Ancient art that packs a punch
After learning wingchun for 60 years an old master is passing on his skills to others
Chen Jiye, 73, teaches the martial art wing chun on an average of two hours a weekday and five hours on weekend day and says he feels no tiredness.
He has been practicing this martial art for 60 years. Wing chun, which originated in the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) in South China, has become popular worldwide through action films about its renowned masters Ip Man and Bruce Lee.
Chen Jiye’s master Chen Jiaxin was the third-generation successor of wing chun in Shunde, Guangdong province, who was also a peer of Bruce Lee.
In 2013 wing chun was listed in China sport’s intangible cultural heritage issued by the General Administration of Sport of China.
Chen, who started teaching the art four years ago, is now keen on teaching it to more people.
He liked to read martial art fantasy when he was a child, he says, and took great pleasure in imagining how the moves were carried out.
“I heard about Chen Jiaxin in our village being able to do wing chun, and I went to ask him to teach me and he agreed.”
That was when he was 13, a time when few people were learning it, he says, and Chen’s enthusiasm ensured that he was a very quick learner.
His master taught him very thoroughly with strict attention to detail, he says, and from then on each day Chen would practice the basic skills including the horse riding stance and the punch.
“It’s quite hard to practice the basic skills. You have to punch 1,000 or 2,000 times a day, and each punch must be done precisely otherwise it will fall short of what you want it to do.”
Wing chun is renowned for its quick arm movements that help its practitioners’ maintain the suppleness and flexibility of their muscles.
To build up speed, Chen had a stand-in opponent — a dummy made of wood.
“In wing chun there is a theory that dictates that an exponent should start a punch from the middle line of one’s own body and aim it in the direction of the middle line of one’s opponent because it’s the shortest distance between the two.”
Fifty-two years after he took up wing chun, he retired when he was 65 and set up a wing chun training center in Guangzhou. However, even before that, when he worked for a real estate company, in his spare time he used to teach workmates the art.
Unlike his master, who is strict in recruiting apprentices, Chen hopes to encourage more ordinary people to practice wing chun as a hobby or as physical exercise. For him the appeal of wing chun is its adaptability to the human body.
“The movement range is small, so young and old people alike can do it,” he says.
At first his class only had a few students, but it gradually began to fill up until it was full. His students have ranged in age from 5 to 66, among them people who have practiced other Chinese martial arts.
Chen thinks the key to wing chun
is to relax, and in his classes he explains each move thoroughly and requires students to make each move precisely.
Since starting teaching, Chen has taken his students to martial art competitions each year.
In 2018 the World Wing Chun Open Competition hosted by the International Wushu Federation was held in Foshan, Guangdong province, attracting more than 1,000 athletes from more than 20 countries and regions.
Six of Chen’s students took part, each winning gold medals in different events.
“I feel proud of my students,” Chen says. “The competition is international, both the competitors and judges including people from overseas, so the gold medal is great recognition of our wing chun.
In fact many of those whom Chen teaches are from overseas.
“Most want to have a go because they are fans of Bruce Lee, and after practicing wing chun for a while they fall in love with it.”
Chen recalls one of his students, a college student who was very introverted and who gained a lot of selfconfidence after doing wing chun
for two years.
“She told me that on a trip to Thailand with her parents someone tried to mug her, and by instinct she used wing chun, which scared the attackers away.”
Shen Liming, an I-ching (The Book of Changes) scholar and founder of Limingtang, a company that promotes traditional Chinese culture, started to learn wing chun from Chen in May.
“The philosophical principles behind I-ching and wing chun are connected, so once master Chen tells us why we are doing such moves for defense or attack, I can quickly understand,” Shen says.
“He also teaches us that we are not learning to fight, but that it can strengthen our will and encourage us to help others when needed.”
After six months’ practice, Shen feels his physical fitness and strength have improved.
Martial arts are one important part of traditional Chinese culture, and among them wing chun is one of the most popular, he says.
“If you bring up the subject of martial art, many people are keen on knowing something about it but then look at you askance, thinking you can hurt yourself doing it and seeing little practical use for it.”
However, Shen says, there is no need to worry about doing wing chun because its moves are usually just instinctive reactions for self-defense that are honed through practice.
He wants Chen to teach wing chun in Limingtang and plans to introduce courses in his branches overseas, including Singapore and Malaysia.
“Because of the pandemic we haven’t been able to take master Chen abroad, so we’ve been taking videos of him doing wing chun for our overseas students,” Shen says.
“We hope eventually to promote traditional Chinese culture by delivering more wing chun courses to more places in the world.”
It’s quite hard to practice the basic skills. You have to punch 1,000 or 2,000 times a day, and each punch must be done precisely otherwise it will fall short of what you want it to do.”
Chen Jiye, on the rigor of learning wing chun basics, which he started to learn at the age of 13
The philosophical principles behind I-ching and wing chun are connected, so once master Chen tells us why we are doing such moves for defense or attack, I can quickly understand.”
Shen Liming, an I-ching scholar who has been taking lessons from Chen Jiye since May