Originally Posted by
Tainan Mantis
I Alex,
I can answer this question as I heard my shifu explain this myself.
He told us that this particular bow was a part of the Southern Chinese tradition and that no teacher of his that taught mantis had this bow.
But, because of the movies and tv shows, and us living in Taiwan-a southern part of China- he felt that in doing performances if we left off this bow then people might think us impolite.
So, the point was to preserve some sort of humbleness as recognized by the Taiwanese.
In later year, when traveling and performing in places other than Taiwan this bow stayed with us.
As a side note, his first style was Southern kung fu, so it must be a tradition he has had since very young.