Hakka Kuen (Hakka Boxing)
客家拳Umbrella term for the martial arts of southern Chinese Hakka communities, not one school. A Hong Kong exhibition places Chow Gar mantis and Dragon Style under it, among others.
Quick Facts
ChinaCharacter & Origin
Training
Organisation & Competition
What the style is built from
Editorial rating on a 0–3 scale, based on how much room each area gets in ordinary training.
About Hakka Kuen (Hakka Boxing)
Hakka kuen, 客家拳, is not a single school but an umbrella term. English Wikipedia says that people in the Pearl River Delta once used it for Southern Praying Mantis and that the term was later applied to the martial skills of overseas Hakka communities. Master Chen Chang Mien, in his 1990 book Kung Fu in South China as quoted on chandao.co.uk, defines Hakka quan as a collective name for the Chu school and related schools. The exhibition 300 Years of Hakka Kung Fu, held in 2016 and 2017 by the Hong Kong intangible cultural heritage office with the International Guoshu Association, states that Hakka martial arts arose in villages in the hilly borderland of Fujian and Guangdong from the late Ming dynasty to the mid-Qing dynasty. According to it, the name Hakka arose in the early Qing and means guest people. According to the exhibition, in the thirties Cheung Lai Tseun and Lam Yiu Kwai moved from Huizhou to Guangzhou and developed the Pakmei and Lung Ying systems, which the exhibition regards as the beginning of modern Hakka kung fu. After the middle of the twentieth century, Hong Kong became, according to it, the centre of the Tung Kong tradition, that is Dongjiang.
History
The exhibition 300 Years of Hakka Kung Fu gives Lam Family Teaching, Du Family Teaching and Chu Family Teaching as examples of village schools named after clans. According to it, Lam Gar Gau, Chu Gar Gau and Iron Ox Praying Mantis still exist as old rural forms in Sha Tau Kok, Sheung Shui and Yuen Long. The Shenzhen University sports intangible heritage data bank states that the martial arts along the Dongjiang river are called 东江拳 and divide into several family styles. Chen Chang Mien, as quoted, says that Hakka styles are popular in the areas of Meixian, Xingning and Huiyang.
How it differs
The sources do not agree on which styles belong to the group. The Hong Kong exhibition showed five styles, Iron Ox Praying Mantis, Chow Gar Praying Mantis, Eagle Claw of the Lam Gar Gau school, Ching Lung Tam Hakka Hung Kuen and Dragon Style. Judkins counts Bak Mei, Dragon Style, Southern Praying Mantis and Chuka Shaolin among the modern Hakka schools. He also writes that Wing Chun shares many Hakka features but is not a Hakka style.
Technique
Ben Judkins states on the blog Kung Fu Tea that Hakka arts often showed triangular footwork, hunched shoulders, a sunken chest and complex hand work. Culture Trip describes a narrow stance, a rounded back, elbows close to the body and triangular footwork. Chen Chang Mien, as quoted on chandao.co.uk, describes Hakka stances, control of breath and chest, short explosive power and fast footwork.
Today
According to the exhibition, the Hakka Kung Fu Culture Research Society was the curatorial partner of 300 Years of Hakka Kung Fu and was co-founded in 2015 by master Yau Wan Wah. The exhibition was held in September 2016 at the Hong Kong Heritage Museum and from 28 October 2016 to 4 January 2017 at City University of Hong Kong. Culture Trip states that in the second half of the twentieth century Hakka martial arts declined seriously.
Did you know
Southern Praying Mantis, for which the term Hakka kuen was once used according to English Wikipedia, is according to it unrelated to Northern Praying Mantis. Green, in the book Martial Arts of the World, states that Northern Praying Mantis arose in Shandong province during the Qing dynasty. In the Hong Kong intangible heritage list printed in the South China Morning Post we have not found an item for Hakka kung fu, but Hung Gar and Lung Ying are there.
Frequently asked questions
Is Hakka kuen a single style?
No. The sources describe it as an umbrella term for styles of Hakka communities, for example Southern Praying Mantis.
Where do Hakka martial arts come from?
Per the exhibition 300 Years of Hakka Kung Fu, from hilly Fujian-Guangdong border villages since the late Ming dynasty.
Is Wing Chun a Hakka style?
According to Ben Judkins, no, although it shares many features with Hakka styles, for example triangular footwork.
Similar styles
Selected by overlap in the style profile, not by historical lineage.