A Martial Arts Teacher

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Movies could be educational sometimes. Talk about the latest movie in town, Ip Man which stars Donnie Yen. If not for the film, I would never know the existence of this man, Yip Man ( 葉問) or Ip Man, said to be Bruce Lee's martial arts teacher and also the first martial arts master to teach openly the Chinese martial art that specializes in aggresive close-range combat, Wing Chun (詠春). One of the legends about Wing Chun's origin had to do with a young girl by the name of Yim Wing Chun. Trying to reject an offer of marriage by a warlord, Wing Chun had sought the help of a Buddhist nun, Ng Mui, to learn boxing. Thereafter, both of them developed Wing Chun and when Yim Wing Chun got to marry her sweetheart, she passed the art to him. Wing Chun was originally passed down from teacher to student orally. Until Ip Man, I suppose the art was also not taught openly.
Ip Man and Bruce Lee...

Comments

Liudmila said…
It's the first time I hear about this man. Interesting is that the teachers remain mostly in shadow.
9 January 2009 at 10:04
footiam said…
I haven't heard of him too until I watched the movie.
14 January 2009 at 22:45
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