Hung Kuen Fundamentals

 

This has been the longest period that I have not posted on my blog, so apologies to all my readers and I hope that you have not all abandoned me for greener pastures. It has been due to a combination of factors, mainly due to the fact that I started a new job that doesn't allow me quite the same amount of time to post on my blog, and the fact that my back has been giving me renewed troubles so I haven't been practicing as much.

 

Nevertheless, I was recently contacted by Hing Chao, whose articles I translated earlier in the year and he kindly asked me to review his recent book on Hung Kuen - Hung Kuen Fundamentals - Gung Gee Fok Fu Kuen, which is one of the only martial arts manual in English and introduces the Hung Kuen of Lam Cho, one of the contemporary Grandmasters of the art. It is my great honor to do so. For I really believe that Wong Fei Hung and the strong, hard stances of Hung Kuen should be better known to the general public, especially when compared to Yip Man whose major good fortune was to have been Bruce Lee's teacher.  

 

There has been quite a bit of press on this book in recent months in the media in Hong Kong and I have also been contacted by friends in Hawaii, inquiring whether I knew the author. In all honesty, I do not know Hing directly, but we connected on Facebook. But his reputation and what he has done to promote and preserve martial arts in Hong Kong is well known and we have many mutual friends. I have also been a subscriber of his magazine the Journal of Marital Studies since its inception.

 

Those who know the journal will also be glad to know that the same level of attention to detail with regards to research and quality of printing materials also comes through to this book. It is handsomely bound in a hardback cloth cover with embossed writing on the covers and spine. The paper appears to archival quality and acid-free and the design and layout are the most professionally done I have seen from a martial arts book from Hong Kong. (The only ones who do it better are the Japanese but the Japanese market is significantly bigger and the attention to detail is culturally embedded and cannot be easily imitated) Besides many photographs, there are also beautiful illustrations by Lee Chi Ching (a famous manhua illustrator in Hong Kong) throughout the book. Though if Hing were to indulge me I did have a few suggestions, perhaps a dust cover / book jacket would have been more eye-catching and the font could have been bigger (I am not getting any younger) but this may have been a deliberate design decision.

 

In terms of the content, there are several areas which are very strong, and it should come as no surprise to those who are familiar with his writings that the sections on the history of Hung Kuen are first rate. Some of the themes may be familiar to those who read some of my earlier posts on Southern martial arts and in JAMS, but there is significant new material here of interest, especially on secret societies, pirates, village feuds and rebellion. There is also a greater level of detailed analysis regarding the origination of the Hung Kuen forms and their relationship with the Fujian Crane Style(s) which are still extant in certain "archaic" circular movements, and this analysis is the fruit of many years of detailed study and not found elsewhere.

 

The other sections which is of the utmost importance to the serious martial artist are the sections on the principles and training methods of Hung Kuen. In my experience most martial arts books gloss over this section or just list out the principles without much explanation as to their basis in mechanics or physics. Instead there is a detailed description included with a brief summary here in this post.

 

Chao states that while earlier [Hung Kuen] exponents tend to generate force linearly from the feet and stance, which is transmitted through a straight back to one's arms and fists, exponents after Lam Cho make use of a more complex mechanism, which besides linear movements also makes flexible use of the body that opens and closes like a valve. This complex force generation mechanism also places a higher technical demand on the practitioner: precise body conditioning becomes a key feature, with ever greater emphasis being placed on co-ordination and technical exactitude.  

 

Under the section on principles there is a detailed discussion of linear forces that are divided into horizontal and vertical, opening and closing, and the less understood principle of rising and sinking. There are utilized with different parts of the body moving in opposite directions, to deliver an amplified force. There is also a discussion of "cross power" when the two are combined. Chao also makes mention of a turning penetrative force and it is this which provides Lam Cho's Hung Kuen with its "internal" flavor. With all the study into body mechanics currently being done in the West, there is much here which rewards a close reading. Definitely this alone is worth the price of the book.  

 

However, one should not feel that the book is all academic and heavy, and is leavened by many anecdotes and stories of various Hung Kuen practioners along with a special appendix detailing Lam Cho's own exploits at the end.

 

The rest of the book is taken up with the explanation of the forms and applications, which I will not comment upon as I am not a Hung Kuen practitioner. They are similar to many martial arts manuals with a series of stills and a description next to them. I did a quick gloss of the applications and the descriptions are generally quite easy to understand and one can see how they are applied in the pictures. (This is harder than it looks, and shows that significant thought and planning went into the selection of the stills) and for mixed martial artists this could prove to be a rich mine for new techniques. But as I have mentioned in some of my other reviews, inclusion of a DVD or perhaps posting links to videos online would do much to help explain the forms to beginners and non-practitioners of Hung Kuen.  

 

The areas of the book I did not like so much have to do with the fact that the book is set up to be a dedication to Grandmaster Lam Cho and sometimes the language can be a bit much. For instance, "Hung Kuen Schools can be found in every corner of the world.. most of these schools trace their lineage to the Lam family, which may represent the main Hung Kuen style in the world today". Other Hung Kuen schools in China are characterized as linear and it is implied that only the Lam family has an "internal" version of Hung Kuen. There are also 24 pages of memorial dedication at the back of the book which was a bit like reading the obituary pages for entertainment. Fortunately this is only a small section of the book and can be easily overlooked.

 

Despite this, all in all, I would conclude this is a very, very good book and is the first of what I believe to be a series of manuals by Hing Chao, documenting the Southern arts for a wider English reading audience and for posterity. Heartily recommended for any serious CMA practitioner!

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