Kuntao (Kuntao)
Umbrella term for Chinese martial arts in Indonesia and Malaysia. Not a single style; it often blends with silat into kuntao silat.
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IndonesiaCharacter & Origin
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Editorial rating on a 0–3 scale, based on how much room each area gets in ordinary training.
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About Kuntao (Kuntao)
Kuntao is not a single style but an umbrella term for Chinese martial arts as they were practised and passed on in the Malay Archipelago, above all in Indonesia and Malaysia. The word comes from southern Chinese Hokkien, where kun-thau means literally fist, and in local usage it came to mark the fighting art of Chinese immigrants as distinct from the indigenous silat. Most lineages have their roots in southern China, chiefly in Fujian and in Hakka areas, which is why kuntao often shows elements familiar from Ngo Cho Kun, the Five Ancestors fist, from Hakka styles, or from White Crane. Technically the close range dominates: low firm stances, hard strikes with the hand and forearm, work in the clinch, trapping and interrupting the attack, joint locks and takedowns. The legs work low and economically, and high kicks are the exception rather than the rule. What is distinctive about the region is the overlap with local tradition. Where kuntao and silat are trained together the result is called kuntao silat, a system that joins Chinese arm work with Indonesian footwork and ground work. Transmission was for a long time familial and closed. In Indonesia, restrictions on Chinese cultural expression after 1965 pushed many schools into private practice or under the label of silat. Kuntao reached the West mainly with Dutch-Indonesian repatriates after 1949, who taught it in the Netherlands and in the United States. This is precisely why the definition of the term differs from school to school and why no unified technical canon exists.
Similar styles
Selected by overlap in the style profile, not by historical lineage.