A couple of weeks ago, my cousin, an exponent of various martial arts forms and some of my friends went goo-goo ga-ga over Ip Man. For the life of me, I could not understand the hype over a two-syllable film. 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.
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.
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!
Monday, Monday, Monday!
Mondays are for writing so pardon me if there is more than the usual dose of posts on Mondays. In a firm departure from my usual blogging, I have resolved to utilize different writing styles in my blog lest both you and I die from boredom :-)!
So here's a very simple love poem based on principles of chemistry written in a tongue-in-cheek kind of humor.....have a good laugh! :-)
cheers,
masterwordsmith
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MY CHEMISTRY OF LOVE FOR YOU
My love for you is at the utmost sublimed state
That crystal of love for you grows exponentially
Bonded strongly to my heart
Nobody can fractionate my love for you
Life without you is a vacuum forever.
Only passion is distillated from my heart
Then only my desire for you crystallizes
Nothing can neutralize my yearning for you
I precipitate in my love for you
Keeping my dreams for you synthesized always
written by mws
The nondescript man walks into town roughly at the same time when the south-west monsoon strikes. No one is aware of his real identity, his place of origin, his occupation or why he visits round about the same season each year. One thing is for sure. His presence is made known when his yacht sails to the shores. The flapping sounds of the sails seem to announce his arrival to the villagers who carry on with their routine tasks nonchalantly even though a significant few are dying from curiosity as they yearn to know more about this stranger who visits their shores.
That morning, the wind rustled the leaves of the coconut palms kissing the many fruits that were ready for plucking. As he docked his yacht at Teluk Bahang, the sea gulls flew past him as though they were happy that he was back in town again. Walking across the sandy beach, he heaved a sigh of relief that once again the atmosphere was quite stable for sailing. Time to stock up before the next stop. He nodded and smiled to a few familiar faces as he made his way to the kedai runcit round the bend. The familiar salty scent of dried salted fish assaulted his senses and woke him up to reality. Painful memories flooded his mind and once again, from habit, he pushed them back - deep into the recesses of his brain not knowing when they would begin their next onslaught.
How long had he been doing this? He could not even remember. All he knew was that he had to get on with his life and leave the past behind him. Dried leaves crackled beneath his Reebok sandals as he walked towards the familiar corner shop that was manned by a stout Chinese man.
"Hello, sir!" hailed Mr. Chong happily for he knew that this gentleman would be contributing a fair share to his income for that month. "You are back again. How can I help you?"
"The usual stuff. You know the amounts, Mr. Chong. Been the same for the past few years," was his cold reply.
"Er...but the price is no longer the same," snickered Mr. Chong.
"It does not matter as long as it is fresh goods that you are giving me," he answered crisply.
"Nothing but the best for you, Sir. It is my job to make you happy and your job to make me richer," he answered loudly and guffawed even more loudly.
With that, the chirpy sundry shop owner quickly ordered his docile wife to pack the supplies that his obviously wealthy customer needed.
"Three hundred and fifty ringgit, please."
As the crisp notes exchanged hands, he looked around the shop and his eyes fell upon the cob-webbed corners of the ceiling, darkened by the smoke spiralling from the incense being burnt at the altar placed at the back of the shop. Piles of newspaper were stacked untidily either to be sold or to be folded into paper bags by the faithful and quiet madam of the shop.
"Thank you," Mr. Chong replied while grinning from ear to ear.
Lugging his sundries along, he made his way back to his boat. The scene was all too nostalgic. The lapping waves seemed to welcome him as though they had missed his presence when they did their dance against the rocks.
The years had not been kind to his face. Deep frown lines spoke volumes about the struggles he had experienced. Battles with man and weather left their mark in the many wrinkles at the corner of his brow and the many fine lines at the corner of his eye. His weather-beaten skin seemed to crack up in protest for neglect while the soft tousled hair seemed to be the only humane touch in the demeanour of this man who hardly ever smiled. Did he know how to? Could he ever smile again?
The haggard look wore him down and it was a challenge for him to walk upright, weighed down by the many concerns of his heart. His calloused hands bore testimony of the tough life he led at sea while his lean body hinted that meals did not seem to be a priority in his life.
If only...
*to be continued*
written by mws
*to be continued*
