A Note from the Guangdong Wushu Association (Wing Chun Special Commitee)

There has been a great deal of bad blood and publicity in the media regarding the dispute between the Guangzhou branch of Wing Chun and Yip Man's descendents in Hong Kong. Some of this may be attributable to jealousy due to the recent resurgence of interest in Yip Man in the movies and the media worldwide. On the 24th November a notice was issued by the Guangdong Wushu Association to the worldwide media criticizing the distorted portrayal of Yip Man in the media worldwide. I have translated the notice  [but have left out portions which are in my opinion just venting on the part of the authors]. Please note that the views expressed below do not reflect my own, although I have added some of my own notes in red.  I do however encourage my readers to consider the allegations made in order to construct a more balanced view of Yip Man's legacy. 

Beginning in 2010, Yip Chun and Sim Kwok Lam [Director of the Yip Man movies] as well as other foreign nationals, have under the fraudulent aegis of the "World Wing Chun Association", have been active domestically in China (with Guangzhou and Foshan as the main areas), leading to many instances of conflict in these areas. Using fictional compositions and facts without historical basis, they have sought to muddy the history of Wing Chun, damaging the historical standing and status of the active schools of Wing Chun in Guangzhou and Foshan. As a result of this the Wing Chun Special Committee has put out the following notice:

(1) As for the World Wing Chun Association, this is a private for profit enterprise that is domiciled and registered in Hong Kong as the "World Wing Chun Association Limited". And until now an internationally recognized International Wing Chun Association does not exist. The controlling parties of this Company using the concept of its "high status" to mislead the media both domestically and worldwide , mislead the government officials in China and the general public into believing that the representatives of the Company represent and direct the interests of the whole of Wing Chun community worldwide.

(2) Not long ago, the controlling interests in this Company also tried to do the same for the Foshan Hung Kuen community, registering the "Hong Kong Global Hung Kuen Headquarters Limited" and tried to pass it off as the "Global Hung Kuen Headquarters." In a similar instance the Guangdong Wushu Association also issued a notice reprimanding this association for overstepping its boundaries and violating rules and regulations in Foshan. If the Hung Kuen School had been damaged by outrageous behavior of the Global Hung Kuen Headquarters, then the entire Wing Chun Community has been damaged by the behavior of Yip Chun, Sim Kwok Lam and the International Wing Chun Association.

(3) In 2013 Yip Chun, Sim Kwok Lam and other persons led the Yip School (one of the many branches of Wing Chun) to be involved in the "Wing Chun returns to Shaolin Incident", due to conflicts of interest and contradictions, this incident led to a loss of face for the entire martial arts community. Feng and Lam and the "World Wing Chun Association" were caught up in the midst of this which represented itself as the "Inner Sanctum of Wing Chun" to the worldwide media and dragged the whole Wing Chun community into Fung's machinations.  Making a family dispute drag in the whole Wing Chun community, leading the Committee to severely reprimand Yip Chun and Fung. [Yip Chun in 2013 conducted some activities in conjunction with the Shaolin Monastery in Henan and made himself out to be representative of the greater Wing Chun community. Part of what was so damaging about the trip was that Yip Chun stated that Wing Chun was returning to its roots in Shaolin when there was no real historical relationship with the Shaolin monastery in Henan. Wing Chun is universally acknowledged to be a Southern Style. There was some controversy in the media over this] 

(4) Yip and Sim being the main culprits in the Wing Chun storm has already been recorded long ago, and one has to look to the past incidents, to prove they have destroyed the face of the Wulin community and thrown the hierarchy into chaos and besmirched the old masters. In 2010, Yip and Fung used the movie to raise the historical status of Yip Man, who sought to "uphold and protect the martial arts" but they have confused and falsified history and created a historical backdrop from imagination and have destroyed the reputations of two outstanding giants of Wing Chun history. [I am not sure which two giants of Wing Chun history the notice is referring to but in terms of seniority there were many Wing Chun masters at the time that the story omitted - I have stated in some of my other posts that of there was a Wing Chun Grandmaster perhaps Ruan Qishan had more of a right to the title than Yip Man] 

(5) 90% of the movie is false, especially how one falsifies history, using many fake incidents to portray Yip Man as the "Incarnation of Wing Chun". If Foshan, the home of traditional martial arts, has to rely on an [air brushed] character to represent it internationally,  is this not an insult and shame to Foshan and the greater martial arts community.[90% of the story is false but this is not much different the treatment of many historical personages. The sad thing is that we have very little historical accounts with which to base what happened upon so the point is moot either way. But I do have to admit that the amount of hyperbole in the movies is rather extreme.]   

(6) [This is a long rant which I have omitted]

(7) When Yip Man was in Foshan, he was not the "Foshan Wing Chun Grandmaster" that was hyped by the media.  We perhaps say that he was never the Grandmaster in Foshan, but there was another that was the "Foshan Wing Chun Grandmaster" The older generation in Guangzhou and Foshan and those who have a deep knowledge of Wing Chun all know, that the Yip Man was "Team Leader of the Second Team of the Investigation Unit in Nanhai Provide during the time of Japanese occupation"(See "New Talks from Foshan" by  Chu Rui Zhi).  [Additional language omitted] [It has long been rumored that Yip Man was actually a traitor and collaborator with the Japanese during the Occupation. Hence the urgency with which he needed to flee to Hong Kong when the Communists came. If true, this is especially ironic given his portrayal in the first Yip Man Movie] 

(8) This Committee is of this highest rank on a provincial government level, and covers the Wing Chun activities in10 major cities and areas  within Guangdong province and has never had any relationship with the "World Wing Chun Association" Wing Chun originated in Guangdong, has its roots in Guangdong, and has its main development in Guangdong, and the greatest number of teachers in Guangdong. Guangdong province is stands at the apex of Wing Chun development, and does not [tolerate the existence of outsiders misrepresenting its history] [In terms of the best preserved historical Wing Chun, probably Guangzhou Wing Chun retains more of a traditional flavor than Hong Kong. This is not to say that Yip Man did not teach traditional Wing Chun but it has undergone evolution in the hands of his students] 

(9-10) [Additional ranting]    

- Guangdong Wushu Association (Wing Chun Special Commitee)