Bessho,
I cannot find the quote you speak of on the musuem’s website, so, currently, I would not be able to place it in its proper context. Could you email the whole article to me?
If that is all of the quote available publicly, here are my thoughts: My sifu did not speak of a “Ving Tsun Life,” he spoke of a “Kung Fu Life.” What is that? A simple analogy may shed some insight:
Suppose you really like soccer: You play on a team, follow the other teams, practice a lot, meet the other players, talk, exchange ideas, have books and posters, always wear the team jerseys, etc.
If, for no other reason than they are around you a lot, don’t you, at least, try to be cordial, and possibly, helpful to your teammates, your fans, your coaches, and even, the other teams in the league? If the net on the goalpost got shreded in the last storm, doesn’t the group, collectively, try to figure out how to fix it and/or replace it? If the field badly needed mowing and you know someone with a mower, what are you going to do? If you come across one of the opposing team’s coaches at the shopping mall and his car won’t start, are you going to say “see you next game” and leave him stranded there?
Now, when you need your living room sofa moved, who are you going to call? When you take a break, what are you going to talk about? When you’re done, do you think there’s a chance you guys will go outside and kick around a soccer ball?
If you had to call that something, the name “soccer life” is as good as any other.
While it may seem odd to some, experience has shown me that a lot of people, for whatever reason, have a blind spot if you try to explain this in the context of Kung Fu. Maybe it was the culture, but in Hong Kong, my sifu never had to explain the concept to anyone. So, Moy Yat tried to get people to understand in the U.S. by speaking of the “Kung Fu Life.” Still, some people think it’s some mysterious, secret, sacred thing. Actually, it’s just life - one that helps others through hard work. It has nothing to do with fighting, Kung Fu, Confucious, or overthrowing the Manchus.
Regarding whether getting into a fight is a contradiction if you agree with your quote excerpt, the only answer I see is that it it depends why it happened and what brought you there. However, so what if a person got in a fight and they believe, perhaps, they shouldn’t have. People aren’t perfect. With a little luck, that person learned a good lesson from the encounter.
<A HREF=“http://www.moyyat.com” TARGET=_blank>
<img src=“http://www.moyyat.com/images/flower-small.gif” border=0 width=69 height=63 alt=“In Loving Memory”></A>
IXIJoe KaveyIXI
