Book Review - The Hong Kong Martial Arts Community 香港武林

Image courtesy of Ming Pao Weekly 

Those who have been following my blog should know that I have been working with Hing Chao to provide translations for his work documenting the martial arts of Hong Kong, and I am very happy to announce that the Chinese version of his book has been released for purchase by the general public in Hong Kong under the title "The Hong Kong Marital Arts Community" in a 723 page handsome hardcover edition with a cover design inspired by traditional Chinese hand sewn volumes. 

The book is a compilation and rearrangement of the various articles that have been released on a monthly basis in Ming Pao Weekly in 2013-2014 with a new introduction and updating of the material. For a sample of the chapters included in the book, readers are welcome to refer to my previous translations on this blog. 

The stated objective of the book is to document and capture a cross section of the various Southern Martial arts as they developed in the Fujian and Guangdong provinces, and how they ended up being transmitted to Hong Kong. This has become an increasingly urgent task, as many of the Grandmasters are passing away without successors due to a variety of social factors, such as a general apathy towards the traditional martial arts amongst the youth of Hong Kong. As much of the tradition is not documented, but is transmitted orally through a direct hands on teaching approach, with the passing of each Master an important repository of traditional culture is lost. Thus for those of us love the traditional arts, we can only express the utmost gratitude for Mr. Chao's dedication of time and resources towards the project to preserve the traditional arts for later generations. Coupled with this book, an effort is underway to motion capture the art of these masters in a digital format, that can both help preserve the look and feel of these masters and also aid scientific analysis into the body mechanics of these arts. 

The book can generally divided into two interwoven sections. The first of which deals with a genealogy of the styles, mapping their development in the late Ming through exhaustive documentary research and a detailed comparison of techniques in Fujian and Guangdong. This is complemented by a sociological, economic and demographic study based on the migration patterns driven by the economic forces and unrest of the 18th and 19th Centuries to craft a compelling account of how a new style of Kung fu exemplified by the Yong Chun White Crane emerged from Fujian and spread to the Eastern Guangdong region and mixed with the indigenous styles to great hybrids such as Bak Mei and Dragon Styles.

The second part of the book deals with the various styles themselves, capturing a cross section of important styles in Hong Kong through Mr. Chao's interaction with a number of Grandmasters and brings the history and techniques of important styles such as Wing Chun, Hung Kuen, Dai Shing Pek Guaa to a wider audience. The development of Taiji in Hong Kong is also covered due to its important place in the Hong Kong story, where Grandmasters such as Yang Shou Chung and Wu Kam Chuen resettled after fleeing the revolution in China. These chapters include important historical photos never previously disclosed to the general public and QR codes which link the reader to videos of the styles. This is an important innovation which mitigates some of the disadvantages of older manuals which include page after page of photos or the inclusion of a DVD, which is easily divorced from the book and lost. 

The amount of time and effort that Mr. Chao has expended in meeting with these masters and documenting their stories cannot be underestimated and I would encourage all who are interested in the martial arts to buy this book, for it is not only about Chinese martial arts but includes important information about the development of martial arts into Okinawa and Japan. For American and European practitioners, many Chinese martial arts schools trace their ancestry to Hong Kong and this is an important historical primer. 

It seems churlish of me to critique what will be a classic reference work for many years to come, but for the sake of balance I did want to mention a few areas that need to be noted and may be the basis for additional work in the future. In terms of the historical development and relationship between the styles, Mr. Chao may draw too simple an evolution of the various styles and the model of development premised mainly on the migration of peoples may be too reductionist. One should balance his view against an alternative viewpoint put forward by Professor Ben Judkins on his excellent site here and draw one's own conclusions. A second point to note is that Mr. Chao has not trained in all the styles listed in his book and, consciously or unconsciously, is heavily reliant on the source material provided by each Grandmaster interviewed in the book. Hence some of the views espoused in the book may be controversial in the wider Hong Kong martial arts community. A good example is that of the school of Hung Kuen practiced by Mr. Chao is a lineage that has been heavily influenced by Dai Shing Pek Guaa and may differ substantially in its cirricula from other lineages such as that of Deng Fang or Chan Han Chung. Or in the case of Bagua Tang Lang Men, the lineage and history is widely considered to be a later fabrication, a practice that is unfortunately common amongst many schools. 

However, the value of the work is undisputed and I believe this work is but a first step for the International Guoshu Association. With increasing public awareness and participation from the Hong Kong martial arts community a clearer picture will begin to emerge of the actual development and interaction of styles within Hong Kong, and perhaps we can even begin to start to piece together and document what styles were once popular in Hong Kong such as the Hung Fut Pai (combination of Hung Kar and Buddha Palm) but have since died out. We also look forward to an English edition in the near future.       

For those who would like to help support the ongoing efforts of the International Guoshu Association in their efforts to preserve the traditional arts of Hong Kong, I have included a link here to the website for their latest fundraising campaign. Please give generously!

The book can be ordered from the following email address - man@kungfufestival.com  

For articles written by Hing Chao and further scans of the book and further information about the motion capture - please click here:

The Hong Kong Grandmasters

The Hong Kong Grandmasters in the Digital Age