Like most promotional arms of any business, I see this form as a good move forward for Wing Chun from the Ip Family whether it was for the Chinese Government, Olympics or not. As I said earlier:
I found that Form Competitions are a great learning experience, and I would say, in Ip Families defence, that this ‘little idea’ could be a very good one, taking into consideration Chinas wider goal of promoting balanced Wushu practice.
Wing Chun in the Olympics? Hmmm. Listen, they only came to the oldskool arts because Wushu was seriously lacking in their numbers of Western students in comparison. I don’t believe for a second that Wing Chun would have been approached to actually compete in forms comps with what we already have, as it’s just not spectacular enough for the young, athletic audience. Hence, create a new form or you will not be included!
Even the way a Wushu judge is ‘trained’ does not cater for our way. They do not understand ‘individual interpretation’ and would prefer to judge standardized patterns like the ‘Kata’ of Karate. Even Shaolin has started to walk this path. So, if this was an attempt at a competitive form, it was a truly wasted one as we all know the chances of Wushu being included in the Olympics is nil…
BTW - RGVWingChun: Wing Chuns 4th form was always considered to be a collection of ‘loose hand’ techniques maybe originating from Leung Jan himself and exists today as a ‘Sup Yee Sik’ (12 Set method) most noteably seen in Yuen Kay Sans branch in Foshan. That would make this Comp Form number 8 (?)
I think a lot of folks forget HK reverted to the People’s republic and the influence they have over ALL arts and their development!