Mandarin – simplified Chinese: 咏春; pinyin: Yǒng chūn / Cantonese – traditional Chinese: 詠春; pronunciation: Wing Chun

Wing Chun

Wing Chun – A fast striking Martial arts derived from Kung Fu.

Wing Chun is a centuries old Martial Art from southern China. It is one of the most well known and widely practiced Kung Fu styles from southern China. It is a close quarters empty handed system of fighting that focuses on striking, defending, and redirecting attacks with no wasted movement. It was created by the Buddhist nun Ng Wi to be a fighting style based around effectiveness rather than brute force. With Ng Wi herself being a small woman she wanted a style that would benefit someone smaller and weaker against a bigger opponent. Instead of using brute force the style would have a woman’s grace but without sacrificing practicality for beauty or spectacle. Wing Chun is all about taking the center line of attack and getting from point A to point B in the quickest way possible while eliminating any and all unnecessary movement unlike some of the more famous animal styles or spectacle based techniques found in Wushu. It is known for its distinct style of hand trapping, rapid fire striking, and simultaneous attacking while defending. Wing Chun would rather deflect or intercept an attack instead of blocking an attack because the core concepts of Wing Chun would dictate that any time someone is blocking they are giving their opponent time and wasting their own time. There are many lineages of Wing Chun but for the most part it is well known because of its most famous practitioners; Master Ip Man and famous movie star and father of mixed martial arts Bruce Lee. The style has burst into popularity from the Ip Man films based on the practitioner himself with an exaggerated version of his life as well as its importance to the legacy of Bruce Lee and being a foundational pillar of his own martial art; Jeet Kune Do. This mainstream notoriety as well as its straight forward teachings of practicality over all else has turned Wing Chun into one of the most well known and widely practiced styles of Chinese martial arts in the world.

Above is one of the most iconic pictures in Martial Arts History. The picture shows Bruce Lee on the right with his Master IP Man who taught him all the art of Kung Fu.

This image comes from the famous Chinese movie Ip man (played by Donnie Yen) which shows him practicing his striking.

Wing Chun= Striking and blocking with speed