What's Wing Chun?

Unlike other martial arts, Wing Chun has unique origins as it said that over 300 years ago, the techniques were first taught to a young woman by the name of Yim Wing Chun whom the style is named after, by a highly-skilled Shaolin temple Abbess named Ng Mui. At the time, China was a turbulent land ruled by the repressive Ching Dynasty. The ruling class were the Manchus and the people they lorded over were called the Hons.

The Manchus placed a great amount of unjust law on the Hons. The female Hon infants were made to bind their feet so that when they grew up they would be dependent upon their parents or husband. The work opportunities for the Hons were also restricted. They were unable to hold office in Government higher than a certain level. Heavy taxes were placed on the country so that the Manchus could have economic control of the Hon people. Martial art training was also banned for the Hons, however the Manchu Government had a sympathetic view towards the Shil Llim Temple as a Buddhist sanctuary and thus respected its ways.

When all weapons were outlawed by the Manchus, the Hons began training a revolutionary army in the secret art of Kung Fu. The Shil Lim Temple became the secret sanctuary for preparatory trainings of a classic style which took 15 to 20 years for each person to master. This became problematic as this training time was simply too long.

To develop a new form, one which would have shorter training time, five of China's grandmasters met to discuss the merits of each of the various forms of Kung Fu. By choosing the most efficient techniques from each style, they developed training programs that would develop an efficient martial artist in 5 to 7 years, one third the original time. However before this new form could be put into practice, the Shil Lim Temple was raided and burned to the ground by the Manchus.

The Abbess Ng Mui, managed to survive the raid and thus she lived to teach the style to Wing Chun whom in time passed it on to her husband who then taught others.  Wing Chun thus began to be taught throughout the years to carefully selected students. 

Wing Chun became more well known when a man by the name of Yip Man in the 1950's moved to Hong Kong from mainland China and started teaching it to those whom wanted to learn. It's from there that Wing Chun spread across the world and into Australia.