Hakka Kuen (Hakka Boxing)
客家拳The collective name for the southern styles of the Hakka people. They share close range, forearm work and power issued from sinking rather than swing.
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, literally "Hakka boxing", is not one school but the collective name for a group of related southern styles connected with the Hakka people. This page therefore gives neither founder nor year; practitioners in the Pearl River Delta used the term 客家拳 for precisely this family, above all for the southern praying mantis. Its cradle is the Dongjiang river basin in inland eastern Guangdong, from which the founders of all the main branches came. The family comprises southern praying mantis with its Chow Gar, Chu Gar, Kwong Sai Jook Lum and Iron Ox lineages, together with Bak Mei, the White Eyebrow, and Lung Ying, the southern dragon. These styles are technically closer to one another than to any other southern current. The shared traits are distinct. The work is at close range, with short bridges, that is with the forearms in constant contact with the opponent's. Power is not issued by swinging but by sinking and pushing out from the body, so a blow needs no run-up. Kicks are limited and the centre of gravity lies in the hands and arms. Sticking work matches this: the hands do not monitor the opponent by sight but by touch. Southern praying mantis has nothing in common with northern praying mantis except the name; this is the commonest confusion encountered in this group. The northern mantis is a Shandong style with its own history, whereas the mantis here is Hakka and its technique proceeds from a different basis. The family spread with the Hakka diaspora to Hong Kong, Southeast Asia and further overseas, so that it is now taught far from its original basin.
Similar styles
Selected by overlap in the style profile, not by historical lineage.