I am a martial artist, my skill and school are irrelevant to this specific dicussion, but after parsing through the many forums I have noticed the frequent occurance of the question " is this person a legitimate sifu", and how one really knows... I've thought to myself...In all the knowledge of our si-gungs and there si-gungs. I'm sure that the issue of proving; one your skill, and two your legitimacy in a school was not a foreign concept to them. I know for a fact (personal experience and otherwise) that the majority of "arts" out there have some form of "certification" which is generally strict and one is only allowed to take it at the descretion of his or hers, instructor.
SO I pose this question if you do not have proof of some type (besides a picture with your "sifu") that you a a certified "instructor" how does one know wheather or not their sifu is an legitamate instructor of the art form or nothing more than a fake? (PROVE IT ...if you can)