Friday, May 21, 2010

Wing Chun Grand Master Ip Man 葉問 and His Wooden Dummy Section 2






HK Snob

Wing Chun Grand Master Ip Man 葉問 and his Wooden Dummy Practice (Section 1)

This is a Collection of the Wing Chun Grand Master Ip Man's Orginal 96 pictures of different styles of Wooden Dummy practice. It is extrememly rare.... Ip Man was about 70 years old at that time. This is section 1. They are displayed in the orginal sequence.











HK Snob

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Yuen Siu Tin

Yuen Siu Tin was a stocky man, very fast and energtic, I have been watching him teaching his sons including the famous Yuen Woo Ping when we lived in Tung Tau Estate at Kowloon City. The building has a central space of about 400 square feet at every storey for people to play Soccer, Ping Pong,  practice Kung Fu or whatever you like. At That time I was only 15 years old. I noticed Yuen Siu Tin was moving very swiftly in his action on his famous Monkey Fist Style...

After a couple of years, his famous Movie " Drunken Master was a 1978 Hong Kong martial arts action comedy film directed by Yuen Woo-Ping, and starring Jackie Chan. The film popularised the Zui Quan (醉拳, "drunken fist") style. It was a great success at the Hong Kong box office. The film earned two and a half times the amount of Chan's previous film, Snake in the Eagle's Shadow, which was also considered a successful film.It was an early example of the comedic kung fu style for which he became famous. This movie got a fresh rating of 73% on Rotten Tomatoes.

HK Snob

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

David Carradine

David Carradine starred as a half-Chinese, half-Caucasian Shaolin monk, Caine Kwai Chang on the ABC hit TV series Kung Fu (1972–1975) and was nominated for an Emmy and a Golden Globe Award for the role. The show, which took place in the "Old West", helped to popularize the martial arts and Eastern philosophy in the West and immortalized the character of Caine,Kwai Chang often referred to as "Grasshopper", in popular culture.



Early in the 1990s, Carradine once again reprised the role of Kwai Chang Caine in Kung Fu: The Legend Continues (1993–97) playing the grandson of the original character of the same name.


Later David acted as a bad guy in Kill Bill and that was the different character as he was in Kung Fu. David was report death in a Hotel in Bangkok 3 June 2009, He was widely accepted as accidental asphyxiation. He had five spouses in his 72 years of life.

HK Snob

Donnie Yeh acts as "Ip Man" (葉問)

Ip Man established a hub of southern Chinese martial arts in the 1930s in Fo Shan where various schools actively recruiting disciples and competing against each other. Though Wing Chun master Ip Man is the most proficient martial artist in Foshan, he was humble and kept a low profile in all public activities. He did not need to earn money from teaching as he was a wealthy man in Foshan. He was very choosy about recruiting disciples. Ip spent his days training, with friends and his family. He did not pay much attention to his wife at all, instead, he spent most of his time practicing Kung Fu, discussing martial arts with friends and Kung Fu Aficionados. Ip Man was an armature martial practitioner, Ip earned respect in Foshan because of his friendly behaviour, private competitions with local masters. Ip's reputation was further enhanced when he defeats an aggressive, rude, highly skilled Northern master, Jin Shanzhao, thus upholding the regional pride of fellow Southern stylists and others in Foshan.



The 1937 Japanese adversely affected the life of everyone in Foshan. Ip's house was illegal occupied by the Japanese as Foshan headquarters. Ip and his family lost most of their wealth and are forced to move into a decrepit house. Desperate to support his family, Ip accepted work as a coolie at a coal mine. The Japanese Colonel Miura, who used to be a master Karate, established an arena where Chinese martial artists compete with his military trainees. The Chinese martial artists earned a bag of rice for every Japanese opponent they could defeat. When one of his friends went missing, Ip investigated and discovered the matches. At first disturbed by the spectacle, he was further enraged when a fellow Foshan master was killed while trying to take a bag of rice given to the master after his defeat of a Japanese opponent. Ip also discovered that his friend, Li Zhao, a former police officer is now working as a translator for the Japanese. In response, Ip demanded a match with ten Karatekas, and defeated. His abilities arouse the interest of Miura, who desperately seek to fight again.


Ip paid a visit to his old friend Chow Ching-chuen, who owned and ran a cotton mill in Foshan. Chow tells Ip that a highway robbery gang led by Jin Shanzhao was harassing his workers and extorting money from them. Ip trained the workers in Wing Chun as self defense technique. Meanwhile, Miura grew impatient when Ip did not return to the arena and sent someone to find Ip. These men harassed Ip's family, and Ip incapacitated them. Ip and his family hid themselves. The robbers returned to the cotton mill to ask money brutally. The workers fought back using the techniques Ip had taught them. Ip appeared and defeated Jin Shanzhao, warmed him not to harass the workers again.


The Japanese soldiers eventually found Ip at the cotton mill. Miura told Ip that his life will be spared if he trained the Japanese soldiers in Wing Chun. Ip refused and challenges Miura to a match, which Miura accepted. The match between Ip and Miura was held in public in Foshan's square. Ip won the fight by defeating Miura with his skills of Wing Chun.


As the beaten general laid down losing the fight, Ip looked over to the crowd and heard the Chinese cheering him; within the crowd, he spotted his wife and child with Chow. Just then, Miura's deputy Sato shot Ip. This sparks a scuffle between the Chinese supporters and the Japanese soldiers. During the scuffle Li killed Sato with his own gun. Ip went away amidst the chaos. It was revealed that he survived and escaped to Hong Kong with his family. There, Ip established a Wing Chun school, where Bruce Lee was appeared to be one of his students.

Refer to Donnie Yeh's official Website http://www.donnieyen.com/martialarts.htm
 
HK Snob

Wing Chun Grand Master Ip Man 葉問 and Bruce Lee

The most immense influence on Bruce Lee's martial development was his study of the Chinese martial art Wing Chun. Bruce Lee began training in Wing Chun at age 13 under the famous Wing Chun master Ip Man in the summer of 1954. Master Ip Man was also a colleague and friend of Hong Kong's Tai Chi Chuan teacher Wu Ta-Chi. Ip's regular classes generally consisted of these forms of practice, Chi Sao (trapping hands) drills, wooden dummy techniques, and free-sparring. There was no standard. Ip tried to teach his students from street fighting with gangs of Hong Kong to fight in a form of organized competitions and or formal show for Martial Arts.
After a year into his Wing Chun training, most of Ip Man's students refused to train together with Bruce after they learnt of his ancestry (his mother was of half-German) as the Chinese in America generally were repelling teaching martial arts techniques to non-Chinese. Bruce’ sparring partner, Toe Dai Hawkins Cheung stated, "Probably fewer than six students in the Wing Chun clan were personally taught, or even partly taught, by Ip Man." However Bruce showed a keen interest in the art, and continued to train privately with William Cheung and Wong Shun Leung in 1955.
HK Snob

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Bruce Lee's Quotation

The Jeet Kune Do created by Bruce Lee has a registered trademark held by the Bruce Lee Estate. The Chinese characters around the Taijitu symbol read: "Using no way as way" and "Having no limitation as limitation" The arrows represent the endless interaction between yang and yin.
His Major quotation reflects his fighting philosophy of this best known Martial Artist:
"Be formless... shapeless, like water. Now you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup. You pour water into a bottle; it becomes the bottle. You put water into a teapot; it becomes the teapot. Now water can flow, or creep or drip or crash! Be water, my friend..."
HK Snob

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Michelle Yeoh

The Bond Girl from Tomorrow Never Dies and star of the multiple Academy Award-winning action film 'Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon' was in Kuala Lumpur for her official appointment as an ambassador for the Information, Communications and Culture Ministry Come and Read Malaysia campaign.
She was born in Ipoh, a place for producing beautul woman. I saw her once only in Hong Kong at Queen's Cinema in 1986. She not still single before the marriage with Dickson Poon.

HK Snob

Saturday, May 8, 2010

My Mom

I do love my mom as she still serves me rice in bowl when she cooks at my place even today. She does not know Kugn Fu, but she goes hiking or swimming everyday. That was probably I changed 30 years ago as I used to walk up mension of 10 storeys instead of using lift. She is old but still strong, walk fast like a rabbit. She idol is also Jackey Chan...
HK Snob

When I was in Thailand


I had a serious training for at least two hours a day when I was in Bangkok with my first wife...She was the one to took this picture.
That was 1983-1985!

HK Snob


When I was a Radio officer.


Yokohama Snob

Jackey Chan

Last of ten questions of Time to Jackie Chan from Yu Dengfei NYC.
I think Briuce Lee was one of them., When He came out, I was a stuntman.
I was thinkingI want to be Bruce Lee one day- That was my dream. Every time I saw him, I went and did training. When I got depressed, I watched Bruce Lee movies. I learned everything from Bruce Lee.
Jackey Chan is one of my idols.
 
HK Snob