Similar But Not Alike What are the differences between Jow Ga and Hung Gar? How similar or different are they? Hung Gar and Jow Ga are two Chinese martial arts styles that get mixed up. Both are amazing to watch. Both styles are dangerous. In effect, there are many traits both traditional kung fu styles […]
A Kung Fu Style for Wanderers So Chan kung fu is a strange martial art style, not because it is a hybrid style like Choi Li Fut, or because it has a funny name like Pai Mei. Nope. It is strange martial art because it is the style of the vagrants and wanderers, street performers, […]
Fight Like an Animal (or Two, or Three) Most Chinese martial arts, and Southern Shaolin kung fu, in particular, has a five-animal fighting system. Indeed, Shaolin’s five animals are universally known (thank you Kung Fu Panda and all those Shaw Bros films). But seriously, when we think of kung fu, we think of fighting like […]
Fighting in a Trance Than Quyen is the Vietnamese name for Spirit of Divine Fist. Called Shen Quan in Chinese, it is a bonafide Chinese kung fu style with roots in Taoism and the animistic religions of East and Southeast Asia. Is there a more misunderstood kung fu branch than the trance martial arts family? […]
What is Zui Quan? Zui Quan is one of my top ten kung fu styles. I blame Jackie Chan for it. It is his fault. Thanks to Jackie Chan, Zui Quan is one of the biggest, most recognizable kung fu styles in the world. Zui Quan is Chinese for drunken fist or drunken boxing. But […]
Would the Real Fut Gar Please Stand Up? Fut Gar is a hybrid style, a combination of two wonderful Southern Shaolin styles, Choy Gar (rat and snake) and Hung Gar (tiger and crane). It is also one of the three styles which make Choy Li Fut. Fut Gar is one of my favorite kung fu […]
A Symbol of Happiness and Longevity Fujian Province is located on the Southeastern coast of China, across from Taiwan. It was a key trading center for centuries, even visited by Marco Polo. Fujian remains an area of traders and seafarers, a place of prosperity with a population used to foreigners. Fujian is also a land […]
A Matter of Survival? Chinese martial arts are shrouded in secrecy. Secret societies, secret techniques, secret training regimes, secret locations, secret rituals… You get the idea. Secrecy in martial arts, particularly Chinese martial arts, is a problem. In effect, it can cause the death of kung fu. For any art to grow, it needs to […]
A Hybrid System Choy Li Fut was founded by master Chang Heng from King Mui village in 1836. Like most kung fu styles, its true origins are embellished by legend. And yet, there is truth buried in those legends. For instance, Chang Heng was a real person and his descendants still live in King Mui […]
More than Just Naruto or the Fire Nation I hate losing. Nobody trains hard to end up the runner-up. And as I stated on my post about the philosophy of winning, no one remembers the runner-up. Losing is never fun. Second place hurts more than first place because you were, oh so close, and yet, […]
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