IP MAN, Michael Tse [read dune TXT] 📗
- Author: Michael Tse
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Ip Man
by Michael Tse
Today, Ip Man is a big name in China. Almost every Chinese person knows about him and this is mostly because of the movie, Ip Man, that was released in 2008. The movie was shown first across China, Hong Kong and South East Asia and it became very successful. It was so successful they made a second movie called, Ip Man 2. Both films starred Donnie Yen acting as Ip Man and these movies raised Yen’s profile as
an actor, making him more famous than before. His fee since these movies has increased two or even three fold but as it was his performances that guaranteed the success of the films, it is fair that his value should go up.
What made the films a success? It was because Ip Man was a real person, a great Grandmaster of the martial art skill, Wing Chun Kung Fu. Everyone who studies Wing Chun knows about him. The movies were based on events that happened his life but of course these were exaggerated for the purposes of a commercial movie. To make it more interesting, there had to be a lot of fight scenes and a love story to make us feel more connection with the story. However, the movies were so beautifully done that we could not have asked for more.
After the movies, Ip Man became a hero for Chinese people not just in southern China where Wing Chun Kung Fu had originated but all over. So why did China not know about him before? This was because he left China before the Communist government took over. Because of this, not many Mainland Chinese people knew about him or knew of Wing Chun Kung Fu. So is it a little ironic that he has become a hero so long after he passed away and that it took a movie to bring him to the attention of his own country.
In the first movie, Ip Man, he fights against the Japanese invasion of China and maintains the dignity of the Chinese people and upholds Chinese morals. Chinese
people basically love their culture and any hero that upholds it. Up until then they had not discovered this good, heroic man who contributed so much to the martial arts world and that is not even mentioning his famous student, Bruce Lee, who is a hero for all martial artists.
Ip Man was not only a talented martial artist, but he was highly educated and had good philosophy. He was also a talented calligrapher and his son, Ip Chun, also learned how to write just as poetically as his father. For Chinese people, calligraphy is a way of expressing emotion and energy but only after one has learned the foundation and discipline of holding the brush in the correct way, having the right posture and a calm mind. So in a way, calligraphy is like training Siu Lim Tao in Wing Chun. First we learn stillness and then later movement.
Ip Man Memorial Museum
So it is no surprise that China wanted to honour such a special man by having a museum to commemorate his life. Actually in 2001, a temporary Ip Man museum was created in Zumiao (Ancestral Temple) in Foshan, China. At the time,
the government and Ip Man’s family were trying to find a location that could house a museum permanently that would reflect his life and have a connection to where Ip Man’s ancestral village in the town of Luocun 羅村(pronounced Law-choon), a village about twenty minutes drive from Foshan, a town in Guangdong Province, China.
So it was great happiness that excitement in October 2011 that announcement was made that the new museum would open in Luocun on 14 January 2012. In addition, the local government wanted to promote Wing Chun skill more and so they proposed to host a series of competitions for both Wing Chun forms and Chi Sau on both the 14th
and 15th January. On the Friday evening, a several course banquet dinner was hosted by the local government for visitors from Hong Kong, UK, Russia, and the large dining room was filled and speeches given by Grandmaster Ip Chun, the local mayor, actor Dennis To and Sin Kwok Lam, assistant acting director of the movie, Ip Man the Legend is Born, and others.
The morning of 14 January started with the inauguration ceremony at the new Ip Man Memorial Hall. Grandmaster Ip Chun and his family were there to cut the ribbon and officially open the Ip Man Museum to the public and welcome everyone. The museum hall was built based upon Ip Man’s original family home including the rooms and courtyards
Upon first entering, there is a large courtyard with rooms going off on either side. In front of the courtyard is another large room that has a life-size bronze statue of Ip Man sitting as if he were ready to welcome friends and family to his home.
On either side of this hall are stairs leading up to a balconied level with more memorabilia. Throughout the rooms, there are many photos, stories and short clips of movies about Ip Man and Wing Chun. Each exhibit has a story to go with it which is written in both Chinese and English. There are even samples of Ip Man’s clothes, books and his calligraphy. Just inside of the entrance there are four wooden dummies, two on either side, that people can practise on, as practising the wooden dummy is a life long part of Wing Chun training.
There are also many, many photos and a large map showing how Wing Chun has spread out over the whole world. The UK has played a big part particularly due to Grandmaster Ip
Chun and his students and grand students. I am very happy to have him as my Sifu as
studying with him has saved me a lot of time avoiding mistakes in my Wing Chun skill. This is because it was the proper Wing Chun skill that I learnt from him, following the principle of using least amount of energy to defeat an opponent.
Ip Man Chang Shen Cup Opening Ceremony
After the museum opening, dignitaries and others were transported to Luocun City for opening ceremony of the the Wing Chun forms and Chi Sau competitions, called the “Chang Shen Cup”. Chang Shen means ‘Long Belief’, so the government wants everyone to believe in Wing Chun for a long time and given its over 400 hundred year history, I think this belief will keep going and growing stronger.
The first thing we all saw upon arrival was the huge television billboard that had video of Grandmaster Ip Chun the wooden dummy and he and his students doing Chi Sau. It was quite thrilling to be standing beneath this to do our rehearsal for the opening ceremony. As such a large group, our school was already attracting a lot of attention as we all did a warm up in preparation for our event and several television crews came over and began filming and locals gathered to watch us. It was good preparation for the students to later be on stage.
The Ceremony
This area where the ceremony was to take place was a large central square where a large two level stage had been erected and covered with red carpet in front of welcoming sign that was done in reds, oranges and yellows. The lower part of the stage was a semi-circle around which were several wooden dummies. There was an open area in front of the stage which was soon jam packed television companies and cameras and local press. Behind this and opposite to the stage was a VIP seating section with yellow, satin covered chairs on a raised dais. This was reserved for the VIP guests, including many high-ranking government officials including Canton Province Cultural Department Chairman (Chen Yan), the Foshan City Committee, the Nanhai District Secretary (Deng Wei Gen), the General Vice Mayor (Mai Hao Hua) the Nanhai District Committee and Promotion Department Manager (Yu Gin).
Traditionally, Chinese people like to have Lion Dances to bring good luck and an auspicious start to any special event or ceremony. So it was no surprise that the first annual Ip Man Chang Shen Cup Opening Ceremony was honoured with a huge Lion Dance ceremony. There were around ten lions performing on the stage whilst huge kettle drums pounded away bringing up the atmosphere and excitement. The wooden dummies were used by Wing Chun students to perform the wooden dummy form during the lion dance which made everyone feel very excited with Wing Chun fever.
With the audiences still excited from the Lion Dance, our turn came to take the stage. My Sifu led myself and nearly 50 of my students on to the stage where we were to perform a group demonstration of Siu Lim Tao. We were also joined by the actors Dennis To and Huang Yi who starred in the third Ip Man movie, Ip Man - the Legend Is Born. The crowd went a bit wild when my students and I surprised everyone when we began to do the Siu Lim Tao form standing on one leg.
It was a huge occasion, with so many crowds of people and celebrations. The host of the Ip Man Chang Shen Cup Opening ceremony was my Sifu, Ip Chun. He is the eldest son of Ip Man and so with any events relating to Ip Man, including the movies, he is always the first person who is invited to become involved and he plays a large role in the organisation. The event attracted people who were interested in Wing Chun from all
over the world including America, Canada, Austria, Russia, Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong and the UK.
At the opening there were a lot of TV news crews and press who had all gathered to report on the ceremony, as it was very big news. There was even large boom that had a remote controlled camera above the stage that filmed not only the performers but swivelled all around to capture the
excitement of all crowds. My students and I were lucky enough to be interviewed and filmed by the newspapers and TV news and later, after the ceremony, we had a 20 minute television feature done on us which was shown on Guandong TV on the 19 January 2012.
As most of my students are Westerners and Grandmaster Ip Chun’s grand students and grand-grand students, it made the event truly international and special that Westerners can not only be good at Wing Chun but be part of the Ip family Wing Chun lineage. I had trained every one of them to perform Siu Lim Tao on one leg all the time and so this was easy for them. When we raised our legs to stand and perform on just one leg you could hear gasps of “Wow” in
amazement as the watching crowd was surprised to see Siu Lim Tao performed this way. Some had never even seen it done this way before and those who had seen it did not expect Westerners to be able to do it. Actually this is very normal for us as every class we train like this and some students can easily do it on
one leg for 20 to 30 minutes, changing leg occasionally. At the end all my students felt very proud. Most of the group was mainly came from the UK, but there were also some from Australia, USA and Hong Kong who took part and witnessed this historical Ip Man Memorial Opening Day. As their Sifu, Sigong and Tai Sigong, I was proud of their
standard and happy that it was good enough for them to perform in front of thousands of Chinese and overseas people and be seen on national television, representing overseas Wing Chun students.
The ceremony then continued with the competitors from each group being introduced just like at the Olympic Games, which China has experience of. The competition itself had events for the forms, Siu Lim Tao, Chum Kiu, Biu Jee and Baat Jam Do. Another part of it was a Chi Sau competition and also San Da (Free Fighting). The Chi Sau competition was new and so all the competitors wore protective pads, gloves and helmets and over the two days it created a strong atmosphere. Many people won their categories and received their award money which most spent celebrating with the Kung Fu brothers and Sifu and at the end everyone was happy.
Trip Highlight
For myself, the highlight of the trip was the group demonstration of Siu Lim Tao with my Sifu and students as well as the private seminar with my Sifu, Grandmaster Ip Chun. He said that although he had taught seminars all around the world and China, this was the
first time he had given a seminar in his hometown of Luocun. So we all felt honoured for this.
I started studying with my Sifu in 1982. I had originally began studying Wing Chun with my uncle Tse Chiu Hung in 1974. When he passed away, I began studying
with Ip Sifu and I have been with him ever since, and even though I no longer live in Hong Kong, I see him every year. After moving to the UK, I organised several Wing Chun seminars there for Sifu but it was my first time for me also to have a seminar for my students in China.
We all gathered in the Loucun Cultural Centre hall and Sifu gave us an incredible seminar. He allowed everyone to ask whatever questions they liked and he gave us such straightforward, in-depth answers that everyone was really inspired and touched. He then he did Chi Sau with all of us. It is his 88th year this year but still he can Chi Sau with people who are not only half his age but one quarter of his age and who are much stronger, much heavier and some even a head taller than him. With his high level skill, no one could touch him. It was amazing and he is a good example of how a martial art skill can also make us healthy, not just a good fighter!
In the seminar Sifu emphasised that the training of forms and wooden dummy were all there to improve our Chi Sau skill. He also said that although Chi Sau is not fighting- it is for developing Wing Chun techniques that in the end can be used for fighting.
Every one of us, including myself, has at some time been beaten by another Wing Chun brother or sister and that is part of the learning process. As Ip Man used to say, “Anyone who is afraid to be hit will in the end be hit.越拍打終歸被打” Wing Chun is a style that uses less energy to overcome a stronger opponent, there are no short cuts you just need to practise more Chi Sau. The more hands you touch the better you will get. My Sifu’s high level is due to his hard work and his easy going and kind nature and, of course, his own Sifu’s (his father) amazing teaching.
Ip Man Story
There is one story about Grandmaster Ip Man and Master Ip Chun when Ip Chun was only 5 years old. They lived in Foshan and it was during a temple festival. Many people, including Ip Man and Ip Chun were getting on a boat to go home. On the boat there was a tough looking man who was carrying a bucket of hot liquid. He accidentally splashed some on my Sifu Ip Chun’s face and hurt him. Ip Man started to tell the man off, but the tough man did not think it was his fault and argued back. By now all the people on the boat were watching. The tough guy knew he had some friends waiting for him on the shore, and so he knew if he kept arguing till he reached the other side, then he would have his gang to help him. Also Ip Man did not look very threatening, as he was just a skinny guy, and so he was not really scared.
When the boat reached the other side, Ip Man took Ip Chun to a shop and took off his long robe. He told Ip Chun not to go anywhere and gave him his robe to hold onto. Then Ip Man went back to face the tough guy who had now been joined by four friends and was waiting to challenge Ip Man. Ip Man
started to attack and in few seconds all of the tough guys had fallen into the water. However, there was still one more of them on the boat and he took up a long stick with a metal hook end and used it to attack Ip Man. Ip Man grasped the stick and struck the guy back and in the end, he too fell into the water.
Although he was just 5 years old, that was the first and the last time Ip Chun saw his father fight with anyone. That was over eighty years ago in either 1929 or 1930.
Grandmaster Ip Man has many stories that have been remembered and told about him and they are very interesting. He was a good man with dignity and he was a good morality martial artist. Today, he is many people’s hero. Certainly, he is mine. We all miss him but, fortunately, he left a lot for us not just the Wing Chun Kung Fu skill. He also left us lots of wisdom on how to be a good person. He said “ Virtue is the most important part of Kung Fu.武德為主,功夫為副”
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Publication Date: 01-24-2016
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