Not until I watched the movie a few nights ago! For the uninitiated, this is what Wikipedia has to say:
Ip Man is is a 2008 Hong Kong martial arts semi-biopic film that is based on the life of Ip Man, the celebrated martial arts master of Bruce Lee, and the first to teach the Chinese martial art of Wing Chun openly. The film focuses on events surrounding Ip that took place in the prefecture-level city of Foshan between the 1930s to 1940s during the Second Sino-Japanese War.Directed by Wilson Yip, the film stars Donnie Yen in the lead role, and features fight choreography by Sammo Hung. Ip's two sons, Ip Chun and Ip Ching, along with several Wing Chun practitioners also appear in the film.
Ip Man is the first film to be based on the life of the martial artist. After a first attempt to portray Ip's life on screen resulted in the project being abandoned, producer Raymond Wong developed his own film with full consent from Ip's sons, and had filmmakers head to Foshan, to research Master Ip's life. Ip Chun, Ip Man's eldest son served as a consultant for the film. Donnie Yen, who was set to star in the abandoned film project, received a star fee and was invited to join Wong's production after a successful collaboration with director Wilson Yip on the 2007 film Flash Point.
Tonight, I was supposed to have a quiet evening listening to my favorite jazz pieces to soothe my soul when a friend, another martial arts exponent came by for the usual Chinese New Year visit. When he heard my interest in Wing Chun, immediately, he offered to give my son and I regular lessons on the art of Wing Chun.
Wikipedia gives a brief write-up about the art of Wing Chun:
Wing Chun was originally passed down from teacher to student orally rather than through written documentation, making it difficult to confirm or clarify the differing accounts of its creation. Some have sought to apply the methods of higher criticism to the oral histories of Wing Chun and other Chinese martial arts.[4] Others have attempted to discern the origins of Wing Chun by determining the specific purpose of its techniques. Mentions of the art start to appear in independent third-party documentation during the era of the Wing Chun master Leung Jan, making its subsequent history and divergence into various branches more amenable to documentary verification.
The common legend involves the young woman Yim Wing Chun (Wing Chun literally means beautiful springtime or everlasting spring). After she rebuffs the local warlord's marriage offer, he says he'll rescind his proposal if she can beat him in a fight. She asks a local Buddhist nun, Ng Mui, to teach her boxing, and the style they develop enables Yim Wing Chun to defeat the warlord. She thereafter marries her sweetheart and teaches him the style, which he names after her.
It should be noted that the system was developed during the Shaolin and Ming resistance movement against the Qing Dynasty, and thus many legends about the creator of Wing Chun were spread to confuse the enemy, including the story of Yim Wing Chun. This perhaps explains why no one has been able to accurately determine the creator or creators of Wing Chun.
And so, my first lesson in Wing Chun began after a brief bargaining session about the cost per lesson (token amount). Incredibly, I had to offer tea to my friend and call him sifu (er...I was cracking up because I could imagine the arguments we would had if I did not comply with his requests/standards/instructions).
Prior to this, I had already attempted tai-chi classes but found it too difficult as one had to memorize the different steps. At my age, that is quite a tall order. Whilst I can still recall the lyrics of songs I loved from the 1970s, it is an absolute chore for me to try to learn the lyrics of even Beyonce's latest song. When my tai-chi sifu was teaching us the 24-step routine, I could only remember Step 1 till 10.
Ok. So I moved on to Qikong. Believe me, I was MOST enthusiastic. My bookshelves bear testimony of my commitment to excellence in this component of martial arts as I have quite a few books and cds on Qikong. I trained diligently for about six to eight months but dropped out when I joined a gym and was distracted by other classes there. However, my hubby still does it faithfully every evening after work while I blog and exercise my fingers :-).
And so, with my friend's fateful visit, I was introduced to the whole new world of Wing Chun. Those of you who know me would be well aware of how fussy I am about receiving instructions :-). As expected, when I did not reciprocate accordingly in movements and got scolded, I defended myself by my claim that the instructions must be given simultaneously together with his movements.
Tonight, I learnt about the concept of the triangle, hand movements, deflections, first position, leg and ankle movements and not forgetting the whole idea of force, flow and opposing force.
Surprisingly, my younger boy is a better student than I am as he could execute the movements deftly while this old lady here stumbled and fumbled while protesting loudly that it was not my fault haha!
As we all know, exercise can do wonders to our minds and perspective. I started the evening with morbid thoughts of death in my previous post but am glad that I feel much better and lighter after that Wing Chun lesson.
Dear reader, I bid you good night and may you sleep well and know that I am dreaming of my Wing Chun ....Take care and do visit again. Thanks!
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