I’m trying to get ahold of the Republic of China National Wushu Association. Would anyone happen to be involved with them or know of a phone number or address? I’ve looked online but come up empty. I’m doing some research right now on the historical transmission of gongfu (primarily the various crane systems like white crane, whooping crane, feeding crane, and monkfist boxing) to Okinawa, which developed into toudi (the indigenous Okinawan fighting system of the 17th-19th centuries), and later into Japanese “Karate-Do.” Any help would be appreciated!
Go to the ministry of sports. 全國體育大楼
No. 20, Chulun St., Taipei, Taiwan
It is located a couple of blocks from Nanjing East Road MRT station and the brother hotel.
ask at the front desk.
dear MA enthusiasts,
i have some definite thoughts about MA learning. first of all, the most important things are ‘chi", “gong li”, and "fa jing’. these elements make the movements and not vice versa. my elder taught me that “practice has form, but fighting does not”. all practice is to develop the three things i just mentioned.without them you are just flapping around.
i have seen a lot of guys doing chi sao. i come from a wing chun background(not yip man’s… there are others, like pan nam, chen ru mien(mine),and yuan kay san), and i can tell you that a person with real gong li will blow all those little chi sao movements out the door! i am not saying i can do this, but i aspire to it.
wing chun is a very, very deep art. there’s a lot more to it than what has been shown. look around taiwan. there is actually a “taiwan wing chun” that has been here for over a hundred years, more than one of them actually!
the real high level wing chun will break your arm on the first move! it’s NOT a soft style by any means.we practice “ruan” to get “gang”. gang is different from “ing”. most people only have “ing”. their power is stuck right at the shoulder and never travels out the fingers.
i practice white crane right now. wing chun is just an expression of white crane. my elder can do wing chun and he’s never even studied it. he has shown me the meanings behind siu lin tao. a lot of people don’t know that there is also a 'big idea" -da lien to.
ran the man
[quote=“rantheman”]dear MA enthusiasts,
I have some definite thoughts about MA learning. first of all, the most important things are ‘chi", “gong li”, and "fa jing’. these elements make the movements and not vice versa. my elder taught me that “practice has form, but fighting does not”. all practice is to develop the three things I just mentioned.without them you are just flapping around.[/quote]
I will not disagree with your instructor. As mentioned by other professionals in the martial arts, forms are like the grammar. I use forms the help remember applications. But I know that they are not a substitute for applications.
But you might want to keep in mind that different people study the martial arts for different reasons, not just trying to break somebody’s arm. Many of my students are on a different quest.
They are searching for relaxation, and self control.
Other people, LittleBuddha in this thread for example, is seeking the art history.
The is no best way to study the martial arts. Their is only your way, his way, or her way. If their were a perfect way of study then 1) the world would be a boring place to live in 2) their would be only dominant style at all the different Mixed martial arts competitions.
chris wrote,
But you might want to keep in mind that different people study the martial arts for different reasons, not just trying to break somebody’s arm. Many of my students are on a different quest.
from ran the man,
yeah i guess the most important thing is to enjoy yourself. and breaking somebody’s arm never solved anything, that’s for sure. maybe i was a little over zealous. sorry about that. i didn’t mean to be on a high horse.^^
i hoped to make a point though about something in the wing chun world : that wing chun is more than just yip man and bruce, though that’s good. and i DON’T think wing chun(ANY BRANCH) is the ultimate martial art that it’s cracked up to be. my point is, how many people are doing wing chun simply on the BELIEF that bruce lee was the greatest and think studying wing chun even from a relative of yip’s or bruce’s makes them “the cat”? how many people are trying to buy into lineages thinking it actually means something? how many people can repeat the “same old same old” about wing chun like mindless robots? look around on websites and you find very little variation. how many people believe the story about a snake and a crane? this ridiculous little story is in every style of martial art in one form or another. when are we going to wake and call it mythology like it should be? then maybe we can get to the real meaning.
when chinese people hear westerners talk about wing chun, their eyes roll. they think we are mindlessly following bruce lee, and they may be right.
if bruce lee is the epitomy of kung fu then we’re all in trouble. i loved him, i still respect his ability, and MOST of you yip man-ers out there can kick my ass ,so please don’t bother, but i and a lot of you out there know the truth.
not to get into lineage disccussions, but it’s been said that chen ru mien, the son of chen hwa and yip man’s class mate, was a bad boy so his father didn’t teach him. chen ru mien’s student and my teacher, said a different story. almost the opposite. but which one do we believe? the yip man one. why? because bruce lee was the greatest. it must be so. yip man is the ONLY grandmaster(according to the magazines), yet you go over the border to china, and there are all kinds of branches of wing chun having NOTHING TO DO WITH HIM AT ALL. and taiwan wing chun came here a LONG TIME before yip man’s nephew did. i think the magazine’s need to let go of the status quo story.
ran the man