This is in response to a previous post, where the validity of my Hung Gar teacher calling himself Shr Fu was questioned. Here's the history behind it.
Wong Fei-Hong had many students. We all know Lam Sai Wing and a few others, but there were many other students, some of which relocated to Taiwan prior to the Cultural Revolution. Hung gar continued to be taught there, although the names changed since Taiwan is a Mandarin speaking country. So Hung Gar became Hung Chuan, and that is what I learned.
There's an on-going debate as to which style is closest to what Wong Fei-Hong taught. Taiwanese teachers claim that Cantonese Hung Gar is a diluted version with elements from other styles added. Cantonese teachers claim that Hung Chuan is merely a "distant cousin" of the original Hung Gar. My opinion is that neither "style" is any closer to master Hong's kung-fu. Styles change over periods of time; some things get lost in the process. A good analogy is my accounting training; I learned relatively high levels of accounting practice, but the accounting I do now is totally different form what I've learned; because I've adapted it to fit my job and my style of work.
And that is just one lifetime; we're talking about several generations here. So in my opinion, there is no "one true" Hung Gar.
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Originally Posted by ctoepker
