Editorial

If you had 100 guys that sparred regularly, 2-3 min. rounds, every few times a week vs. 100 guys who never sparred at all, and pit them against each other, 99 out of the 100 guys who sparred would win.

For the naysayers who contest this thought experiment, allow us to ask you the following. Do you really think the guys that never went past 3 seconds of live non-compliant action would win against guys who know exactly what to expect after that first 3 seconds?

Trying to argue against this idea would only expose you as both an inexperienced practitioner and teacher.

One of the worst examples of a fraudulent martial arts teacher is a YouTuber by the name of Dominick Izzo Wing Chun, who has been proven by multiple sources as a cult leader, liar, and fraud who made up an entire online persona just to make money off unsuspecting victims.

A little known, ancient style of martial arts named Ang Quan has resurfaced on Chinese social media in recent years. We here at Dynasty are always passionate about the martial arts and history, so we have went and researched online about this subject, and will now cover this martial art in this blog post.

There is an intrinsic problem that exists in many forms of non-competitive, "self-defense" martial arts - mostly older martial arts styles, but can be applied to any martial art that does not contain or emphasize a competitive sports component.

What Rickson Gracie is to Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, Mas Oyama is to Kyokushin Karate, Wong Shun Leung probably is for Wing Chun.

This is due to the fact that more than any other person (aside from Ip Man or Bruce Lee), Wong Shun Leung put the style of Wing Chun on the Kung Fu map as a fighting system to be respected, by being an actual fighting Kung Fu master that fought and won against all challengers during his time.

At the time of the movie's release, many viewers came away confused at some of the parts and storylines of Ip Man 4, and thought that Ip Man 4 was an over-the-top action movie with an unrealistic storyline and cartoony villains.

It turns out it was much more than that, as we will explore, since Ip Man (and his star pupil Bruce Lee) were now on foreign soil, and the storyline sheds light on Bruce Lee's beginnings and his experiences in America.

This time around, everything the 'Ip Man' characters do in this movie didn't just represent Chinese / Asians back home anymore, but Chinese / Asian Americans (and history) as well.

Here is our analysis of the film's biggest themes, moments, and Asian-American history lessons to help better make sense of them for everyone.

Ever since the release of Ip Man 4 in December of 2019 - the final martial arts / Kung Fu franchise starring Donnie Yen as legendary Wing Chun master Ip Man and Bruce Lee's Kung Fu teacher - there has been a fair bit of controversy and mixed reactions surrounding the movie. But are these movies Chinese propaganda?

While this is a martial arts blog and we do not wish to engage in political discussions or debates, it has come to our attention that due to our current political climate, and how the Ip Man movies mixes its storylines with historical events and deals with themes such as racism, oppression, colonialism, imperialism, and national pride and dignity, it is inevitable that we must share our thoughts about the role that these Chinese Kung Fu movies play in our ever increasingly politicized and polarized society we live in.

Hoi Wah Ho of Dynasty details his experiences with Chinese Martial Arts (Kung Fu) and shares why he loves Kung Fu, but hates Kung Fu at the very same time.

As defined and modified for the Kung Fu community: The Dunning-Kruger effect is a cognitive bias in which people wrongly overestimate their knowledge or ability regarding the effectiveness of their Kung Fu in a real fighting scenario.

This tends to occur because of the general Kung Fu practitioners' lack of self-awareness, which comes from the lack of real, non-compliant sparring training, which prevents some Kung Fu practitioners from accurately assessing their own skills.