Bow with hand gesture of head nod?

[WCFighter]

Hi everyone,

Let's talk about bowing.

Anyone know why other styles cover right fist with left hand, while
wing chun covers left fist with right hand?

My understanding is that it was a way to figure out who was part of
the wing chun revolutionary army (over 300 years ago) . Kinda like
unique hand signals that LA gangs have, for example.

Anyone know the details of this difference?

Also, I thought all wing chun schools use this bow to say:
hello, goodbye, please, thank you... etc to the Sifu and members of the school.
I know we do.. in the William Cheung lineage.

I had a friend who wanted to learn wing chun, and I knew he lived very close
to a Leung Ting school, so I advised him to go train there .
After a few classes I started to ask him about his classes.
I told him to make sure he is always polite to everyone, and to use the bow.
And he told me that they don't use this bow at this Leung Ting school... they just
nod their head instead. I found this strange.
Actually, I have met a few people from Leung Ting schools in Europe who recently moved to Canada over the years, and they don't seem to use the bow when
they visit other wing chun schools.

Is this common in Leung Ting schools? Or just the exception.

I also asked a Bak Mei Sifu once , if there is a special way to bow in their school .. using their hands.. And he said: No. Bowing with a hand gesture is too political, we just bow using a head nod.

I am not sure what he meant by political.

Can anyone shed some light on this as well?

I happen to think that bowing is a polite way to give respect to the Sifu of a school, and not bowing would be rude.

Just curious.

[YouKnowWho]

- The close fist is like the "日(Ri) - sun".
- The open palm is like the "月(Yue) - moon".
- When you put together is like the "明(Ming) - Ming dynasty",

which is the dynasty before the Qing dynasty that the majority of Chinese always tried to overthrow it. This 明(Ming) symbol was used to identify the underground revolution group member in the past 300 years. If you use your

1. left palm to cover your right fist, you will form a 明(Ming) symbol from your opponent's angle.
2. right palm to cover your left fist, you will form a 明(Ming) symbol from your angle.

Since the symbol is used to show to your opponent (not to yourself), I believe the 1st one should be the original.

[LoneTiger108]

Hi everyone,

Let's talk about bowing.

Anyone know why other styles cover right fist with left hand, while
wing chun covers left fist with right hand?

FWIW I was always shown left palm covering right fist (well, not covering exactly!) as a Cheng Lai and I'm a Wing Chun student from, what I would consider, quite a rich heritage.

The Sun & Moon is also relevant, as is the 'Return China to Ming' expressions, as it was like you said, a secret society or revoluntionary thing for a while. Not so much 'political' but 'patriotic' I think! It was also common on the Red Junks as performers would mark the end of their sets with this gesture before leaving the stage. To over-do the salutation is also frowned upon, especially during training. But I would consider a cheng at the entrance on arrival is just good manners really.

The cheng greeting has also been popularized by mainstream wushu now, but in all seriousness this hand gesture has existed for as long as the Chinese have burnt incense as that action too is the same. ;)

[Buddha_Fist]

I say don't bow!


:D