edededed wrote:Interesting videos, Hakka styles do seem to retain a southern flavor to them in general.
I guess that there are still many styles that have not been taught to outsiders yet (besides Hakka); I wonder just how much of "outed" styles have really been made available to the public, too!
It is not at all unusual even nowadays for Chinese teachers of these styles to offer generic versions of their style in public classes at a kwoon or the local community center, etc., but reserve the "full meal deal" for indoor Chinese/Hakka students who are taught at the teacher's home or at the kwoon behind locked doors when others are not present. It has typically been rare for non-Chinese students to be included as a regular member of such training sessions in most styles.
The public classes often teach modified or watered down versions of the style's form sets, which are easily identified as such by anyone who received the real deal, and are taught without including the ging-lek methods of coordinated breath control, mental visualization, and so forth, or the foundation concepts and principles that such methods are based upon.
As a result, public class students may learn a bunch of authentic form sets, but not the most advanced versions or the power generation methods which have traditionally accompanied them. Thus, those who learn the "full meal deal", the inner circle, always retain membership in an elite group of practitioners within the school and style, and are usually the only ones who can effectively apply the style to actual fighting.
While this scenario isn't always the case at a commercial school, it has been true historically more often than not among the older generation of Chinese teachers, especially outside of Asia.
Doc
