Category Archives: Guest Articles

The Lam Family: Three Generations of Hung Kyun

Lam Family Hung Kyun

During the 20th century it is said that Hung, Lau, Choi, Lei, Mok were the five big Gung Fu styles of the Guangdong province. Different regions shaped distinctive styles of martial arts, like the Lung Ying Kyun, Southern Praying Mantis, Mok Ga Kyun of the Hakka minority in Eastern Guangdong. The area of Xinhui, Jiangmen, Yangjiang was dominated by Choi Lei Fat. In Chaoshan Choi Mok Kyun was the dominating style. In the martial arts schools as well as the martial arts culture of Guangzhou, Foshan and other big cities were influenced by external elements. Continue reading

Loading

The 10 Sounds of “Iron Thread Set” (Tit Sin Kyun)

 "Iron Thread Set" (Tit Sin Kyun)

Tit Sin Kyun is the highest set in Hung Ga Kyun. Simply said, it’s a Five Elements “Internal Training” set that uses sounds that refer to emotions.

There is much more to Tit Sin Kyun, such as the “Twelve Bridge Arms” (Sap Yi Ji Kiu Sau) and its use in ground grappling/antigrappling, but we will not go into that here. Perhaps another article.
For now we will just focus on the sounds.

The sounds in Tit Sin Kyun are primal sounds, used for boosting the power/spirit on a technical level and for releasing mental and muscle tension. Continue reading

Loading

Lam Family Hung Kyun: About Carrying the Tradition Forward and Innovation

Family and lineage have been important values in Chinese history since ancient times. In other words, the family shrines have been important symbols. Its position within the community can be compared to a church in Western countries, a place for religion and belief. The comparison between western churches and Chinese family shrines can be applied to physical education, traditional Chinese martial arts have been taught from one generation to the next and developed during that process. This kind of passing knowledge from one generation to the next is common in traditional Chinese culture. In this tradition, family bloodline has been an important aspect. All the famous South Chinese martial arts, Hung, Lau, Choy, Lei, Mok, are all surnames. Thus, the development of martial arts have been inherited from one generation to the next which has given each category a specific features. Some varieties of martial arts have kept their knowledge within their families and they have not been allowed to teach outsiders. Continue reading

Loading

Choose to be Flexible Steel!

Side split - Flexible Steel

While being a youngster doing martial arts of course I did a lot of stretching. Mostly it was ‘relax stretching’. I never was really flexible, but then again, it wasn’t really needed for Kempo and traditional Kungfu. Dynamically I could kick about the height of my head, and that was enough. Continue reading

Loading

Legends of the Old Hung Ga Kyun Masters: “Iron Bridge Three” Tit Kiu Saam

Legends of the Old Hung Ga Kyun Masters: "Iron Bridge Three" Tit Kiu Saam

Everyone says that Hung style, Lau style, Choi style, Lei style and Mok style are five famous styles in Southern Chinese martial arts. Among these, the Hung style has the most disciples. In the past fifty or sixty years, the Hung style exponents such as Wong Fei Hung, Lam Sai Wing, Taam Man and others have become famous among younger practitioners in Southern China. Continue reading

Loading

Announcement from Grand Master Lam Chun Fai: “Iron Wire Fist” (Tid Sin Kyun) Book + DVD Project

Announcement from Grand Master Lam Chun Fai: "Iron Wire Fist" (Tit Sin Kyun) Book + DVD Project

Grandmaster Lam Chun Fai has started writing his 3rd Hung Kyun book on “Iron Wire Fist” (Tid Sin Kyun). The targeted release date of this book will be announced in the fall. The Tid Sin Kyun is an advanced level set and it is not usually taught until the practitioner has many years of experience in Hung Kyun training.  Continue reading

Loading

Grandmaster Lam Cho Explains the Origins of Lau Ga Kyun and Lau Ga Gwan

Grandmaster Lam Cho Explains the Origins of Lau Ga Kyun and Lau Ga Gwan

One of my fondest memories of my Sigung (師公), the Great-Grandmaster Lam Cho, was when he would put on his three-piece suit, pick up a newspaper, and take a brisk walk for lunch at his favorite restaurant, where he had a table reserved daily, between the hours of 1:00-2:30pm. On the occasion of one visit, in the early 1990’s, I had brought a variety of Chinese martial art books from my home in San Francisco, USA.

Arriving at Lam Kwoon (林館), Great-Grandmaster Lam Cho and my Sifu (師父), Grandmaster Lam Chunsing were ready to have lunch, and so we walked together, to Sigung’s restaurant, the old Joy Fook Lau Seafood Restaurant (彩福海鮮酒樓), on the fourth floor of the Pioneer Centre, 750 Nathan Road. On this particular day, I had brought the books with me, with the intention of discussing them with my Sifu. Continue reading

Loading

The Hung Ga Fraternity, Then, Now, and Future

Five Shaolin Masters

Hung Ga (Designating “the House of the First Ming Emperor”) was originally founded as a Han Chinese patriotic coalition, more specifically, an anti-Qing fraternity. With the Opium Wars, “The Eight-Nation Alliance”, and Japanese involvement with the Qing Court, we again see Han fraternal bonding as an answer to foreign incursion, by the formation of the “Ten Tigers of Gwong Dung”, and other like-minded associations, all under the blanket name of “Hung”. Continue reading

Loading

Practicing the Art”: A Short Hung Ga Kyun Video by Viktor Nordgren

Practicing the Art": A Short Hung Ga Kyun Video by Viktor Nordgren

Making a Kung Fu movie has been a dream of mine. Today, this dream has become reality.

Although it is not a full feature movie it’s a short clip containing the most representative set of Hung Kyun, Fu Hok Seung Ying Kyun. The main focus in this clip is simply the Tiger and Crane techniques, how they look in the hand form as well as the sparring form, it also includes some more techniques as you will see. Continue reading

Loading

No-Nonsense Gung Fu

Hap Ga (Hop Gar) Gung Fu

Hap Ga has been has been among China’s most-effective fighting style for more than 300 years. “Hap Ga gained a reputation in Canton for being a no-nonsense practical style of Gung Fu.”

The roots of Hap Ga date back to the mid-19th century, when Wong Yan Lam brought his Tibetan crane style of Gung Fu to south China. The style gained a reputation in Canton for being a no-nonsense practical style of Gung Fu, because it adheres to a set of specific methods and principles. Continue reading

Loading