To even begin to understand the development, variations and flavor of different Chinese martial arts systems, one must first understand something about the vast, and often times, perplexing, variations of China, and the Chinese people in general. When someone says, 'I am Chinese', I immediately ask what province they are from, then what city, and then I ask if that's where their parents are originally from (as Chinese are not only immigrants in solely foreign countries, but also, and commonly, their own). As outsiders (to China), we think of China as just, 'China'. To me? China is massive, and made up of twenty seven provinces, three of them being SAR's (Special Autonomous Regions, i.e: Tibet, Guangxi, and Inner Mongolia, being primarily ruled, and at one time, primarily inhabited by non Han Chinese, who make up 98% of the Chinese population worldwide). I have been to every province except for Yunan, Ji Ling (which borders North Korea... ahem), and Inner Mongolia. China is bewildering, strange and cannot be classified strictly as a single country. It would be like saying Europe and the eastern block countries are just one country. That's ridiculous right? Exactly. China has THOUSANDS of dialects, and with each dialect comes a completely different way of thinking, history, and even culture, that changes by the kilometer! You could travel to another village, maybe just three kilometers away, and not be able to comprehend anything they are saying due to the enormous linguistic variation caused by such a small amount of geographical separation. China is physically, a very large place, larger than the United States I believe (although I am not 100 percent sure, I believe this is true), and has almost every kind of climate and terrain you can imagine. One thing that greatly effects the enormity of cultural variables, is that China is tremendously mountainous. Not only that, once you get past the central mountains, you have this forbidding expanse of desert that seems to stretch on forever, and THEN, another massive chunk of mountains once you get to Tibet. Geographically, China is a rough place to live, harvest and migrate. Somehow, Chinese people always make the best of it, work with what they have and plod on without complaint (well, most of the time anyway). My second master once told me, 'You are born, you go to school if you can, you work, you have a family, and then you die. You DON'T ask questions! THIS, is the Chinese way'. I got that, but it wasn't until I spent two and half years of my life in China that I truly began to even understand what he meant by this.
When I meet Chinese people for the first time, I immediately tell them I am Shanghaiese. This way, they can instantly identify my Chinese cultural experiences, what I've seen on an everyday basis, what kind of climate I was used to, what kind of food I ate on a regular basis, what kind of political climate surrounded me, how I relate to China historically, general stereotypes about people from my particular region, and most importantly, if they like me or not. Chinese people hate Chinese people. Basically, if you're not from their village, you can go straight to hell. When I tell someone I am Shanghaiese, and THEY, are Shanghaiese? It's like meeting a long lost relative. We both leap up and down, hug, throw out a few Shanghaiese greetings (in the very strange Shanghaiese dialect that has to be heard to be appreciated in it's unadulterated and bizarre glory), and beam like idiots who have just won the lottery. This is especially true in San Francisco (and the United States as a whole), where, 80 percent of the population is Cantonese, and even then, usually from the Tai Shan (Toi San) province. In New York, most of the Chinese are Fujianese, and in Paris, Wangzhounese. This is why most Americans think Cantonese is the major dialect of China, when in FACT, only two percent of the Chinese population in China speaks Cantonese (although many are familiar with Cantonese due to popular Chinese and Hong Kong cinema and music)! As you can see, being Chinese, is a broad, and foolishly generalized statement. Yes, Chinese people are just, 'Chinese', to westerners, but never to a child, or descendant, of the ancient, and tremendously varied, 'Middle Kingdom'.
So, as you can see, as diverse as Chinese people can be, so to, can their martial arts be, as well. Generally, most people agree that there are three major geographical/cultural, 'schools', of Chinese martial arts. This is true in a very, very broad sense of things, but it goes so much deeper than that. I will first, touch upon the popular, generalized, contemporary opinions of Chinese martial arts. The three major, 'schools', are:
Northern: Martial arts from the north east of China, generally from the Shandong, Henan, and Hebei provinces. These styles are usually very low framed (meaning, low stances), utilizing nearly acrobatic footwork, lots of high and aerial kicks, and large exaggerated arm movements (sometimes called long fist, or, big circle styles). These styles were generally developed for the battlefield. Some famous northern styles are: Shaolin, Praying Mantis, Lost Track Boxing, Monkey, Ba Gua, Black Tiger, White Ape, and Ba Ji.
Southern: Martial arts from the Fujian, and Guangdong, (a.k.a: 'Canton', also including Hong Kong) provinces. Characterized by having less kicks than their northern counterparts, usually being higher framed, upright, and favoring hand techniques over high/aerial kicks and often times utilizing smaller, less exaggerated movements ('small circle', and/or, 'short power', systems, as they are sometimes called). These styles were usually developed for city, mountain, and even boat, combat. Some famous southern styles are: Tiger Crane, Wing Chun (or, 'Yong Chun', in Mandarin), Choy Lei Fut, Five Families, Fut Gar and White Crane.
Hakka: 'Hakka', means, 'guest people', in Chinese ('Ke Jia', in Mandarin). These people are believed to be, originally, from the south western parts of China, although this is disputed, and to honest, no one really knows for sure. They have their own dialect, and are prominent in Guangdong, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Indonesia, and even the United States. Their styles are, in my opinion, the strangest of all of the Chinese styles. They tend to be very upright (high framed), are almost completely made up of hand techniques, use strange shuffling, and/or hopping, footwork. They are famous for, 'short power', techniques, and being, aesthetically, the strangest of all Chinese styles. They were also developed for mountain and city combat. Some famous Hakka styles are: White Tiger, Dragon, White Eyebrow, Iron Ox, and Bamboo Forest Praying Mantis.
Now, this is so general, it's borderline ridiculous. As westerners, we only know what we're exposed to. Who are the people who have migrated to the United States (and other western countries)? Malaysian Chinese, Southern Chinese, North Eastern Chinese, and Hakka Chinese. Hence, we believe that these are the only styles that exist. When, in FACT, there are so many other styles, groups of styles and completely random systems that we have never even heard of. I personally teach/practice a style that is only taught by three other people, openly, to my knowledge, in the entire WORLD! It's a northern style, but only by geographical default, and is, in fact, a system that cannot truly be classified as, 'Northern', due it being a style of Ba Gua (A style of martial arts that utilizes circle walking as a training method, unusual footwork that allows you to get behind your opponent almost effortlessly, using almost no closed fist strikes, and is also being the style that spawned/inspired Aikido). We often neglect the central, and southwestern regions of China, where epically profound styles such as Ta Ji, E Mei (or, 'O Mei', as it is sometimes called), Hop Gar (which is from Tibet I believe), and Tong Bei. While these styles are popular and well know in the West, they cannot be classified into the general groups of, Southern, Northern, and Hakka. Geographically, it would be completely incorrect.
This leads me to another point. No one can say that southern styles are all completely high framed, hand dominant, and are without acrobatic kicks and footwork. At the same time, you cannot say that all northern styles are low to the ground, use huge exaggerated arm movements exclusively, and use tons of kicking techniques over hand attacks. That would a foolishly generalized, and even, ridiculous statement to say the least. There is a style from the southern province of Fujian called, 'Dog Style', that is fought while laying on your back, and uses almost primarily, locks, sweeps and traps with the legs! Seven star mantis (a northern style) has kicks, but is definitely a hand oriented combat system. So, as you can see, these broad generalizations tend to fall far from the mark with certain styles. As far as Hakka styles go, I have only had major exposure to two (and am currently teaching them), and have only briefly been shown a few elements from another. Hakka styles are much easier to characterize in a general sense as they all seem to stem from one system, and are all, 'cousin', styles in my opinion. Many of the stances, footwork, and hand techniques are almost interchangeable. My current master teaches White Eyebrow and Dragon, and the primary foundation posture/stance is identical. Yes, the energies, mindset, ideas and methods of attack are very different, but the general structure of the two styles compliment each other marvelously. In my eyes, it is obvious that they really are, 'cousin', systems.
Another interesting point is that many of the so called, 'northern', systems are tremendously popular in the south! Just as Taiji is most popular in the northeast (even though it was created in central China), southern styles dominate the western world, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Vietnam. But, for the laymen, and in a folklorish sort of way, I suppose there is nothing wrong with calling a style, 'northern', or, 'southern'. It's really more about where it was created, propagated and developed, more than anything else. It is true, however, that the north is more vast and expansive and better suited for leaps, bounds and dynamic footwork. This sort of terrain allows for huge, exaggerated arm movements that would be used most practically against attackers of horseback, i.e: Mongolian invaders. It is also true that southern China is hilly, mountainous, urban and where it is not so heavily populated, covered with dense forests and jungles. The Hakka have lived in southern China for a long time, and have adapted their techniques to fit their environment, having just been mountain people themselves before their mysterious migration east and beyond. Having a style that relied on hand techniques in crowded, less navigable terrain like cities, mountains, jungle and even boats, would make a lot more sense than having an arsenal of jump kicks (which were originally developed to take people off of their horses, not for street combat!). But, there are always styles that break the stereotypes imposed by the old term, 'Northern feet, southern hands', whether they were created by a northern, southern, or Hakka Chinese, every style is as unique as any one culture, dialect or individual person. So yes, technically, it would be correct to label a particular style this way, but foolish to characterize a style's techniques based purely on geography. The old kung-fu expression: 'Southern hands, northern feet', isn't always as true as it seems.
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