The Creation of Wing Chun: A Social History of the Southern Chinese Martial Arts by Benjamin N. Judkins and Jon Nielson (review)

Wing Chun, a southern Chinese martial art, is one of the world’s most popular fighting systems. Like many martial arts, its origins are often attributed to wandering Shaolin monks who bestowed their fighting skills on a select few. However, the authors apply their academic and martial arts expertise to contextualize the development and growth of Wing Chun and demonstrate how it is a product of China’s social and political turmoil during the past two hundred years.

The monograph is divided into two parts. The first explores the progress of martial arts in China’s Guangdong province. This takes place during the twilight of the Qing dynasty through the Communist Revolution. The second explains the transplantation and growth of Wing Chun from the mainland to Hong Kong and, from there, throughout the world. Along the way, the authors highlight many of the art’s personalities, especially Ip Man and Bruce Lee.

Judkins and Neilson situate Wing Chun’s roots in the mid-1800s. Many professions adopted fighting systems to deal with these turbulent times, including security forces, police, and military. Others that embraced the arts included triads (organized crime), medical practitioners, opera companies, and labor unions. While most of these vocations benefited from having fighting skins for their work or to perfect healing, the last two are especially fascinating. The opera companies nurtured martial arts for protection and to enhance performances. Workers used martial training to physically break strikes and for security. Workers also trained on temple grounds. These facilities evolved into benevolent and solidarity clubs that provided a modicum of social security for the proletariat.

By the Republican period (1912–49), several of these groups organized into formal athletic clubs that emphasized martial arts in conjunction with cultural activities such as photography, dragon dances, and painting. These organizations incorporated additional fighting concepts including boxing techniques and specific body-striking points. These proved to be noteworthy developments to the Wing Chun style.

The clubs became contested grounds for the Nationalists and Communists and for fighting the Japanese in World War II. Some remained in the hands of trade unions, others specialized in teaching the triads, and still others found their way into the public schools. Ip Man emerged from this latter category, and, when he and his compatriots fled to Hong Kong in the face of communism, they took their martial arts knowledge with them.

This martial arts invasion initially alarmed the British authorities and Hong Kong police, who correlated fighting with the triads. By contrast, there were legitimate dojos in the public schools. The public also consumed martial arts through pulp fiction and the theater. This is the world Ip Man entered, teaching his art to labor unions or in private settings. Along the way, he streamlined the Wing Chun curriculum, dispensing with strength drills and formal wazas in favor of practicality and efficiency. This proved popular and successful with the youth who fought organized challenge matches on Hong Kong’s rooftops or in cellars.

By the 1960s, Hong Kong’s exploding youth population taxed universities’ capacities. Consequently, many of these young fighters, such as Bruce Lee, looked abroad to complete their education and continue their martial training. This led to a Wing Chun diaspora that flourished alongside mass media and a worldwide interest in martial arts.

Academia has often overlooked martial arts as an academic subject. This monograph addresses this absence. It will appeal to martial artists, Asian scholars, and those interested in cultural exchanges and sport studies. It also provides a useful template that demonstrates how other martial arts, beyond Wing Chun, contribute to our understanding of culture and society.