What is Wing Chun?
Wing Chun is a Martial Art with its roots in China. Wing Chun consists of kicks, punches, blocks, throws,
grappling and weapons training.
History of Wing Chun
Wing Chun was developed in southern China approximately 300 years ago by a Buddhist nun named Ng Mui. She was
a master of Shaolin Kung Fu and used these skills to invent a way to take advantage of the weaknesses in
other Shaolin styles. Ng Mui's system was only taught to a few carefully selected students, and was later
given the name Wing Chun after Ng Mui's first student, Yim Wing Chun.
Yim Wing Chun was born in the Kwangtung Province in China. Her mother died when she was young and she fled
with her father, who had been wrongfully accused of a crime, to the Tai Leung Mountain near the border
between the Szechuan and Yunan province.
At this time (about 1660 - 1720) Ng Mui lived at a Shaolin Monastery called Siu Lam. The Siu Lam Monastery
was attacked by government forces and burnt to the ground. Ng Mui fled together with a few surviving monks
to the White Crane Monastery on Mt. Tai Leung where she met Yim Yee and his daughter Wing Chun. At fifteen
Wing Chun was asked by a local bully to marry, but she refused. The bully started to threaten Wing Chun to
force her into marrying him. Ng Mui heard this and started teaching Wing Chun how to protect herself. Wing
Chun trained really hard and when she mastered the techniques she challenged the bully and defeated him.
Eventually Wing Chun was married to Leung Bok Chau and she taught him Kung Fu. He in turn passed the
knowledge to Leung Lan Kwai, who passed it to Wong Wah Bo. Wong Wah Bo, who was at the time a member of an
opera troupe called the Red Junk, taught what he knew to the rest of the crew. Eventually a man named Yip Man
came to learn the techniques of Wing Chun and he is now considered to be the grandmaster of Wing Chun. In
1949 he brought Wing Chun to Hong Kong and shortly after to the rest of the world.
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