What is Wing Chun (詠春)?
Wing Chun (詠春) at large:
Wing Chun (Ving Tsun) is a Southern Chinese Martial Art. It was made famous throughout China by Dr. Leung Jan 梁贊 (1826-1901) in the 19th Century. In the 20th Century, figures like Ip Man 葉問 (1893-1972), Wong Shun Leung 黃淳樑 (1935-1997), and Bruce Lee 李振藩 (1940-1973) made the system globally renowned. Known for its iconic speed and snappy movements, Wing Chun made its way around the world in the late 20th and early 21st Century through a variety of teachers. In the 2010s Wing Chun saw a resurgence after the Ip Man Saga of films starting Donnie Yen were released from 2008-2019. 🤦🏻♂️
In its current state, Wing Chun is an extremely fragmented combat system. Because of old school Chinese gate-keeping culture, Wing Chun never really had any strict standards or quality control for most of the time it has existed. A lot of teachers took on a lot of students, but really only decided to teach 1 or 2 everything because they liked them and wanted them to be their successor. A lot of students were (and still are) often left feeling like they have to fill-in-the-blanks in their gaps of knowledge (or they have to wait an unholy amount of time or spend an unholy amount of money) because they have teachers that are either not enthusiastic about teaching students everything, or more likely, because they themselves do not actually have adequate knowledge and training. Due to this, no two schools really agree with each other on what Wing Chun even is, everyone kind of has their own way of doing things. Despite there having been many super-stars that have held up Wing Chun’s reputation, many schools and practitioners of today have been harshly criticized for being ineffective by more modern martial arts systems. It is precisely because of this problem that The 21st Century Scientific Wing Chun Initiative exists.
System Principles and Universal Definition of Wing Chun:
Wing Chun’s Modus Operandi is maximizing efficiency in combat. We achieve this by simultaneously:
Minimizing unnecessary movements and distances.
Maximizing a practitioner’s power and speed.
Utilizing basic physics principles and employing intelligent strategy.
The many unique teachings and training methods of Wing Chun aim to create behaviors and reactions in its practitioners that will allow for all of them to be able to deal with the many issues that arise from combative situations without the need for thinking. Any teachings that fail to abide by these objective principles is not considered Wing Chun by this Initiative.
Disclaimer: Wing Chun is not a combat sport. To be efficient is to end any combative situation as quickly as possible. It is not meant for 5+ rounds in a ring or cage, it is meant for normal people to use in their normal day-to-day life should the need to use it ever comes up. There is also no therapy here, no cultural propaganda, no mystical powers, and sensationalized mumbo jumbo.🫨😵💫🫠😤
Story
The late Master of Wing Chun, Wong Shun Leung 黃淳樑, was the premiere student of Ip Man 葉問. Wong rose to notoriety for his incredible career in illegal Hong Kong rooftop fights in the 50s and 60s, earning him the nickname '講手王 (King of Talking Hands).' Wong would eventually go on to be the primary instructor for a young Bruce Lee 李振藩, leading up to his superstardom in the 70s. Upon Ip Man’s passing, Wong became the direct successor of the Hong Kong Wing Chun Athletic Association 香港詠春拳體育會. Through his latent talent, wealth of experience, and extremely developed fighting intellect, Master Wong Shun Leung streamlined the teachings of Wing Chun to become what China officially declared in 1996 as '詠春拳学 (Science of Wing Chun),' ascending beyond the subjectivity of 'style' and 'interpretations' to make Wing Chun a systematic way of learning how to deal with The Problem of Combat.
Master Philipp Bayer, premiere student of Wong Shun Leung, spent the vast majority of his life continuing his master’s mission in teaching only objectively true principles of Wing Chun. Passing on Wong’s teachings, athleticism, charisma, and raw fighting ability. Alongside Wong Shun Leung, Philipp Bayer brought Scientific Wing Chun outside of Asia and well into Europe alongside other international communities.
The purpose of our Initiative’s existence is to continue the mission and sentiments of our predecessors by maintaining the integrity and high standards of Wong Shun Leung’s teachings through Master Philipp Bayer, formatted and curated for a 21st Century Audience by Brian Kwong 鄺伯恆, teaching the very same system that was taught to him, just with slightly different jokes and predominantly in English.
Mission
The Initiative’s mission is to provide a gold standard in the objective and fact-based learning methods of Wong Shun Leung’s Science of Wing Chun to international audiences of the 21st Century.
We wish to preserve the spirit of Wing Chun as it was taught to us and to replicate/continue the success of Master Philipp Bayer’s Ving Tsun Kung Fu Association Europe 詠春功夫歐洲總會 in the Americas and Asia.
Wing Chun must be demystified for all members of the Initiative and maintain its integrity and efficacy as a system of combat. When done correctly, Wing Chun is easily one of the most effective martial arts you can learn. When done incorrectly, it is often the worst thing you can get involved in. There is a reason why Wing Chun has earned itself a bad reputation within the last few decades. It is an industry-wide problem where low-quality instructors taught a large amount of people nonsense in the form of books, VHSs, DVDs, online instruction, etc.
We hope to make this situation better through our Initiative by delivering our objective standards and logic-based curriculum to anyone who wants to learn. The Initiative nurtures communities of like-minded individuals who wish to see Wing Chun’s persistence throughout this century and beyond. Anyone from any kind of experience or background is welcome.
Disclaimer: I know all this sounds like, super serious, but it’s also meant to be really fun lol. You’re supposed to make friends and be intrigued while you’re learning and training. It’s deep, but it’s also like, “not that deep”… lmao 🤣😮💨
Teaching and Content Criteria
The 21st Century Scientific Wing Chun Initiative is not interested in modifying the system that was handed to us. It is that very system that granted us this criteria. Within these parameters, Wing Chun has proven to be an extremely adaptable and flexible fighting system. As with learning most things, the secret to becoming an effective practitioner simply lies within consistent, quality training and practice. If you’re actually interested in what we cover specifically, please check out our curriculum page.
21st Century Scientific Wing Chun must abide by all of the following criteria:
PRovable
It’s pretty simple really: If you teach it, you have to be able to prove it. Don’t teach things you can’t prove to be true or real. Everything we teach is backed up by actual logic, reasoning, and facts.
Attainable
Very simple (noticing a pattern?): We teach you skills that you can actually attain. There are legitimately people out there teaching 1-touch knockouts, no-touch knockouts, and genuinely suicidal tactics. Skills like, “sensitivity” when the only time you’re in a constant state of contact with your opponent is if you’re wrestling, or “rooting” when you have no roots (even if you did, you have shoes on) are common examples of unobtainable skills that are commonly taught.
Explainable
This one is also pretty simple: We don’t teach things we can’t explain. If you reach a point where it’s just, “up to interpretation”, “that’s just how we do it”, or “you just need to feel it”, you messed up.
reasonable
I can’t believe this is on here: We don’t teach you content that is never going to happen in real life. Sure, anyone can teach drills that might not necessarily be a 1:1 real life application, that’s fair, but we do not teach you strategies for situations and things that just aren’t going to happen. Don’t tell people that they can do some weird maneuver in real life when the only reason it is even possible is because the teacher said so.
Demonstrable
Again, pretty simple: If we teach something, we can demonstrate it working. If you teach things that you cannot demonstrate actually working, you messed up.
The Initiative is not interested in anything that fails to meet our criteria. Thus, skills, ideas, or strategies that are unproven, inexplicable, indemonstrable, unobtainable, and/or unreasonable are not only considered ridiculous by the Initiative but should also be deemed absurd by any sane individual.
Our predecessors have done a fantastic job in bequeathing us a comprehensive ideology for generations. A strong desire to change the system often serves as proof that one does not understand the system well enough to resolve a combative issue. If you cannot solve a calculus problem, you do not alter calculus; you improve your skills at it. Unless your intellect is comparable to the likes of Newton, Einstein, or Schrödinger, it is probably best that you refrain from attempting to create your own mathematics. Don’t go changing Wing Chun just because you’re bad at it.
Disclaimer: If you haven’t done Wing Chun before, you might be surprised by how many schools actually fail to meet this set of criteria. If you have done Wing Chun before and quit, you might have noticed this issue and that might be why you didn’t like it anymore. If you do currently do Wing Chun and you’re seething at the screen because you don’t like what you see, the world is a big place, you do you. Nobody’s making you join. ✌🏼😌
Phew… you made it…
If you’ve somehow made it through that entire wall of text, thanks for reading. I hope you learned something and enjoyed what you saw. I encourage you to look through the rest of the site for more information. If you’d like, there’s also a massive Wong Shun Leung quote right beneath this block of text that I have no clue how to resize. I like this quote a lot. It’s kind of edgy, but that’s okay. It’s straight facts and I think that’s the important part.
“Self-Defense is only an illusion, a dark cloak beneath which lurks a razor-sharp dagger waiting to be plunged into the first unwary victim. Whoever declares that any weapon manufactured today, whether it be a nuclear missile or a .38 special, is created for self-defense should look a little more closely at their own image in the mirror. Either they are lying or deceiving themselves.”