Not sure of the answer. There are some of his students on this board though. They should know something.
From what I have seen in some of the clips out there, is that it resembles the’‘Old Hung Kuen’’ rather than the more familiar ‘‘Canton’’ style that comes from WFH.
I might be totally off the mark but that’s my sort of educated guess.
Hung is wide and broad and is not limited to Huang fei-hung lineage.
Also, it is advisable to never use wiki for any esoteric practices at all as the information will be sketchy one day to the next and to that end is wholly unreliable.
the hung site is ok, but there are a couple of others.
as for Ark Wong.
I’ve only seen a few posthumous videos of him and in each he iterated and reiterated the same set. Which appeared to be southern shaolin in it’s flavour and had a Hung Kuen rythym and structure, but the set itself is not one of the so called pillars and may very well be a regional interpretation of the method.
there are many regional styles that fall under larger banners.
The animal forms are associated with the Hung part of the Five Family Style. The movements of the Tiger-Crane set are very similar to the WFH version but the sequences are different and the stances tend to be medium in height as with the rest of the style.
It would be interesting to know, because huheshuangxingquan (tiger, crane double shape fist), was popularizes in the beginning of the 1920s when Lin, Shirong published his seminal book on this particular lu (way), especially that Wong Shifu was already living in the States.
Wong Shifus taolu (the ones I have glance on youtube) seem to be fojiaquan (Buddha family fist).
Interesting video of A.Y.Wong. I remember it well as I filmed several forms that night.
I have it in my collection as well however mine is not distorted . Actually A.Y.Wong Hung Ga was his own style ,Long wide stances,power punching. His style was unique to him.
Steeve,
To answer your question, His style is just not the main stream of Hung Gar,when he changed over who knows. But you can see the differences is those two video’s you posted.
I never asked him about it. But he new the main stream Hung Ga as he taught me one set only because I kept asking him to teach me. I used the steel rings around my arms, it was strictly for strength training.
Pardon me for asking did your Shifu ever refer to his curriculum as fojiaquan/faht ga kyuhn (Buddha Family Fist)? I ask, because his lu (way/sets) has a great resemblance to sets categorize under this grouping.
Usually, fojiaquan is also referred to as five family fist style.
a common misperception is that all “hung style” / “hung fist” is related to the Wong Fei Hung / Tiger-Crane lineage
There are literally hundreds of different versions of “hung style” almost to the point you begin to think “hung style” was a generic name back in the day
My personal belief is that it indeed was almost “generic” because there are three characters all pronounced “hung” and associated with various martial arts traditions in China. There is of course the family name but there is also “hero” and “red”.
The “red” is particularly interesting if you examine the relationship to secret societies and underground activites. The “Hung Gwun” or “Red Poles” were the enforcers of these groups, their martial arts technical “Hung Gwun Kyuhn Seut / Fat” (Red Pole fist/martial arts techniques)… of course, when appreviated as in standard Chinese practice that phrase becomes “Hung Kyuhn” or “Hung Fist”…
Yes, this fojiaquan I’m referring to. I have had the opportunity have study under Li Shifu, and I also possess a hongjiaquan background; hence, I’m familiar with both styles and also being exposed to Taishanese styles that possess the same cadences, i.e., fojiaquan.
We must take into account that most southern styles possess similar techniques/postures; however, they possess their own individual cadences. For example, if you look at pre-twentieth century styles, i.e., fojiaquan, etc. have a certain staccato footwork, i.e., short rapid footwork. Whereas, twentieth styles, i.e., hongjiaquan, etc. possess more of legato footwork, i.e., long and smooth footwork.
Hong chia is a style of the hung family ....mostly dragon tiger ....from the east south asia (malaysian ,Filipino and so on ) different of the hung ga of HK....or the
modern Wong fei hung
GM Lao Kim of hung chia from the phillipine(Filipino)
Dont forget a lot of filipino influenced Kali ,arnis or eskrima …
Kuntao have influenced the kali and silat…
Here GM Jonny Chiuten a direct student of Lao Kim…and one of the founder of the Lapunti arnis de Abaniko style …Filipino arnis (kali) and the hung chia of GM Lao kim