Choy Li Fut vs. Hung Gar
Quick answer
Choy Li Fut was founded in 1836 by Chan Heung, and its descriptions list Hung Gar among its parent styles. Hung Gar has a documented lineage from Wong Kei-ying and Wong Fei-hung and a founder only in legend. The stance height is similar, but Choy Li Fut turns the torso at an angle and rests on 49 routines, while Hung Gar rests on the horse stance and four main routines. We found competition rules with an organization and a version year for neither.
At a glance
| Choy Li Fut | Hung Gar | |
|---|---|---|
| Country of origin | China | China |
| Origin | 1836 | 19th century (present form) |
| Founder | Chan Heung | Hong Xiguan (by tradition) |
| Contact | – | Light contact |
| Sparring | – | Partner drills only |
| Olympic status | Not Olympic | Not Olympic |
| Rank recognition | fragmented | fragmented |
| Weapons | Weapons optional | Weapons optional |
| Forms | Forms at the core | Forms at the core |
| Relative cost | unknown | low |
| Katas and forms in the encyclopedia | – | 2 |
| Techniques in the encyclopedia | 2 | 1 |
Scales 1–5
Rated for the typical training of an adult beginner in an ordinary club, calibrated across all arts.
What each art is built from
Editorial rating 0–3: how much room each area gets in ordinary training.
History and relationship
Both Choy Li Fut and Hung Gar are southern Chinese styles from Guangdong. Choy Li Fut has a documented founder: Chan Heung (1806–1875) from the village of King Mui (Jingmei) in Xinhui formally founded the style in 1836. For Hung Gar, the historian Mak Ging-sang names no one as founder, and the documented lineage begins with Wong Kei-ying in the 19th century.
Descriptions of Choy Li Fut list Hung Gar among its parent styles, and according to tradition about the monk Jee Sin the two share a Shaolin root. Whether the uncle Chan Yuen-wu taught Chan Heung Fut Gar or Hung Kuen, the same sources state differently in different places. Descriptions of Hung Gar do not name Choy Li Fut.
- Until 1834: Chan Heung studies with his uncle Chan Yuen-wu, for four years with Li Yau-san (Li Gar) and for about nine years with the monk Choy Fook (Choy Gar).
- 1835–1836: a verse with advice from Choy Fook, then the founding of a style named after the teachers.
- 1848 and 1867: eighteen first students begin teaching across southern China, and Chan Heung reopens the school in King Mui.
- Hung Gar in the 19th century: Wong Kei-ying, his son Wong Fei-hung (1847–1925, Chinese sources give the year of death as 1924) and the student Lam Sai-wing.
- Formal teaching of Hung Gar began, according to sources, somewhat earlier than the teaching of Choy Li Fut.
Technique
- Long and short strikes, kicks, sweeps, throws and joint locks.
- The gua, shao and cha strikes: a chopping, a sweeping and a stabbing strike.
- Ten hand and six foot elements.
- A wide low stance, the torso turned at an angle to the opponent.
- A low stable stance with emphasis on the horse stance.
- The torso held square to the opponent.
- The bridge hand and the tiger claw.
- Tiger and crane as the symbol of the style, hence the name Fu Hok Kuen.
The two styles are similar in stance height and differ in the turn of the torso. According to Chinese sources, Choy Li Fut combines the Buddhist palm, the short hand and foot techniques of Choy Gar and the long strikes of Li Gar. Hung Gar joins a block with a counterstrike in one movement.
Training
| Choy Li Fut | Hung Gar | |
|---|---|---|
| Start of instruction | the basic routines Ng Lun Ma and Ng Lun Chui | months to three years of stances |
| Barehanded routines | 49 in three levels: 10, 10 and 29 | four main ones in the Wong Fei-hung branch |
| Partner work | dozens of paired routines, san shou as routines simulating a fight | Lam Ka Hung Kuen school: paired routines from level 1B |
| Breath and tension | we found none | Iron Wire: hei gung breathing with isometrics |
| Sparring | we found none | we found none |
San shou in Choy Li Fut is practiced as pre-designed routines and is not sparring. Whether the paired routines of Lam Ka Hung Kuen are done with resistance, the school does not state.
Progression and ranks
| Choy Li Fut | Hung Gar | |
|---|---|---|
| Grades | just at individual schools: Chan Family gives Hung Sing Gwoon and Wing Sing Tong grades, other schools according to it colored belts | just at individual schools: Yee’s Hung Ga 7 sashes, Lam Ka Hung Kuen 6 student grades in shirt and belt color |
| Division of content | beginner, intermediate and advanced sets, instruction in two phases of three levels each | stances, sets one at a time, weapons last |
| Pace | we have not been able to document it | roughly a year per set |
| Weapons | over 60 weapon sets | the selection differs considerably by branch |
Neither style has a scale valid for all branches, and the grades of both are described by the schools themselves, each differently.
Who it suits
| Choy Li Fut | Hung Gar | |
|---|---|---|
| Women in the lineage | we have not been able to document it | Mok Kwai-lan, wife of Wong Fei-hung, taught in 1944–1969 as an assistant to Dang Fong |
| Well-known practitioners | Lau Bun, founder of the first Hung Sing school in America (1935) | Chi Kuan-chun, Gordon Liu |
| Moving between styles | Tam Sam learned Choy Li Fut and founded the Buk Sing branch | Tam Sam was originally a Hung Gar master |
Children
| Choy Li Fut | Hung Gar | |
|---|---|---|
| Children’s programs | just at schools: Chan Family in Sydney lists children’s courses, sparring for adults only, Lee Koon Hung a children’s program | we have not found any |
| Minimum age | the Chan Family school in Sydney: 7 years, by arrangement 6 years | we have not found it |
| Studies and statements of doctors | we have not been able to document them | we have not been able to document them |
Self-defence
- The technical inventory includes strikes, kicks, throws, joint locks and attacks on pressure points.
- San shou are routines simulating a fight, not free fighting.
- We found no training against full resistance.
- The style aims to seriously injure the opponent or to cause pain that weakens his response.
- Paired routines of Lam Ka Hung Kuen, the school does not state the degree of resistance.
- We found no training against full resistance.
How either style trains against an opponent who defends himself, sources do not describe.
Practical use
| Choy Li Fut | Hung Gar | |
|---|---|---|
| Study with figures | Cortell-Tormo et al. (Archives of Budo 2017): 10 men, during set training a significant rise in heart rate, lactate and creatine kinase, the abstract gives no means | we have not found any |
| Seniors, balance | we have not been able to document it | we have not been able to document it |
| Professional use | we have not been able to document it | we have not been able to document it |
For Choy Li Fut there is just a small study of the acute response to a single training session, which did not measure long-term effect. For Hung Gar we have not found a study with figures, so no general conclusion about suitability can be drawn.
Competition
| Choy Li Fut | Hung Gar | |
|---|---|---|
| Competition rules | we found none with an organization and a version year | we found none with an organization and a version year |
| Free fighting | we found no results | historian Mak Ging-sang: the fighting function was taken over by sanda and MMA |
| Classification | national intangible heritage list of the PRC, category traditional sport, games and acrobatics | among sports since the era of the Republic of China and the founding of the Jingwu association |
Gear and costs
| Choy Li Fut | Hung Gar | |
|---|---|---|
| Clothing and protective gear | we found none prescribed | we found none prescribed |
| Training aids | 18 stations, among them wooden dummies, a sandbag and a horse stand | for Iron Wire sometimes iron rings on the wrists |
| Weapons | originally 40, later more, the “king” of weapons is considered to be the nine-dragon trident attributed to Chan Heung | the Fifth Brother Eight Trigram Pole, butterfly swords, guandao, fork |
| Relative cost | not determined | low |
Availability and organisations
| Choy Li Fut | Hung Gar | |
|---|---|---|
| Branches | King Mui, Hung Sing in Foshan (1848), Fut San Hung Sing (1851), Sei Yup Hung Sing (1898), Buk Sing | Tang Fung, Lam, Chiu and Lau, all from Wong Fei-hung |
| Spread | Lau Bun: the first Hung Sing school in America (1935), Kwan Man-keng: Singapore (1965) | Lam Sai-wing taught in Hong Kong from 1928 |
| Recognition of grades | we found no common scale | we found no common scale |
The Buk Sing branch adopted northern footwork after the exchanges of Tam Sam with the North Shaolin master Gu Ruzhang, who taught in Guangzhou from 1929.
Switching and combining
- The stance height remains similar.
- Stop turning the torso and hold it square to the opponent.
- Instead of 49 routines in three levels, four main routines, roughly a year for each.
- Add breath work with tension in Iron Wire.
- The stance height remains similar.
- Turn the torso at an angle to the opponent.
- Add the gua, shao and cha strikes and the long strikes.
- Begin with the routines Ng Lun Ma and Ng Lun Chui and work at the stations.
On the left the move from Choy Li Fut to Hung Gar, on the right the reverse. The turn of the torso is a difference that sources explicitly point out.
Philosophy
- The name is a tribute to the teachers, not to a founder, and the national list of the PRC links it to the saying about remembering the source when drinking water.
- Besides fighting, Choy Fook taught Chan Heung Chinese medicine and Buddhism.
- The founding of the style was preceded by a verse with advice that Chan Heung received from Choy Fook in 1835.
- According to legend the tiger comes from Jee Sin and the crane from Fong Wing-chun, wife of Hung Hei-gun.
- Lam Sai-wing supplemented the five animal routine with five elements: earth, water, fire, metal and wood.
- According to tradition Hung Hei-gun took the name Hung in honor of the first Ming emperor.
Forms and terminology
Forms are the foundation of both arts. Choy Li Fut has 49 barehanded routines, 10 beginner, 10 intermediate and 29 advanced, over 60 weapon routines and dozens of paired routines. It begins with the routines Ng Lun Ma and Ng Lun Chui.
Hung Gar in the Wong Fei-hung branch rests on four main routines: Taming the Tiger, Tiger Crane Paired Form, Five Animal (Five Element) Fist and Iron Wire Fist. Lam Sai-wing wrote three books about them with his student Chu Yu-zai.
Training culture
- National intangible heritage list of the PRC since 2008, item 808, on the nomination of Xinhui in Jiangmen.
- The study by Jiang and Huang (2024) describes a decline in practitioners and successors, and the authors point out the small sample.
- Lion dance: Kwan Man-keng founded a lion dance society of the Hung Sing branch in Singapore in 1965.
- The Hong Kong intangible heritage list, we did not find the year of inscription.
- Wong Fei-hung is the hero of over 100 films and series made since 1949, and Kwan Tak-hing portrayed him in more than 70 of them.
- Jet Li played Wong Fei-hung in the series launched by the film Once Upon a Time in China (1991).
Common misconceptions
- Hung Sing in the names of Choy Li Fut branches is not Hung Gar. The character of the name was changed because of the proximity of the banned Hung Mun society, and the school of Chan Din-foon used it to refer to the Great Saint Hung.
- The Hung Gar lineage from master Zhishan through Lu Acai to the father of Wong Fei-hung comes, according to the historian Mak Ging-sang, from a film of 1949, and most of the stories are oral and disputed.
- Hung Hei-gun is the founder of Hung Gar only according to tradition, and sources name no documented founder.
Which to choose
Frequently asked questions
Does Choy Li Fut derive from Hung Gar?
Descriptions of Choy Li Fut list Hung Gar among its parent styles, and in one place they write that the uncle Chan Yuen-wu taught Chan Heung Hung Kuen, in another Fut Gar. Descriptions of Hung Gar do not name Choy Li Fut, so the relationship is documented from one side only.
Is Hung Sing the same as Hung Gar?
No. Hung Sing is the name of Choy Li Fut branches and schools, whose characters were changed several times because of the Hung Mun society.
Who practiced both styles?
Documented is Tam Sam, originally a Hung Gar master, who then learned Choy Li Fut and founded the Buk Sing branch. We have not been able to document a meeting of Wong Fei-hung with Chan Heung.