Grandmaster Tse’s Wing Chun Note 383

Kūng Fū 功夫 – Part 7

In the Hong Kong in the 1950s and 60s a famous student of Ip Man’s 葉問 liked to challenge different styles of martial art. He was Wong Shun Leung 黃淳樑. The challenges would often take place on rooftops and two different styles of Kung Fu would come together to fight. There was no protective equipment and no rules. They just fought and they would fight very hard with no control. The only thing they did not do was attack the very weak areas like the eyes, throat and groin. Usually from the very beginning to the fight they could tell who was going to win. During fight if one person lost his balance, started backing up or ran away they were the loser.  In these challenges there was not referee and no one to separate them. They fought and in a few seconds they would know who the winner was. Of course, the one on the floor who could not defend himself was the loser and the competition was over. If you look at street fights today, they are rarely over a minute, and by this time one person has almost won. So, real fight and competition are very different.