BPWT
05-30-2013, 06:21 AM
Alex Richter, from City WingTsun in New York, has translated the interview with Yip Man.
Alex writes:
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Page 1 of the "Interview with Wing Tsun* Grandmaster Yip Man" from New Martial Hero, issue #56 from February 1972.
Note: The following translation is not a literal word-for-word translation so much as it is the text put in understandable English for the non-Chinese reader. Chinese writing style and grammar don't flow easily into English and so I did my best to get the idea expressed well and still maintain a bit of the Chinese feel. Also note that this is a translation - the views on the history of Wing Tsun are from the Grandmaster Yip Man and no one else. Enjoy!**
Article translation page 1:
If you are an outsider to striking martial arts and all you know is to raise your arm to block when attacked or throw a simple kick, even you can understand the essence of Wing Tsun with only a brief five-minute explanation. You will quickly learn how unique Wing Tsun is and learn about how the chi sau (sticking hands) method is applied as well as using the shortest line and efficient methods of disposing of an enemy.
Wing Tsun focuses on using simple and practical moves to defend against your attacker. In Hong Kong, old Sifu Yip Man has been promoting Wing Tsun and collected many students in a brief 23 years. Many students work very hard to be able to learn directly from him. The author of this interview wanted to introduce Wing Tsun to the readers and so he interviewed Grandmaster Yip Man himself. The interviewer saw that the 76-year old Yip Man is still very strong and he answered every question, and as a result the interviewer learned quite a lot.
Everyone who loves to read historical martial art novels must surely know the name Fong Sai Yuk. One of the characters in the Fong Sai Yuk stories is Gee Shim (also know as Sim Si). The si-je (older kung fu sister) of Gee Shim is Ng Mui and she is the founder of Wing Tsun. It's been 200 years since she founded this style. Since the founder was a woman one would think that the style is very soft. However this style is surprisingly very aggressive - more aggressive than other styles. The reason is that the founder, being a woman, needs to have a style that can fight strong men. If she cannot beat down the opponent in the first move, then it will be impossible for her to struggle against the bigger man. Therefore... (end of article page... to be continued!)
*the use of the "wing tsun" spelling in this case is to be used in the generic sense for all wing chun/ving tsun etc. of the Yip Man lineage.
**I owe the picture credit for this magazine to www.naamkyun.com, a fantastic site for southern Chinese martial arts historical resources. However on that site they have a few "excerpts" translated in English (which I believe is from www.wingtsunwelt.com) HOWEVER the English translation is NOT from this interview but rather from the first interview with Mok Pui On. This interview is the second one. Therefore my translation should be the first English translation of THIS particular interview.
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PAGE 2 Translation of the interview with grandmaster Yip Man!
On the second page grandmaster Yip Man continues telling the author about the history of wing tsun. The author tries to goad the grandmaster into telling some old time stories without any success. This part of the interview is also where grandmaster Yip Man declares Leung Ting to be his closed-door student (the title came from the grandmaster, not from Leung Ting!) Enjoy!
Interview translation page 2:
The first principle of wing tsun is to be aggressive and do damage with the first attack so as to make the opponent unable to fight back. The successor of Ng Mui is the reason why the style is named wing tsun. Her successor was also a woman, named Wing Tsun with the surname Yim. Later she passed on her techniques to her husband Leung Bok Chau. When Leung passed the techniques onto his students, there was still no name for this style. In order to pay tribute to his wife, he named the style Wing Tsun. The successor of Leung Bok Chau was in the Hung Suen (the Red Boat, which was a group of Chinese Opera performers). His name was Wong Wah Bo who then passed on the style to Leung Yee Tai. Leung Yee Tai then passed on the style to Leung Jan. Leung Jan was very famous and well-known in Fatshan. His favorite student was nicknamed Jau Chin Wah (money-changer Wah), whose real name was Chan Wah Shun and was the sifu of grandmaster Yip Man. Chan Wah Shun had a martial arts school for 32 years, but he only taught 16 students, and grandmaster Yip Man was one of the last ones.
Grandmaster Yip Man is now 76 years old. He started practicing Wing Tsun when he was 13. He came to Hong Kong in 1949. At that time the people in Hong Kong had very limited knowledge of Wing Tsun. After the 23 years of effort by Grandmaster Yip Man he has had some success. Grandmaster Yip Man has closed his door many years ago. Leung Ting who is teaching Wing Tsun at the Baptist College (translator’s note – now called Baptist University) is his closed-door student.
The writer thinks that when Grandmaster Yip Man talks he doesn’t sound like an old person but rather like a young person with a lot of energy and vigor. Yet, he is not arrogant. In order to satisfy the readers we requested him to tell us some of his old time stories, but he refused. Grandmaster Yip Man does not want to show off and make this article lose its shine. But from what I heard when he was in Fatshan there were two impressive incidents. A lot of people who were in Fatshan at that time know about this. Grandmaster Yip Man was young one day he went to a parade and he was got into a conflict with a military police. The military police officer pulled out a pistol and pointed it at grandmaster Yip Man…
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Alex writes:
---------------
Page 1 of the "Interview with Wing Tsun* Grandmaster Yip Man" from New Martial Hero, issue #56 from February 1972.
Note: The following translation is not a literal word-for-word translation so much as it is the text put in understandable English for the non-Chinese reader. Chinese writing style and grammar don't flow easily into English and so I did my best to get the idea expressed well and still maintain a bit of the Chinese feel. Also note that this is a translation - the views on the history of Wing Tsun are from the Grandmaster Yip Man and no one else. Enjoy!**
Article translation page 1:
If you are an outsider to striking martial arts and all you know is to raise your arm to block when attacked or throw a simple kick, even you can understand the essence of Wing Tsun with only a brief five-minute explanation. You will quickly learn how unique Wing Tsun is and learn about how the chi sau (sticking hands) method is applied as well as using the shortest line and efficient methods of disposing of an enemy.
Wing Tsun focuses on using simple and practical moves to defend against your attacker. In Hong Kong, old Sifu Yip Man has been promoting Wing Tsun and collected many students in a brief 23 years. Many students work very hard to be able to learn directly from him. The author of this interview wanted to introduce Wing Tsun to the readers and so he interviewed Grandmaster Yip Man himself. The interviewer saw that the 76-year old Yip Man is still very strong and he answered every question, and as a result the interviewer learned quite a lot.
Everyone who loves to read historical martial art novels must surely know the name Fong Sai Yuk. One of the characters in the Fong Sai Yuk stories is Gee Shim (also know as Sim Si). The si-je (older kung fu sister) of Gee Shim is Ng Mui and she is the founder of Wing Tsun. It's been 200 years since she founded this style. Since the founder was a woman one would think that the style is very soft. However this style is surprisingly very aggressive - more aggressive than other styles. The reason is that the founder, being a woman, needs to have a style that can fight strong men. If she cannot beat down the opponent in the first move, then it will be impossible for her to struggle against the bigger man. Therefore... (end of article page... to be continued!)
*the use of the "wing tsun" spelling in this case is to be used in the generic sense for all wing chun/ving tsun etc. of the Yip Man lineage.
**I owe the picture credit for this magazine to www.naamkyun.com, a fantastic site for southern Chinese martial arts historical resources. However on that site they have a few "excerpts" translated in English (which I believe is from www.wingtsunwelt.com) HOWEVER the English translation is NOT from this interview but rather from the first interview with Mok Pui On. This interview is the second one. Therefore my translation should be the first English translation of THIS particular interview.
---------------
PAGE 2 Translation of the interview with grandmaster Yip Man!
On the second page grandmaster Yip Man continues telling the author about the history of wing tsun. The author tries to goad the grandmaster into telling some old time stories without any success. This part of the interview is also where grandmaster Yip Man declares Leung Ting to be his closed-door student (the title came from the grandmaster, not from Leung Ting!) Enjoy!
Interview translation page 2:
The first principle of wing tsun is to be aggressive and do damage with the first attack so as to make the opponent unable to fight back. The successor of Ng Mui is the reason why the style is named wing tsun. Her successor was also a woman, named Wing Tsun with the surname Yim. Later she passed on her techniques to her husband Leung Bok Chau. When Leung passed the techniques onto his students, there was still no name for this style. In order to pay tribute to his wife, he named the style Wing Tsun. The successor of Leung Bok Chau was in the Hung Suen (the Red Boat, which was a group of Chinese Opera performers). His name was Wong Wah Bo who then passed on the style to Leung Yee Tai. Leung Yee Tai then passed on the style to Leung Jan. Leung Jan was very famous and well-known in Fatshan. His favorite student was nicknamed Jau Chin Wah (money-changer Wah), whose real name was Chan Wah Shun and was the sifu of grandmaster Yip Man. Chan Wah Shun had a martial arts school for 32 years, but he only taught 16 students, and grandmaster Yip Man was one of the last ones.
Grandmaster Yip Man is now 76 years old. He started practicing Wing Tsun when he was 13. He came to Hong Kong in 1949. At that time the people in Hong Kong had very limited knowledge of Wing Tsun. After the 23 years of effort by Grandmaster Yip Man he has had some success. Grandmaster Yip Man has closed his door many years ago. Leung Ting who is teaching Wing Tsun at the Baptist College (translator’s note – now called Baptist University) is his closed-door student.
The writer thinks that when Grandmaster Yip Man talks he doesn’t sound like an old person but rather like a young person with a lot of energy and vigor. Yet, he is not arrogant. In order to satisfy the readers we requested him to tell us some of his old time stories, but he refused. Grandmaster Yip Man does not want to show off and make this article lose its shine. But from what I heard when he was in Fatshan there were two impressive incidents. A lot of people who were in Fatshan at that time know about this. Grandmaster Yip Man was young one day he went to a parade and he was got into a conflict with a military police. The military police officer pulled out a pistol and pointed it at grandmaster Yip Man…
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