Hung Gar

The dissemination of Hung Kuen

The dissemination of Hung Kuen in Southern China, and its Guangdong and Fujian Provinces in particular, is due to the concentration of anti-Qing activity there.

Related Topics:
Guangdong - Fujian

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The Hung Mun began life in the 1760s as the Heaven and Earth Society, whose founders came from the prefecture of Zhangzhou in Fujian Province, on its border with Guangdong, where one of its founders organized a precursor to the Heaven and Earth Society in Huizhou.

Related Topics:
Hung Mun - 1760s - Prefecture - Zhangzhou - Huizhou

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Guangdong and Fujian remained a stronghold of sympathizers and recruits for the Hung Mun even as it spread elsewhere in the decades that followed.

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Though the members of the Hung Clan almost certainly practiced a variety of martial arts styles, the composition of its membership meant that it was the characteristics of Fujianese and Cantonese martial arts that came to be associated with the names "Hung Kuen" and "Hung Gar."

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Regardless of their differences, the Hung Kuen lineages of Wong Fei-Hung, Yuen Yik-Kai, Leung Wah-Chew, and Zhang Ke-Zhi (???) nonetheless all trace their origins to this area and this time period, are all Five Animal styles, and all claim Shaolin origins.

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Northern Hung Kuen (??), by contrast, is not a Five Animal style, dates to the 13th century, and claims to come unequivocally from the Shaolin Temple in Henan.

Related Topics:
13th century - Shaolin Temple - Henan

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(The oral histories of Southern styles that claim to come from Shaolin can be unclear with regard to whether they are referring to the original temple in Henan or to a supposed southern temple.)

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Cantonese and Fujianese are also predominant among Overseas Chinese, accounting for the widespread dissemination of Hung Kuen outside of China.

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With the exception of Frank Yee (???; Yee Chi-Wai) of the Tang Fong branch in New York City, the foremost teachers of Hung Gar in the United States belong to the Lam Sai-Wing branch. Most lineages spreading from Lam Cho, the nephew of Lam Sai Wing.

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