Formosa Neijia wrote:The anti-white stuff at the beginning was unnecessary. I know several white guys and other foreigners that have excellent kungfu and who can fight with it but don't speak a word of Chinese. It can add some understanding but is completely unnecessary. He seems to think being ethnically Chinese is what leads to a deep understanding of kungfu but later contradicts himself by saying a lot of negative things about Chinese kungfu teachers.
Judging from his comments about "kungfu teachers are not honest people" I'm guessing he has discovered a few things about his own style. Half of it is sketchy. None of the hung gar looks like what is practiced in Hong Kong for a reason. Finding out you have been practicing sketchy material even in Taiwan is a real downer, I agree from experience.
Some of the confusion though is related to the long fist forms they do. Long fist is not strong on application, it's mostly exercise. Many of the moves in long fist are deliberately exaggerated to fully develop the body and long fist does it better than nearly anything else. One of my teachers credited his daily long fist practice with his youthfulness, not his neijia. But it is very weak in application, which is why it has been blended with other styles like mantis for so long.
Starting at 11:40 he really had some strong things to say, even calling teachers pathetic, but his points were spot on. Many bad decisions have been made by previous teachers and the situation now may not be reversable. I feel like I'm in the same boat as him. Hope we all find a way forward.
Agree with everything you said except for the part about Long Fist being weak on application.
LF forms have often been adopted by various northern schools as part of the foundation training due to their simplistic nature and extended movements. For those practitioners who have cross-trained in LF in this manner, they are usually unaware of the applications hidden within the forms and simply treat them as basic exercises. But to the small number of practitioners who specialize in LF, such as those from LF grandmaster Han Chin-tang's lineage in Taiwan, it is actually a fully-developed fighting system in its own right.
I used to feel the same way you do about LF until I had the chance to meet with a few of GM Han Chin-tang's grand-students who opened my eyes to a wide range of intricate and effective LF applications. Most of them are grappling techniques similar to those found in Shuaijiao -- as opposed to uselessly exaggerated punches and kicks that they appear to be.