

[Sow Choy]

IMO...

Nan Quan is a poor compilation of some, actually very few techniques of Hung Kuen, CLF and the various others... Some of the steps are there, some swing techniques... But the power generation and movement of power through the stances is not the same by a longshot... How do i know? I learned it... from Jet Li's Si Mui (Loi Yun) who travelled with jet Li to the white house and did 2 man and 3 man forms with him...

I respect the abilities of wushu athletes, but there is a huge difference in what we do and what they do... Its like extreme breakdancing meets gymnastics with martial arts... After training with some very good Northern teachers, I now see the differences in handling of weapons too...

So I guess its a great performance art and imitation of Traditional Martial Art...

And with Nan Quan, I never practice it, didn't like it... I do know 1 other wushu set I like better... but I teach it to kids...

Joe

[TenTigers]

yeah, two things-I always liked the wu-shu nan chuan, and alsways had this fantasy off doing it in tournament, but with proper body connection and structure-BUT then I probably wouldn't even place!
The other thing is, I have a book that has the "original Nan Chuan" and it is Fu Hok Seurng Ying Kuen-minus some of the boring parts.
So if you want "Original Nan Ch'uan", the go to your nearest Hung-Ga Sifu.

[hasayfu]

I'm with Joe on this one.

I have a profound respect for the achievements that the WuShu community produces but calling WuShu's version of NanQuan the closest thing to Gee Sim is like calling P.F. Chang's the closest thing to real chinese cooking because it blends things from different regions and adds modern flavor as well. It may be tasty but it has lost the essense of the original.

I could argue the closest thing to the original NanQuan is Hung Gar. We have a traceable lineage to Luk Ah Choy who is supposedly a student of GeeSim. Of course, I would not argue this. We can see that from 2 generations the forms and spirit has changed dramatically depending on lineage. I can't fathom what going back 7-8 generations will do.

One interesting tidbit (which I have never verified), Si-Gung Chiu Wai told me he was on the commitee that formulated the first WuShu version of NanQuan. That set was less flashy and a majority amount contained pieces from Hung Gar.

Note: Posted at the same time TT did. YEah, what he said :)

[gwa sow]

didn't wong fei hung develope hung gar as many is practice it today?? so would a hung gar lineage that doesn't go through wong fei hung be closer. i remember hearing somewere that the gung gee fook fu set originally could be done in a 4' x 4' area. but who knows:confused:

[The Xia]

As lineages progress, new things are picked up. There is even some Lama Kung Fu in Wong Fei Hung-Hung Kuen.

[The Xia]

I also agree that Hung Gar would be what you are looking for.