Searching For Ip Man

No, I didn't manage to get an interview with Ip Man. It would take more than snappy interview technique to achieve that! I did a little survey this morning of all the phrases that people searched for in Google to find my site. There were masses of phrases relating to the great Bruce Lee that people searched for but twice as many people found my site after searching for the even greater (in my opinion) Ip Man. With that little revelation in mind, I thought I would write some words about Ip Man. But, I need to do some research before I can really do the man justice, as my knowledge is limited to the following lonely facts.

I know that in the early days, the Chinese were very reluctant to teach Wing Chun to westerners. Although there were other rebels who opened their doors to western students, Ip Man was the one who became famous for doing so. Maybe his fame was due to him having taught Bruce Lee.

I get the impression that Ip Man was very hot on his students learning the basics very thoroughly before letting them loose on the more advanced stuff. Hence the long hours of siu lim tau.

From listening to interviews with Donnie Yen, it appears that Ip Chun tried to impress upon him the fcat that Ip Man was a true gentleman. I take that to mean that he was very well mannered and had a good appreciation of social etiquette. He was quite well off too, by all accounts.

Ip Man's Sons

Ip Man had two sons: Ip Chun and Ip Ching. Perhaps the most well known is Ip chun. My sifu says that "Chun" and "Ching" mean "correct" and "accurate" - if I remember correctly - so with those names, how could they not become skilled Wing Chun practitioners? But hold on. Rumour (of the forum variety) says that Ip Chun only started learning Wing Chun in earnest at the age of 38. I think he had a dabble when he was younger but nothing serious. The power of his surname obviously didn't have that much influence on him in respect of Wing Chun if he left it until 38 to train properly. Given that Ip Man must have been knocking on a bit, just how much of Ip Man's teaching did Ip Chun receive I wonder... I'm just thinking aloud now, because I don't know the facts.

I know that Ip Ching is also a (perhaps lesser known) skilled practitioner of Wing Chun, having taught Samuel Kwok (as Ip Chun has done also). Wow, I didn't realise how scrappy my knowledge was!

Ip Man Fight Scenes

I just couldn't help myself. I've gone and compiled a series of fight scenes from the Ip Man movie on Youtube.

With the recent release of Ip Man the movie, interest in Ip Man has rocketed. Stay tuned for more (better informed!) stuff about Ip Man. I have some old and dusty martial arts magazines that I know have articles about Ip Man in them, so I'll shake the dust off them over the weekend. Ip Man also gets quite a mention in the Bruce Lee biography I'm reading so I'll revisit that one too.