By
Richard Loewenhagen

Ving Tsun Museum Curator, Benny Meng, recently participated in two historic events honoring the heritage of Wing Chun Kung Fu - a fluid, efficient fighting system brought to world-wide attention by a famous Wing Chun Kung Fu student, the late Bruce Lee. The first event was a commemorative ceremony to open a tong in honor of the 20th Century's most famous Wing Chun teacher, late Grand Master Ip Man. The ceremonies were held November 8 - November 10, beginning in Shunde, China (where Ip Man's own teacher once lived) and concluding in Foshan, China (Ip Man's own ancestral home). The Ip Man Tong is located in the heart of Foshan's famous Jou Miu (Ancestral Park) along with museums and places of remembrance for other great Kung Fu masters of the past. Over 1200 teachers and Wing Chun practitioners from around the world assembled for the actual ribbon cutting and dedication ceremony on November 9, 2002 making this event the largest martial arts assembly of its kind in the history of Foshan.

Following VIP speeches and a ribbon cutting led by Ip Man's sons, Ip Chun and Ip Ching, participants were escorted on a tour of the tong. The tour begins in a main room filled with historical photos of Ip Man and his students. Another room graphically displays the hundreds of Ip Man affiliated schools around the world. A third room, referred to as the Wooden Dummy Hall, showcases photos of the late Grand Master performing on the wooden dummy. Also on display is a video of Ip Man demonstrating the dummy form. Directly in front of the video screen is a wooden dummy positioned to allow visitors to mimic the movements of the Grand Master. Yet another room houses personal artifacts of Ip Man, including his own wooden dummy, his Bot Jom Doa (swords), and his Kwan (pole). The last room is called the autograph room. It is a place for all visitors to sign their names for history's sake.

Adjacent to the Ip Man Tong (also in Ancestor's Park) is the Wong Fai-Hung Memorial. Wong Fai-Hung was renowned as the world's most famous leader of Hung Ga Kung Fu. The memorial is quite famous throughout the Kung Fu world. The placement of the Ip Man Tong adjacent to it clearly reflects the respect the citizens of Foshan have for their native son, Ip Man. Following the Ip Man Tong dedication ceremony, participants took the opportunity to tour the Wong Fai-Hung memorial as well.

Curator Benny Meng remained in Foshan two additional days for additional research and to concur with other historians on Wing Chun's ancestors and true historical roots. Wherein Wing Chun's public era began in Foshan, China where it was performed on the Red Boat Opera stage, it's true beginnings were in the Southern Shaolin Temple at Putian in the Province of Fukien nearly two centuries earlier. The Chinese Government's recent reconstruction and opening of the Southern Shaolin Temple at Putian represents the second event honoring Wing Chun's historic roots.

Meng' schedule included meetings with the Abbot of the Southern Shaolin Temple on the 13th of November and discussions with the temple staff and their Shaolin Development Committee on the history of Southern Shaolin Kung Fu. The day began with a journey up the mountain to the Southern Shaolin Temple, which sits on the mountain's crest. From the bottom, the temple is virtually invisible. From the top, a major portion of the entire province is visible. Looking out from the temple, it is easy to reflect on the temple's role in the decades long revolution against the invading Ching Dynasty from Manchuria in the mid-17th Century. From a military perspective, it was the perfect environment for a secret society base of operations. Indeed, that is exactly how the Southern Shaolin Temple functioned during the 17th century - a fact reported repeatedly by the Ving Tsun Museum during the past several years midst great criticism by modern romantics wanting to believe a fairy tale about Wing Chun's creation to save a young girl from a village bully. In truth, Wing Chun was created here at the Southern Shaolin Temple as a battlefield fighting system to aid secret societies in their war against the Ching invasion. The Museum's researchers have frequently insisted that Wing Chun's creators formed a secret society headquarters in the Southern Shaolin Temple called the Hung Fa Ting and that Wing Chun was disseminated to combat troops from here under the name Hung Fa Yi Wing Chun.

Now the Chinese Government and its bastion of archeologists and anthropologists have validated the Ving Tsun museum's claims. The temple monk and the Chinese historians claim that during excavation and reconstruction, a single building of the original temple was found left standing. They state this building was called "Hung Fa Ting" and did indeed form a base for rebellious activity throughout the mid-17th Century. As a practitioner and teacher of Wing Chun Kung Fu, Museum Curator Benny Meng found the experience of actually standing in the Hung Fa Ting a bit overwhelming. This was, after all, the birthplace of Wing Chun Kung Fu, and he was most likely the first Wing Chun Master to visit it since the Temple's destruction in the late 17th Century. In honor of the occasion and recognition of the Ving Tsun Museum's role in publicizing the true roots of Wing Chun as a Southern Shaolin system, the temple hosts presented Benny Meng with two artifacts to be taken back to the Ving Tsun Museum housed in Dayton, Oh (USA) - a piece of pottery and a block from the original temple floor. Plans were made by both the temple officials and the museum curator to formally return Wing Chun Kung Fu in its original forms (Chi Sim Weng Chun and Hung Fa Yi Wing Chun) to the temple in the future. As a Wing Chun teacher and practitioner myself, let me be the first of many to congratulate Meng and his research staff on a job truly well done. Many thought bringing Wing Chun's true roots to light to be an impossible task. Meng persisted in looking for Wing Chun's roots via the study of historic artifacts, the ancient systems of Chi Sim Weng Chun and Hung Fa Yi Wing Chun. His persistence paid off for all of us.

Readers wishing to contact Ving Tsun Museum Curator, Benny Meng, may do so by writing or calling the museum at 5715 Brandt Pike, Dayton, OH 45424. Phone: (937) 236-6485 or email: host@vtmuseum.org.