Grandmaster Chiu Chi Ling & the Softer Side of Hung Gar

By Sifu Wayne Judge with Cesare Venegoni

Hung Gar Kung Fu has a reputation for being a very hard, forceful style. Primarily know for its famous Fu Hok Cern Ying Kuen (Tiger and Crane Double Pattern Fist) set created by the legendary Wong Fei Hung as well as its rigorous body toughening exercises, this reputation is well earned. However, like most traditional Martial Arts, what it is most famous for has become, in the eyes of most people who are unfamiliar with the nuances of the style, simply all that it is. It's particularly common, here in the West, to hear Hung Gars harder aspects, such as the Tiger and Crane or Gung Gee Fuk Fu Kuen (I Pattern Taming the Tiger Fist) sets held up as proof that Hung Gar is a "hard style", but real Hung Gar is far more than just these two forms, just as Wing Tsun is more than Chi Sau and Taiji is much more than Push Hands. All authentic, traditional styles have a balance of both the hard and soft, the external and internal energies. To attend a school that teaches one aspect and not the other is like purchasing shoes when you have no feet: they are opposite sides of the same coin, which supply the much needed balance within the art. To understand this balance is to understand Kung Fu, and, within the Hung style, the best source for such understanding is unquestionably Grand Master Chiu Chi Ling.

Training with Grandmaster Chiu Chi Ling
Having been training in Martial Arts since 1983 and running a small Kung Fu club in St. Louis, Missouri, I had grown disgusted with the commercialization of Martial Arts in general. The money-hungry nature of many so called "Masters" and Instructors, did not interest me in the slightest, nor did having those in my club pay for their black sashes, and I sure didn't want to train under whoever sold the most books or video. I wanted real knowledge, real Kung Fu that I could both learn and pass on to my students. Being a history buff, I've always had a thirst for researching things thoroughly, and all of my digging into Hung Gar Kuen led me to one conclusion: the truest Hung Gar lies within the Chiu family. With this in mind, I began seeking Grandmaster Chiu Chi Ling. It was 2003 when I first got in touch with him and, after a few phone and email conversations, was invited to come out to his Alameda California school to train. With my family in tow, I drove halfway across the country for what would be a dramatic, life changing experience.

Upon our arrival, we were warmly greeted by Grandmaster Chiu, and I was immediately impressed at how well he carried the poise gained through a lifetime of rigorous training and martial discipline. A direct Hung Gar descendant of the legendary Wong Fei Hung, he has been practicing the Hung style since the age of 6- over 57 years now. He trained under his father, the late Grandmaster Chiu Kau (who was himself a direct disciple of the Great Lam Sai Wing) up until he passed away in 1995 at the age of 100. In addition to carrying on the family tradition of teaching Hung Gar Kuen, Grandmaster Chiu is also a Doctor of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), a special consultant to the Wong Fei Hung Museum in Fashan City (Guangdong Province), and is probably best known as an actor, having starred in over 70 movies along side such superstars as Jackie Chan, Sammo Hung, and, most recently, Stephen Chow in his smash hit "Kung Fu Hustle" (in which he played The Tailor). No other Hung Gar practitioner has done as much to promote our style: this man is a known legend in the world of Kung Fu, and now he's greeting me, a man he's never met in person, as if he's known me my whole life. I felt an immediate connection both to Grandmaster Chiu as a font of knowledge and on a personal level realizing instantly that I had found my master. After some lively conversation over some of San Francisco's finest Dim Sum, we headed back to his home to train. Over the next 5 days, we put in at least 5 hours a day of what I can only describe as an intense, exhausting training regime that taxed me physically, mentally and even spiritually. At the end of my stay in California, I was elated to be accepted into Grandmaster Chiu Chi Ling's Hung Gar family, as it is an honor to be associated with the closest thing anyone of our generation will come to learning from Wong Fei Hung or Lam Sai Wing themselves.
Having returned and trained further with Grandmaster Chiu since then, I've realized that there was a lack of the softer side in the Kung Fu that I'd been training. Since those first fateful visits, I have been diligently working to convert my previous years of Kung Fu training over to his powerful, balanced, authentic Hung Gar Kuen. When Grandmaster Chiu chose to include St. Louis into his 2005 seminar schedule, my students and I were honored to receive him, and were greatly anticipating his lesson. People attended not only from St. Louis and Illinois, but from as far away as Arizona and California, with skill levels present from those with a week of practice to those with several years experience. Everyone had different ideas as to what to expect, but no one present was ready for the Kung Fu bombshell that Grandmaster Chiu dropped on us.

Hung Gar is SOFT!?!
There is a popular saying within the Hung style that says "Hard as iron, soft as silk". As Hung Gar practitioners, we hear this all through our training, but never really stop to ask ourselves "am I focusing at all on the soft side?" Now make no mistake, that "hard" reputation of Hung Gar Kuen is indeed well earned, but what Grandmaster Chiu chose to focus his seminar on was the applications of Hung Gar's soft techniques, as well as the power and effectiveness soft techniques can lend to harder ones.
The students who attended the seminar were not sure what to make of it when Grandmaster Chiu started them in a Ma Bo (Horse Stance) doing wrist flicking exercises that utilize Fa Jing (Explosive Energy). Several faces around the very full hall were showing signs of confusion: "is this Hung Gar?" was a thought more than one student admitted having. But Master Chiu brought everyone back into focus, and set their minds at ease. "Think of your arm like a whip" he said, "very loose and snap at the end, all the control is in the wrist." As the class progressed, similar soft movements were practiced, always emphasizing the wrists as a focal point, and eventually extending this hand and arm movement into the shoulders, hips, footwork, and Qi (Internal Energy). Grandmaster Chiu showed, with devastating effectiveness, how well such softer movements worked against opponents. As the day's training progressed, movements that were fluid and soft on their own were transformed from graceful, aesthetic movement into various Chin Na (Joint Locks) and strikes which would put would-be attackers either on the ground or sent away with brutal reversals of force. Grandmaster Chiu taught how, within the soft techniques of the Hung style, as well as with its more known hard movements, the concept of strategy of balance is stressed: if one hand moves up, the other goes down; if one hand moves forward, the other moves back. As Grandmaster Chiu Chi Ling said in training: "Balance is very important, balance and rooting in your stance. Balance in mind, body, and spirit, balance in the movement of your hands." Sound a bit like the better known concepts within Taiji? Many of the students at the seminar, some with years of experience in Taiji Guan, agree. Slowly, as these soft techniques and principles were demonstrated within the context of the traditional Hung Gar Forms of I Pattern Taming the Tiger Fist, the realization was made that this was simply a more advanced use of the internal aspects naturally found within the Hung style, began to sink in.
Overall, students were swept up instantly by the Grandmasters charm and sense of humor. Though the seminar was packed, he made sure to spend time with every individual student. Besides the primary topic, attendees were treated to a display of Grandmaster Chiu's amazing Lion Dance drumming skills, following which he gave the Lion Dance team some instruction. When all was said and done, everyone left the seminar with a richer, deeper understanding to the intricacies of the Hung Gar style and the importance of balance.
To put it simply and succinctly, Kung Fu, any traditional style, not just Hung Gar, is, as Grandmaster Chiu stated, "all about balance." If you practice a so called hard or external style, is there any emphasis other than that aspect? Are those of us studying soft, internal styles doing any work with the harder, external applications? If not, then how can there be balance? To full understand our chosen styles, we must first accept and seek out balance, not only in our training but also in our lives, and within ourselves. Such simple yet undeniable wisdom can be found in the teachings of true Masters such as Grandmaster Chiu Chi Ling. Now, when someone finds out I am a Hung stylist and says, "Oh that's Tiger Crane stuff, really tough and hard," I can truthfully reply: "Hung Gar is hard as iron and as soft as silk."

About the Author
Sifu Wayne Judge is a student of Grandmaster Chiu Chi Ling and the owner/chief instructor of Iron Dragon Hung Kuen in St. Louis, Mo. He can be contacted through his school's website: www.irondragonhungkuen.com. He was assisted by his student Cesare Venegoni.