A Year in the Chinese Martial Arts: The Top Events and Stories that Shaped 2013.
2013-The Year of Ip Man
I am not going to lie. It was a struggle to decide which of the two top contenders would get the crown as 2013′s top news story. The sheer volume of press coverage that Lee generated was truly impressive. Yet at the same time 2013 was the year that Ip Man, his teacher, stepped out of his shadow to become a solidified and recognizable figure in his own right. Much of the coverage surrounding Lee was an exercise in nostalgia, but Ip Man’s portrayal in the Grandmaster (directed by Wong Kar-wei) and Ip Man: the Final Fight (Herman Yau) helped to take Kung Fu storytelling in new and exciting directions.
Of course its also difficult to select only one of these stories because they are intimately linked. Bruce Lee was responsible for introducing his instructor to Western martial artists in the late 1960s, making him one of the first Chinese teachers to gain widespread recognition outside of this homeland. Bruce Lee would not have been the martial artist that he was without Ip Man, nor would Ip Man be the media figure that he has become without Bruce Lee. Over the last few days I have found myself wondering whether the lives of these individuals have become two aspects of the same popular culture mythos?
Ultimately I selected Ip Man as the top news story of 2013 for three reasons. First, the news coverage of the two movies dramatizing his life has been distributed throughout the year. Secondly, it seems clear that the creative visions of Wong Kar-wei and Herman Yau are going to have an impact on how the public imagines the Chinese martial arts for years to come. This is likely to effect everything from the sorts of story lines that are seen in future Kung Fu films to enrollments in Wing Chun schools. Lastly, understanding the social history of Wing Chun has always been a central mission of this blog. His rise to fame both validates that focus and suggests a number of new and interesting questions.
2013 was the year that everyone was talking about Ip Man.
-BENJUDKINS
photo: Tony Leung as GGM Ip Man in The Grandmaster
一代宗師
