Women In Kung Fu

[grammatoncleric]

I was wondering what female high level Kung Fu practitioners, there are, and have been? The only one I've been exposed to is Wing Chun.

[Antonius]

• Mieu Choi Fa. Fong Sai Yuk's mother.
• Ng Mui (Wu Mei). Yim Wing Chun's teacher.
• Mo Gui Lan. Huang Fei Hong's 4th (?) wife.
• Fang Qinniang. Daughter of Fang Zhonggong. White Crane Kungfu.

There are more, but I can't think of them at the moment.

[Zhang Wuji]

Here's a few more.

Sun Buer, Quanzhen Sect, Song dynasty - Taoist priestess

Sun Jianyun (Bagua zhang) daughter of Sun Lutang - her prowess has however not been tested in combat (Hmmm, 2 "Sun"s - I am beginning to suspect a connection)

Emiko Hsuen

If you are wondering why there appears to be very few Taijiquan lady masters, I can offer a historical theory. Taijiquan was developed and sustained in the Chen village after its inception on Wudang Shan. All other attempts to trace a Taijiquan lineage outside the Chen and Zhaobao villages have fizzled out as there were no fixed loci for Taijiquan after the glorious days of Zhang Sanfeng. Any subsequent transmission was likely to have been one on one, rather than in a systematic manner to a larger group.

The Chen family had a policy of passing on the art only to the sons (as to why - that is a story for another day). This, together with the exclusivity of Taijiquan to Chenjiagou, ensured that very few ladies had the opportunity to learn the art. Even when the art was brought into the open in Beijing, the Manchus were known for their unbelievable chauvinism, and girls from good families just did not do rough martial arts. This explained why the lady masters emerged in the south, which was less coloured by the culture of the oppressors in the north, not to mention the fact that these masters were revolutionary Shaolin masters who learnt the fighting arts for the definite purpose of overthrowing the hated Qing government.

[grammatoncleric]

Thank you for the replies Zhang Wuji and Sipak Anthony. It seems to me from my experience it's usually men who are interested in fighting (to paraphrase the movie Dragon). In the kung fu course I attend it was definately more men than women but in the Chi Kung Course there seemed an even mix.

[yeniseri]

There have been a few but they are not too well profiled.
- Bow Sim Mark (her son is Donnie Yen)
- Grace Wu (Wang Zipeng's grandaughter?)
- The many teachers of wushu who are well known. Even I do not recall names but they are out there.

[Sifu Stier]

Other notable women Masters alive today include:

Grand Master Madame Wang Ju-Rong...only child of famed 20th Century Shaolin Grand Master Wang Shu-Ping...who with her husband, Grand Master Dr. Wu Cheng-De, who was her father's top student...have both been leading figures in promoting the Chinese Martial Arts and Competitions in North America. She does a stellar performance of her father's famous Sword Form...even as a Senior Citizen!

Grand Master Gini Lau and Grand Master Lilly Lau...daughters of the famous Eagle Claw System (Ying-Jow Pai) Grand Master Lau Fat-Man...either of whom are capable of quickly dispelling any belief that women can't engage in 'kung-fu fighting'!

Tai-Chi Chuan Grand Master Yu Wen-Mei...whose Push Hands Skills and incredible Internal Power have to be felt to be believed. Simply amazing!

Master Grace Wu and Master Helen Wu...daughters of Master Wang Ju-Rong and Master Wu Cheng-De...and grandchildren of Wang Shu-Ping Sifu...both of whom are a pleasure to see perform!

Master Connie Mark...daughter of Grand Master Mark Gin-Foon of Southern Praying Mantis fame (Kwong-Sai-Jook-Lum-Gee-Tong-Long-Pai). She was for many years time the only female practitioner in a tough and aggressive group of men who trained with her father. She learned to be the same when necessary!

Among the younger generation: Patty Sun... a top student of Chin Woo and Tai-Chi Master Jimmy Wong and Tiffany Chen...daughter of Tai-Chi Chuan Grand Master William C.C. Chen......and others too numerous to mention...carry the Arts on into the 21st Century.

All of these women...without a single exception...are beautiful and feminine women who would likely be a muggers worst nightmare come true and the bearer of instant karma realized too late!

My apologies to any of the notable kung-fu women whose names were not specifically mentioned here...but deserved to be. Greetings and Salutations to one and all! You each have my continuing admiration and respect!

[Ovidius]

Grandmaster Wang Xiangzhai's daughter Wang Yufang.

[Antonius]

Master Grace Wu and Master Helen Wu...daughters of Master Wang Ju-Rong and Master Wu Cheng-De...and grandchildren of Wang Shu-Ping Sifu...both of whom are a pleasure to see perform!

I thought I would mention that my classmate Emiko Hsuen learned from Sifu Helen Wu for several years.

[PM]

Petra Hovorkova, my girflriend, Lam Ga Hung Kyun :-)

[Maxime]

I would like to add:

Grandmaster Lei Choi Ping (end of 18th/ begining of 19th century), member of the Shaolin Ten Best, disciple of Venerable Grandmaster Gee Sin Sim See. She was taught the Eagle Claw.

[Zhang Wuji]

I would like to add a little comment about women in kungfu.

Having trained with some women in both the hard styles of Karate and now in the internal arts, I now believe that women have a supreme advantage in arts like internal Shaolinquan and Taijiquan.

When I began the next phase of my Taiji qigong and zhan zhuang, most of the men in my class were grimacing with pain and discomfort with some of the postures. Yet, the women had absolutely no problems. I managed quite well because I was smiling from the heart, but I could have been like any other guy but for the qigong I learnt from Sifu.

The instructor explained that women have an innate advantage because they do not have habitual aggression coupled with tension in their muscles. Though more emotional, women tend to be more balanced internally. Of course, I am speaking of feminine women. I rather suspect hard-drinking, swearing smokers would have even more problems that the average male because they have forsaken their gentler yin side. I saw one woman like that in my karate class and she was a very unhappy person, taking it out on junior students.

More than one Taijiquan instructor has remarked to me that it is easier to teach a novice who is used to being supple and soft (rou) than a martial arts expert used to the external styles. Even for fajing, it may be easier to train a woman to do so because it is then only a question of accumulating enough internal force, whereas for a male, it may be necessary to reduce the accumulated muscular tension first.

[shadow sword]

True, also, in Wing Chun Kung Fu, women can do it more easily than men because you do not use shoulder strength, it is all the forearms and elbow mechanics...Also, I guess they get an advantage since a shoalin nun named Ng Mouy (I can not remember how to spell it, it will come, lol) invented the style...

[chiron]

womb power!!

[Crosshands]

I thought I'd add Wu Jianquan's daughter the late great Wu Ying Hua.

[cosmicdragon108]

Origins of Chuka Shaolin

On the topic of famous female practitioners I am reminded of the story of Chuka Shaolin. Its most famous school located in George Town on the isle of Penang, near Kek Lok Si temple.

This information I borrow from the book 'Phoenix Eye Fist, Shaolin Arts of Shouth China' Published by Weatherhill and written by Master Cheong Cheng Leong and Donn F. Draeger and is available on Amazon.com.

I submit this with deep respect to Master Leong and the Chuka Shaolin tradition.

I hope you find this an interesting academic study on Shaolin History and its alternate path to Malaysia from our own Shaolin Wah Nam tradition.

'Tradition has it that Leow Fah Shih Koo, a Buddhist nun, was a combative arts expert who resided at the Fukien Shaolin Temple in the late eighteenth century. Because of the troubled times and the relentless presure of the imperial goverment's surveilance of the temple, Leow left the temple in search of more peaceful surroundings and made for the hillside cave in Kwangtung province her home. This cave was later named Pai-hao Toong (White Crane Cave) in her honor, and from this name we may deduce that she was expert in pai-hao(White Crane), a style of Shaolin.

Leow was also an herbalist. She frequently descended into the nearby village to sell medicines she had compounded in her lonely cave retreat. On one occassion, while she was near the village grainery, she heard the crying of small children. Upon searching the grainery she found two small girls sobbing. The badly frightened children told Leow that they were sisters whose wealthy parents had been killed by bandits while robbing their home. The sisters identified themselves as Chu Meow Eng and Chu Meow Luan and said that they were hiding from the bandits.

The Chu sisters were happy to follow Leow back to her cave home, where the compassionate nun cared for them as if they were her own children. In time the two sisters showed great promise in the art of Shaolin that Leow taught them. They also learned to assist Leow in the selection and preparation of herbs for compounding medicines. As the sisters matured, Leow encouraged them to study the fighting actions of various animals and insects, and to incorporate many such movements into their already high level of skill in shaolin. Accordingly, Meow Eng and Meow Luan adapted the fighting movements of the praying mantis, the tiger, the monkey, the snake and other creatures, melding these to the methods they had learned from Leow. Leow formally named the sisters' synthesized style of combat 'Chuka Shaolin'; chu deriving from the surename of the sisters and ka meaning 'family' The name translates to 'Chu-family Shaolin' Her deep sence of humility caused Leow to avoid the use of her own name in naming the fighting-art sythesis of the two sisters; but in deference to the Shaolin Temple at Fukien, where she had originally trained, she insisted that the new art be identified as a form of shaolin. Thus, though there was a great number of shaolin styles at the Fukien Shaolin Temple, Chuka developed independently of these and takes its rightful place as a legitimate shaolin form of combat.

Leow had a profound effect on the two Chu sisters. She taught them that their shaolin art was to be preserved in unchanged form for posterity, but that it must be taught only to worthy persons. She warned against 'two legged tigers,' meaning faithless people who might seek to learn the Chuka art for illicit and selfish reasons.

After Leow's death the two sisters dedicated their lives to the teaching of the Chuka system, always bearing in mind the kindness of their benifactor and the glorious reputation of the Shaolin Temples, and maintaining a buring desire to avenge their parents. The sisters made the White Crane Cave their base of operations.

One day when the Chu sisters were in the village in the valley below their cave, they happened to pass a group of boys fighting in a rice field, tossing mud at each other. A badly directed clump of mud struck one of the sisters, and all the boys but one fled. The frail and frightened youth who had remained behind wept as he admitted to the sisters that it was he who had thrown the mud that had struck on of them. He insisted that he had not intended to hit either of them but was simply frantically slinging mud in all directions to prevent the other boys from bullying as was their daily custom.

The boy's name was Ooh Ping Kwang. He was an orphan who tended the cows and did other chores on his uncle's farm in exchange for his keep. The frail boy impressed the sisters with his honesty and good behavior that they approached his uncle and asked permission to look after the boy. The uncle was sympathetic. He granted the sisters' request on the condition that they teach the boy shaolin. After all, the uncle reasoned, would the boy's future not be safer if he was skilled in combat? Little Ooh was only nine years old when he followed the Chu sisters to their cave on the hill.

Ooh grew to manhood and continued to serve the Chu sisters with great dedication. His skill in Chuka Shaolin was of the hightest order, and he also became an outstanding herbalist. On the death of the second of the sisters Ooh, now almost forty years old, descended from his cave home and settled in the village where he married a local girl. He set about imparting his knowledge of shaolin and herbs to his relatives and trusted friends, never forgetting the memory of the Chu sisters and their strict teachings.

Lee Siong Pheow (1886-1960) was one of Ooh's best disciples. He was trained in a more rigorous manner than any other of Masters Ooh's disciples, serving a long apprenticeship. Lee worked hard during the day, fully occupied with domestic chores in his master's household. Every evening and early each morning Master Ooh dircted Lee's shaolin training. Lee was required to undergo unremitting practice of various stances and postures, an enervating and boring kind of training. But he persevered. His only problem was his temper. While he willingly accepted the hard work and the beatings administered by his master and whatever harsh punishment the master might decree to correct mistakes made in training, Lee could not accept domination by others.

Master Ooh's son found no protections from Lee's skill in shaolin in the fact that his father was Lee's master. Lee regularly administered a severe beating to his master's son, defeating him soundly in sparring practice, and on one occasion severely injured him. For this misdeed Master Ooh meted out drastic punishment. Using a long hardwood staff, the master so fiercely struck Lee's fist and foot that the blows crippled Lee for the rest of his life. While such a lesson would surely have discouraged a lesser man, it only served to make Lee realize that his skill was not yet perfect. He had to train evern harder than in the past. Lee's assiduous efforts finally brought him to the highest level of Chuka Shaolin excellence, and no local fighter could best him.

In 1930 Lee emigrated to Malaysia (then Malaya). He settled in the Ayer Itam quarter of Penang, where he earned his living as an herbalist and traditional physician. He followed the strict traditional policies of his Chuka prediecessors, especially the rule of choosing students for shaolin study very carefully. He required each candidate for study to accept certain conditions. The candidate was to kneel before him holding a cup of Chinese tea in one hand and a small red envelope containing money in the other. By this method Lee tested the candidtates's humility and sincerity. Many refused to kneel before him, instead offering surly challenges to test his skill against theirs. Lee always obliged, meeting out severe beatings in exchange for such rash challenges; he was never known to be bested. After being defeated, some of these stubborn challengers willingly became his students, bringing their red envelopes fully packed with money.

Cheong Cheng Leong, a native-born Chinese Malaysian boy, knelt before Master Lee and indicated that he wished to begin the study of Chuka Shaolin at the age of ten. Young Cheong had learned of the simplicity and deadly effectiveness of the Chuka art, which the villagers said was due to use of the secret "phoenix-eye fist." A shaolin expert using this fist in a certain way could kill or maim a person with one blow. Cheong was captivated by the idea of acquiring such power, and it was this that brought him to kneel before Master Lee. Cheong cherished the normal boyish desire to become a strong and skillful fighter, for among boys his age in Ayer Itam the ability to fight and prevail against bullies increased one's standing.

But young Cheong knew better than to tell Master Lee that he wanted to learn shaolin in order to become a good fighter. He had been told that others who had expressed such a reason for study had been rejected by Master Lee. "Why do you wish to learn Chuka Shaolin?" asked the master. Cheong had no honest answer and remained silent. Master Lee broke the embarrassing silence, saying, "Good, no fighting," and accepted Cheong as one of his disciples. His master's trust in him inspired Cheong to appriciate the ethical concept of Chuka Shaolin that stressed the avoidance of personal conflicts.

Leong trained daily for ten years, practicing basic skills. Always he was guided by his masters principles: (1) do not create or seek trouble, (2) do not teach people of unproven character what you have learned, and (3) always be humble and respectful to others. A breach of any of these principles, Cheong knew, would mean his expulsion from Chuka Shaolin; and Master Lee never gave an offender a second chance.

In spite of Master Lee's insistance on avoiding trouble, he was not the man to turn away slighting comments about his Chuka art. On one occasion, after a junior complained to Cheong that a group of boys had chided him about the Chuka art being a poor method of combat. Cheong reported this to Master Lee. The master's reaction greatly pleased Cheong: "You Cheong," said Master Lee, "go out and show them some color[teach them a lesson]." Cheong, accompanied by the junior who had been offended and one of Lee's most skillful assistant instructors, made his way towards the place where the group of hecklers habitually gathered. On seeing the small but determined group of Chuka exponents approaching, the hecklers disbanded and hurriedly disappeared, never again to bother Chuka exponents.

Master Lee continued to teach selected students his shaolin art until his death. He placed no emphasis on gathering great numbers of disciples but chose rather to put quality before quantity. From among his disciples there has developed a solid core of Chuka experts in Malaysia.

Master Lee's death brought Cheong to the position of master-teacher and chief authority in Malaysia for Chuka Shaolin. Cheong's position is recognized by Master Lee's widow, herself a hebalist. While maintaining the strict policies of his Chuka predecessors, Master Cheong Cheng Leong is also concerned for the future of the Chuka art. More than twenty-five years of experience in his art have taught him that training in fundamentals is the only correct approach to mastery of the art. Master Cheong chooses only those of sound character for the study of Chuka Shaolin; beyond that, he looks for people who display initiative in training. A high degree of moral courage is required in one who hopes to excel in this art, for there is, unavoidably, a considerable period during which the trainee must face the rigors and adversities of repetitive and tiresome drills.