What are some of the specific cultural practices and influences in your art? I used to think that my KF was just the mechanics and means to beat someone's head in, but ahh, I'm wrong. Some examples. In our salutes at the beginning of the form, we do a chum-kiu, then san-kiu and a gum-jin. The way we do it signifies 'Chan Family Hung Sing CLF'. It is a declaration and sometimes a challenge. Effejy probably does it in the Bak-Sing manner. Oh sure, there's a combat application for each movement, but the actual purpose is a declarative cultural one. There's the bowing in at the start and end of each class. There are the formal rulesets for San Shou, the disregard for groundfighting, the relationship between teacher and student. How does this affect the core purpose of the art? Is the art what it says it is? For instance, I believe the core purpose of CLF is to pop someone's head off like a zit. How is this affected by the way the art is taught and by the beliefs that are ingrained into us? Am I truly correct about the purpose of the art?
Hey Beknar-- In our HG school, we bow three times upon entering and exiting the kwoon. When we do our forms, we have our own salute. While our Sifu is speaking to the class, we stand at attention with our fists on our hips. Whenever our Sifu tells us to take a 2 min. break, we bow. Some students including myself bow to either our Sifu or Sihing after they give us 1:1 instruction on techniques/forms as a thank you for passing down their knowledge. To me, respect is the essence of the art and the traditional way my Sifu conducts his class. The bowing teaches respect for Sifu and each other. The proof is in the students and their conduct. When we go to tournaments or perform in events, our Sifu always gets compliments about our good, respectful behavior. In fact, another school near us had two of their students detained for shoplifting while wearing their kung fu uniforms. To answer your question, the purpose of any TCMA, especially in today's society should be discipline, patience, focus, self-confidence, fitness and then fighting, not fighting first. If you're asking whether or not this bowing/respect thing has an affect on our fighting skills, the answer is no. The respect thing may even prevent one from getting into a fight in the first place.
We don't "stand at attention" when Sifu is talking or anything, but we do bow after he tells us something, or instructs us to do something. Same goes for any teacher or senior... its a respect thing. Same as you bow when entering and leaving the kwoon... etc etc.
I got a mention in a thread woot! lol. We bow at the beginning and end of classes, and when we begin and finish training a drill with a partner. I.e. two people ( or however many people may be training togeather) bow then train togeather with focus and kicking pads, bow at the end and move to the next person to train in an application with them. As for our forms, every single one has a different salute. Also there are no where near as many forms in Buk Sing as the other CLF branches, so i couldn't explain a lot about the salutes. If i did ask sifu though i am sure he would tell us. We also don't spend a lot of time on forms, generally the last 10-15 minutes of our 2 hour class. At the beginning of the class sifu also brings out a round brass cualdron like bowl, which is filled with a mixture of sand and ashes?? Sifu lights a few sticks that look like incence, and bows with them in his hand facing the cauldron, before putting them in there, where they remain for our 2 hour class. (Just realised how much i want to as kwhat this is now, to learn more about the culture) The cultural influence can definately be seen in our class. Sifu also has a bottle of chinese medicine that helps get rid of bruises. I love the fact that the Chinese culture is kept alive in our training, from the chinese names used for techniques, to the show of respect from bowing all the way to the minor cultural aspects such as the chinese medicine. As for the core purpose of the art, Buk Sing is an aggressive fighting style, whereby we train in techniques to end fights quickly. We train hard, and focus only on techniques that will work. I love the culture, i love the training, the sense of family and the fact i am learning an affective CMA.
We dont really do that in our class...we just turn up and start doing the thing. No praying, bowing..a big polite SIFU! when he enters...thats about it.
Ef-regarding the bowl-normally one bows three times to the altar after lighting, but before placing the joss sticks on it.I think your teacher has substituted the bowl for the altar,as many people would have a problem making an offering to a god other than their own,or having an offering made by another before, but as a part of the class, which, cultural practice or not, is what you are doing when you bow and place joss sticks upon the altar. I may be wrong, and this may just be the way Bak Sing does this for whatever reasons.
Alot of the traditions are similar in Chinese Gung Fu. We Bow when entering and leaving the Kwoon. Before warm up we salute(Tiger/Crane) to Sifu. When Sifu shows us something like technique or new move in form, we bow after as sign of respect and thanks. We also do the Salute and then Applause to everybody as a sign of support and thanks for the hard work after class. Before and after working with a classmate we bow. That's with drills, fighting, or two person set work, sam sing, etc. Lion Dance is an important cultural aspect around the New Years time. As is Dit Da Jow and other remedies. We have an altar with General Gwan Gung which is optional for Joss stick burning. Also we have Pictures of Ancestors and Chinese Character banners indicating our Family.
Dit Da Jow! that's the name of it, had forgotten it when writing my post earlier. I love that stuff. El, Sifu does exactly what you say, lights the sticks then bows three times before putting them in the brass bowl. I'm pretty sure it's more of a Chinese cultural influence rather than a Buk Sing thing. Sifu also talks about getting the bad chi out of our bodies some times, by making noises when striking, "di, yi, wa, hai" etc. Definately notice the cultural influences, I think Sigung past a lot of his cultural influences onto Sifu, and other senior classmates (sihings?) who trained under him all those years.
Lion Dancing would be awesome, we dont do it though. But a lot of the guys do go to Hong Kong every year for the annual banquet.
Ef, I meant the usage of the bowl might be a Bak Sing thing,rather than the bowl being used so as not to offend anyone's religious leanings.Sorry I wasn't clear enough.(Tho' I still suspect the latter). Normally, an altar with Kuan Kung/Kuan Ti is used.
I asked Sifu, he just said its a substitute for an alter because an alter would be to big. And it's a worship to the God of War? Cant remember his name though...
You know as oldschool as my sifu is, we really don't have much of the cultural stuff. Our training is strickly about fighting prowess. While we do learn forms, it's all done thru application and drills. If you came into our training sessions it would look a lot like your average MMA class. We do have three different bows though. The one we show noone is the actual Black Tiger Clan bow. It was only used to distingush a true black tiger stylist. My sifu barely even teaches us chinese. If we ask he will, but otherwise it's english and geared towards fighting. jeff
We have a shrine to the old masters in my Kwoon that has various souvenirs from my Sifu's teacher. We salute the shrine when we enter or leave the school. We salute the teacher when he enters. We salute the teacher or most senior student and the shrine at the beginning and end of each class. We also have a bronze bowl filled with dirt or something. We place 3 sticks of incense in the bowl at the beginning of class.
