I heard of a recent flame about “honour and respect” in Chinese martial arts that hit my Hung Kuen brother Che Kong Mak. According to what I understood, he has been criticized for posting a video of him teaching Hung Kuen kung fu to some Wing Chun students wearing the t-shirt of their school.
Leggi tutto “Honour and respect: a distorted storytelling of Chinese martial arts”
Ricevo un gran numero di richieste da persone che vogliono imparare l’Hung Kuen di Chan Hon Chung che ho appreso negli anni ’70 e ’80 a Hong Kong dal maestro al 729 di Nathan Road. La cosa mi fa molto piacere, anche se sono sempre stato restio a farlo, visto che ho molta stima del termine (oggi inflazionato) “maestro” e non mi considero tale. D’altro canto capisco di essere custode di un bene raro e non ritengo giusto continuare a non condividerlo.
Leggi tutto “Per chi vuole imparare l’Hung Kuen di Chan Hon Chung”
Again with this great Hung style performer. In the previous article I explained as this video confirms my theory of of a few movements added by my brother Cheung Yee Keung to Chan Hon Chung’s Tit Sin Kuen just before the first unicorn step. But there’s much more in this performance. Leggi tutto “A priceless Hung Kuen secret revealed”
E’ accaduto un evento eccezionale l’altro giorno, perché – almeno da quanto mi risulta – mio fratello maggiore Cheung Yee Keung non aveva mai dimostrato in pubblico il nostro “filo di ferro”. Lo ha fatto pochi giorni fa in occasione della serata di commemorazione del maestro Chan Hon Chung, a cui non ho potuto partecipare perché impegnato con l’evento di Accordo che si svolgeva nello stesso weekend.
Compio in questi giorni di fine 2016 i 40 anni esatti di pratica dell’Hung Kuen. Ho cominciato nel 1976 a Milano con “Benjamin” Fung Hon, fratello di “George” Fung Kyu, allievo prediletto prematuramente scomparso del maestro Chan Hon Chung. Benjamin mi ha insegnato le prime posizioni e Mui Fah Kuen.
Leggi tutto “Chan Hon Chung: è ora di tramandare quello che mi ha insegnato”
In spite of some technical inaccuracies, the article “Exit the Dragon? Kung Fu, once central to Hong Kong life, is waning” (Charlotte Yang, The New York Times, August 22, 2016) describes the profound – not to say epochal – social, economical and cultural changes I recently found returning to Hong Kong 20 years later. From the Lantau airport to the new creative dimsum recipes, from the spread of Korean fashion to the gigantic shopping malls grown everywhere, Hong Kong is not anymore the town I left in the Nineties. Leggi tutto “Keeping the Dragon alive in spite of the Hong Kong Millennials”
“This is a great fact that I am sharing now, for the benefit of whoever wants to get it: in our family’s Hung style breathing in never happens while contracting the muscles or even worse executing a technique. For this reason we do not breath in while pulling the hands, as many people of other schools do.” This phrase written in a previous article produced a significant quantity of messages from students interested in a more exhaustive explanation of the matter.
Leggi tutto “Hung Kuen: the salute unlocks the breathing secrets”
“In fact, the author seems to make a very pointed argument that Hung Gar is in its essence not a technical system of physical movements, but is instead an expression of culture. He doubts the ability of anyone who was not born within the Chinese language and society to genuinely master the art, let alone teach it. In fact, one cannot help but escape the impression that for him the Chinese martial arts are “authentic” precisely because they emerge from (and ultimately reduce to) an expression of Chinese culture. Still, reading between the lines it seems that he felt that being immersed within his network of Kung Fu Brothers was enough to give him access to some of the inner aspects of the art, and make up for his own lack of deep cultural background.”
In every martial art the forms are basically a symbolic (if not “metaphoric”) way to avoid any contamination, aimed to keep and hand down the set as pure as possible. But every student should know that – albeit in a full respect of the tradition – a significant quantity of realism must be kept in the practice. Master Chan Hon Chung granted a great importance to this realism, that was part of his teaching starting from the stances, the actual pillars of the whole system. Our master always pushed us to keep realism in our practice of the forms, explaining that the Hung style is not about dancing or showing off, but it’s about fighting, for real.
A few words about the “one finger bridge” and the “three extensions”. Back in the days in the Hon Chung Gymnasium in Hong Kong this gesture – so peculiar to Hung Kuen and a significant symbol in the Chinese secret societies tradition – was held in great consideration and trained with care.
