In the days of the COVID-19 pestilence, after a long reflection, I decided to share with the world in a series of 27 videos the Tit Sin Kuen form that I received from my master Chan Hon Chung in 1984. I gave the reasons in the first video then summarised them in this article.
Many ask me why I decided to share the Tit Sin Kuen, a choice contrary to the course of action I had kept until now regarding the spread of martial arts and Hung Kuen in particular on the Internet. The answer is articulated.
As far as I know, there are only two living people who learned Tit Sin Kuen directly from master Chan Hon Chung. The first one is my friend and older brother Cheung Yee Keung (who has become an esteemed “sifu”, but recently almost abandoned teaching). The second one is myself, who has had the honor of being welcomed as a student and valued as a friend by Chan Hon Chung, to the point of receiving from him this and other precious recognitions.
Until now I only shared Tit Sin Kuen with some “grandchildren”, young people, enthusiasts like me and trustworthy. But in these days of forced reflection due to the pandemic I came to the conclusion that it is time to make available to everyone the precious form of martial arts that I’ve been a custodian of since 1984.
In the pre-Internet years Tit Sin Kuen represented one of the main values of the Hung Kuen school, therefore it was not demonstrated, was trained in private and was handed down by the teacher to a very small number of students. Receiving Tit Sin Kuen was an important recognition, a kind of diploma assigned by the master certifying the completion of the path.
A deep knowledge of Tit Sin Kuen is a necessary condition for being a Hung Kuen “sifu”. Over the past century this obstacle has helped to preserve the quality of the teachers and of the style, but with the 2Ks and the advent of the Internet, anyone can collect here and there some material (often of poor quality), cross it with the drawings in the Lam Sai Wing booklet, then spread it as it were the “real thing”. The result is a huge number of Hung Kuen teachers who show techniques having little or nothing in common with the Hung Kuen that was taught by master Chan Hon Chung.
Besides this, I think that the time of secrets, families, clans, etcetera is over. This is the Century of consciousness and shared culture, experiences, informations. I do not deny the value of the old traditions, I think that we must know, respect and study them, but I also think that the new connected world needs to update most of them for the common benefit of knowledge.
For this reason I decided to share Tit Sin Kuen with the world, giving them the opportunity to get in touch with the extraordinary technical bases of Chan Hon Chung’s Hung Kuen, technical bases that are at risk of being contaminated and eventually lost.
I hope that those who follow me – specially if related with the Chan Hon Chung lineage – will show the intellectual honesty to use it with common sense, in a way compatible with their technical level and mainly for analysing and questioning their martial background. I strongly advise those who have not completed the study against engaging in the practice of Tit Sin Kuen by copying it from these videos, which may instead be useful for developing the fundamental principles of the Hung Kuen school of Chan Hon Chung. I hope that these videos can help you to understand the principles of the stances, the interactions between pelvis, diaphragm and breathing, the energy management in creating bridges, etcetera.
Last but not least: in spite of being studying and training Hung Kuen for 45 years when I write this article, I am no “sifu” or “master”. I had a real “sifu” so I don’t agree with the inflation of this valuable title. You can consider me a si-hing, an elder brother who is available to pass you his martial experience.
PS: The playlist of the videos is here. In one of the videos I discuss the Twelve Bridges, I saved the discussion in this article.
PPS: I remain available on my email for any questions and wish you a good training. Here an unlisted video...