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The History of Jow Ga Kung Fu
The history of Jow Ga begins in
the nineteenth century in the southern Chinese village of Sha Fu,
located in Guangdong (Canton) province. There, a man by the name of
Jow Lung began to learn Kung Fu from an uncle when he was but a
young boy. He loved to train hard and soon had learned all that his
uncle could teach him. Instead of abandoning Kung Fu, Jow Lung
sought out masters who could give him more advanced instruction. His
focus was always on fighting, and he gradually developed into a very
tough and effective fighter. Around the age of twenty, he was forced
to travel in search of work, but he continued to train nonetheless.
During those days, it was
dangerous to travel because of the large numbers of bandits who
terrorized the roads and cities with impunity. For Jow Lung, this
was certainly a problem, but one for which he found himself very
well prepared. Repeated encounters with robbers gave him good
opportunities to test himself and his fighting abilities against
opponents with different skills, weapons, and strengths. In the
course of one of these fights, Jow Lung killed one of the bandits
with a fierce and well-delivered kick which ever since has been
known as the "through-the-heart" kick.
After several years of travel,
Jow Lung went home to his village. There he began to develop his
martial arts experience into a system that would give its
practitioners unrivaled fighting skills. Jow Lung decided that his
style would use both the upper and the lower body in unison to
create a highly effective fighting art. Only techniques that could
be used successfully in a fight would be included, and there would
be no distinction between offense and defense. Once he had devised
this new art, he began to teach it to his brothers Jow Bill, Jow
Hoy, Jow Hip, and Jow Teen. Together, they became known as the Five
Tigers of Canton, and their art was named Jow Ga, or Jow Family
style.
In 1915, the Chinese army was
seeking a new head trainer for its troops. In order to find one, it
decided to hold an open, full contact tournament, the winner of
which would receive the position. Jow Lung saw this as the perfect
opportunity to showcase Jow Ga and immediately joined in the
competition. Over the course of several days, Jow Lung defeated many
opponents who represented some of the most popular Kung Fu styles of
the day. In the end, he defeated every one of them and was appointed
to the post of Chief Trainer of the army. He was to hold that
position only for a brief time however, because in 1919 he fell ill
with pneumonia and tragically never recovered.
After Jow Lung's death, his
brothers continued to perfect and to spread Jow Ga through China and
Hong Kong. A man by the name of Chen Man Cheung became one of Jow
Bill's top Hong Kong instructors. Chen Man Cheung was to go on to
open his own school where he taught
Dean Chin, the man who would
introduce Jow Ga to the United States in 1968.
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