JiangChen asked:


If you are an avid follower of the traditional Kung Fu rather than the modern Wushu we have today, chances are you might be a practitioner of a Southern traditional martial arts.

Talking about southern traditional martial arts, some might have already heard Hung Kuen or Hung Gar. This art is pretty famous because Wong Fei Hung, although a real person in history, is a famous character in a lot of Hong Kong martial arts movies and a practitioner of Hung Kuen.

What is the general difference between southern traditonal martial arts and northen martial arts? Southern martial arts rely heavily on low stances and hips to generate power while northern martial arts generally have more fluid movements and uses their legs quite often.

If you have heard of Hung Kuen chances are you have heard about Choy Li Fut as well. Choy Li Fut will also have the characteristics of southern martial arts. So if you have heard of Choy Li Fut I am guessing you might also have heard of Wing Chun.

So what is so special about Wing Chun? It is a southern martial arts but when you see it in action you might see a big difference.

The most common difference is the stance Wing Chun has. It is high and not even wide and completely different than most stances other traditional martial arts has.Wing Chun's attack is also pretty short as it was meant for close combat. Most of the time when attacking or defending, a Wing Chun practitioner's hand will be close to his or her body without swinging it out too wide. Wing Chun's punches and other attacks are mostly centralised as well.

So what made Wing Chun famous and stands tall among other matial arts? If I want to go back to some history I don't think many of them is as true as it sounds but if we start from the the era of Yip Man I guess we will all agree that Bruce Lee made Wing Chun much more popular.

Bruce Lee was a practitioner of Wing Chun. He studied under Yip Man which was also pretty famous during his time. Although moving away from Wing Chun partially, Bruce Lee became an Icon in Kung Fu history. Just like Wong Fei Hung, people will want to know what kind of art he studied, so I guess this is why Wing Chun still stands strongly today with lots of eager followers.

There are some Wing Chun out there that has been modernize today. As we become more advance, martial arts will lose its significance slowly. There are of course a bunch of practitioners that will keep it alive but I think standards have dropped in most traditional martial arts including Wing Chun.

While Wing Chun is still around, why not you head over to Wing Chun Martial Arts to get some more information about Wing Chun?



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