I'm starting this thread to take the off topic part of a conversation I started in the WC forum that went no-where (because of the cool aid I think) and am thinking the topic deserves its own thread.

For those of you who have direct experience with more than one southern style, let's take a look at some of the similarities and also the differences. Which differences/similarities are superficial and which are profound. There's a lot of overlap between all of the southern styles and it's not for nothing that they are grouped together in one forum.

Since I cut my teeth in CMA in learning Hung Gar in San Francisco's Chinatown, I have direct experience with Hung Gar, Choi Li Fut and Wing Chun. I trained Hung Gar for about 8 years so that is my base but I also am very good friends with some of the top Choi Li Fut and Wing Chun guys in the city. HSK Warrior can confirm this. Heck, much of what I understand about Choi Li Fut I learned from him. My Wing Chun friends would probably rather not get pulled into an online discussion like this but he knows who they are.

Anyways...

Hung Gar vs. Wing Chun
similarities:
- Same stances. (with different emphais)
- Same basic vocabulary of hand "shapes" (Hung Gar is more varied but tan, wu, pak, lop and biu jee are prominently featured in both).
- Same emphasis on building or destroying bridges as apporopriate.
- Same use of centerline theory (although WC "obsesses" about it more)

differences:
- Hung Gar power generation places more emphasis on driving off the back leg; WC more on "wrist/elbow power" and on dan tian or "spinal whip" power.
- Hung Gar spends a lot of time transitioning between bow and horse stances; WC mostly sticks with the "goat stance" (in Hung Gar we call it a "figure 8" stance)
- Hung Gar incorporates a very broad range of tactics including many looping long arm movements; WC is almost exclusively "small frame".

Basically, from what I have seen so far, everything in WC can be extrapolated from Hung Gar material but not the other way around. Hung Gar is a broader system where WC tends to specialize. The overlap is mainly in the Hung Gar Crane and Snake techniques. To my mind, the differences are far more superficial than the similarities. They are mainly just matters of emphasis and are not absolute differences as both systems allow for a great deal of freedom of personal expression.

I know less of Choi Li Fut than Hung Gar but after training with Frank (HSK Warrior) for a while, I was fairly stunned how similar they can be at times.

Differences:
- Choi Li Fut is softer overall. More emphasis on "throwing" the fist out; Hung Gar "drives" it in.
- More sharply turned in front foot on bow stance; In Hung Gar you only turn it in slightly.
- More waist twisting in Choi Li Fut; Hung Gar uses waist power but on the bow-horse transition, for example, in Hung Gar you are more likely to lean forward on the bow stance for the punch; in Choi Li Fut a verticle spine is maintained much more strictly.

Similarities:
- Same 5 animal vocabulary and associated hand shapes.
- Very nearly the stances and use of stances. (minor differences here and there)
- "small frame" Choi Li Fut is startlingly similar to Hung Gar tiger movements.

Anyone else care to add their observations?