FAQ - Frequently askes questions about Tao Chan Wing Chun

Tao Chan Wing Chun can be learned by people of all ages without any special physical conditions. Since it is not based on muscle power, it is also suitable for smaller, weaker individuals and for children, women and the elderly.

Since Wing Chun traditionally does not involve high kicks or jumps, no special stretching skills or "acrobatic" skills are necessary.

The actor Donnie Yen and the movies of the Ip Man series are unfortunately abused by many Wing Tsun schools for advertising. Advisor of all Ip Man films was only and exclusively Grandmaster Ip Chun, the son of Grandmaster Ip Man and teacher of Grandmaster Venerable Chi Sim and not a single other master. Sifu Ip Chun appears himself in the movie "Ip Man Zero".

Grand Master Venerable Chi Sim also advised the ethical values that were eventually taken into account in the movies by telling this idea to his Si-Hings before the first Ip Man movie was made.

He also attended the Ip Man Zero press conference with his Sifu Ip Chun in Hong Kong. Donnie Yen is also a student of Sifu Ip Chun, therefore Grandmaster Venerable Chi Sim is his Si-Hing. (Older Kung Fu brother)

In case you have found any promotions coupons in the DVD box of the movies:

These have nothing to do with the movie, but are simply awarded by the film distributor to the highest-paying advertiser and says just as little about the quality, as if one would say the soccer players are so good because you drink Coca Cola (Because they are running an advertisement about it by each soccer game :-) (In most cases such organizations had absolutely nothing to do with the movies and do not teach the kind of Wing Chun represented by Sifu Ip Chun)

If you want to learn the Wing Chun in the style of Donnie Yen, you have come to the right place!

Through the forms, the Tao Chan Wing Chun causes a relaxation of the musculature and improvement of the natural breathing, furthermore in the practical exercises strengthening of the body as well as natural stretching of the musculature.

In higher levels also strengthening the muscles and increasing endurance abilities as well as the development of internal Qi forces are developed. In addition, meditation is taught from the lowest teaching level to calm the mind and relieve tension, anxiety and anxiety.

It is therefore very well suited as a compensation for both highly stressed and distressed persons, as well as for weaker persons, who want to strengthen themselves.

Stronger individuals have the advantage of using their own powers and saving them in order to gain more physical and mental health and reduce aggressiveness.

The Tao Chan Wing Chun is the original system of self-defence. It was developed by the highest of the South Shaolin abbots in the context of the Ming Dynasty revolution as a secret style against the traditional Shaolin Kung Fu out of the best techniques of the Shaolin monks. Its goal was always make weaker and smaller persons to win against larger and stronger persons and experienced martial artists of other styles.

Proof of this are the masters of Wing Chun. Bruce Li was only 1,68 m tall, Grandmaster Ip Man and Grandmaster Ip Chun were / are both only about 1,70 – 1,55 m tall and were never very muscular.

All techniques of the Tao Chan Wing Chun are not done just for beautiful appearance, but due to effectiveness and lead directly to the target. Therefore, there are no jumps and high kicks, as they bring the body out of balance.

However, if you are looking for a self-defence course that will show you how to defend yourself in 2 days, I recommend investing the money better in a weapon, as no one can learn to defend oneself in 2 days, which takes much longer, especially if it is a weaker person.

I was born a Catholic and I am still Catholic today. This is not a problem for Buddhism, neither is it for liberal Catholics. There are many Catholic priests, who teach Chan / Zen Buddhism, some Catholic priests and monks are even Buddhist monks or masters themselves, since the Chan / Zen represents ethical values that are consistent with general morality and are lessons from the heart. My Buddhist teacher, the Korean Chan Patriarch Venerable Park, even taught for years as a professor Catholic priests in Buddhism and received for his performance even by Pabst Benedict personally an award.

Tao Chan Wing Chun does not practice any religion up to the highest grandmaster grades, nor does anyone need to become a Buddhist. This is not necessary. 

The activity of me as a monk is completely independent of the Tao Chan Wing Chun Organisation, but complements this very well, since the basics of Kung Fu is Confucianism, Taoism, Buddhism. In particular Chan / Zen Buddhism from the Shaolin Monastery, which is part of the higher levels of students education leads to better understanding of Tao Chan Wing Chun and to improves the behaviour and the own personality. Of course, a certain openness is required to learn from other cultures, so students with fundamentalist views of whatever religion are of course an obstacle.

As far as meditation is taught in practice in the teacher levels, this is free of any religion (meditation is also available in all religions, such as the Catholic monks or the Sufis in Islam)

We have all kinds of religions like muslims, catholics, protestants, buddhists, atheists  among our disciples and teachers and all of us have benefited greatly from it, far beyond martial arts or health.

A special feature of me is that I am not subject to celibacy, as my Buddhist order classifies this as an option. I got furthermore the special permission to grow my hair normally and to wear normal clothes. Likewise, I am not a vegetarian, although of course I support this direction by eating less meat.

"Chan Buddhism (Zen) is also often understood as a special kind of Buddhism, in essence it transcends the opposites." The leather bracers were formerly common in South Shaolin, but were no longer used already before Grandmaster Ip Man. Since I was ordained as a Buddhist monk we changed more in the "philosophical direction", but we have to find the centre again, compensate it and going back to the Buddhist middle way." - Venerable Chi Sim -

Tao Chan Wing Chun is soft on the one hand, but also a tough martial art, it is often said of soft-hard. 

Therefore, in return, the bracers were reintroduced, also to remember the old Shaolin tradition. After all, the Chan monks were not just monks from the beginning, but also warriors. In this context, there is even a Tao Chan Tattoo, which occasionally Venerable Chi Sim or some of his oldest students temporarily wear at events.

These opposites symbolize the union of yin and yang. So, once you see a Tao Chan Wing Chun fighter, he may look and fight like a real old-time fighter, but inwardly he will have the manners of a moral and gentle man. By the way, the leather bracers are only worn from the first teacher level onwards, so there is no equipment for the students and, of course, during sparring training we wear other softer bracers.

In Chinese, there is only one term, which consists of 2 Chinese characters. These mean correctly translated "Ode to the spring" and not as 99% of the often little China experienced Wing Chun teachers in western countries claiming "Eternal Spring" or even "Beautiful Spring".

Since Wing Chun is a Cantonese term, there are no really official rules, as this term is now written in Western writing style. The Chinese language knows the Han Yu Pin Yin sound system, which is defined by the state, where the term "Yong Chun" is used. Although, the Cantonese knows certain spelling systems, but some different that were not really officially unified. In Hong Kong, usually only the spelling "Wing Chun" or "Ving Tsun" is used.

All other names are word creations of the respective associations abroad, which try to protect their system with trademark law by certain letters and sounds are changed, since the term Wing Chun as such cannot be protected under trademark law, since he has no distinguishing feature as a generic term.

For this reason, we did not even try to create another word of that art but use the most widely used spelling "Wing Chun" supplemented by Tao Chan, which forms the legally protected term "Tao Chan Wing Chun".

"My question back: Do you think that as a woman you are being attacked by another woman in the street at night? The answer is mostly “no”. Usually only men attack woman at night. Therefore, training group consisting only of female students are nonsense. It is often only a marketing idea for the martial arts teacher to get more money by introducing such special groups” - Venerable Chi Sim -

We basically train mixed. For the women this is positive, because they learn to defend themselves against a man and are thus prepared for the emergency case and know how to respond to a physically superior male aggressor. The men, on the other hand, learn from women to learn softness from the women which is very important in Wing Chun, because not to rely on muscle power.

Thus, both sexes benefit from this form of teaching as it has been in China for centuries. The prerequisite for this is also the ethical basis for both sexes, like how to handle each other correctly, which is included in the Tao Chan Wing Chun in contrast to most other Wing Chun styles.

In addition, Venerable Chi Sim personally:

The Tao Chan Wing Chun is the real original Wing Chun as handed down by Grandmaster Ip Man directly to his son Grandmaster Ip Chun. I have taken over this 100% unchanged from Grandmaster Ip Chun and pass all forms, techniques, Chi Sao unchanged to my students.

Personally, I have only changed the way I teach by adapting to a modern coordinated form and introduced student and teacher level, because the teaching style in Hong Kong does not follow any system. At the same time I returned to the original Chinese way of teaching as it is now practiced only on Taiwan and mostly lost in Hong Kong itself mostly by the Western influence.

In addition, I have enhanced the Wing Chun theory for a better explanation with my medical background knowledge since Chinese medicine was not really considered anymore since Grandmaster Dr. Leung Jan, who was a Chinese doctor. Tao Chan Wing Chun includes also the influence of the philosophies of Chan Buddhism (Zen), Taoism and Confucianism not only for Wing Chun itself, but also for daily life. Accordingly, Tao Chan Wing Chun was also supplemented with additional exercises from the Chan lineage - but not changed.

I have also added the approach – also designed for fearful and weaker students - to the real fight with protective clothing, which is often neglected in Hong Kong by too much focus on the Chi Sao training. But same time we try to avoid of course senseless fights.

Venerable Chi Sim:

Yes, but only 1 kind of it: If you are involved in a fight and can defeat the opponent by words, you have learned the highest form of Kung Fu, namely to fight without fighting.

Everything else is nonsense. I would be glad if there were, because then I had saved some time for my own training. There are rarely but occasionally requests from people, who expect to learn some secret things, such as the master making a hand gesture and then the student flying away without body contact. This belongs in the realm of fairy tales. There are inner forces in Kung Fu, that's right, but certainly not in this way. So please be realistic when you come to class and do not expect an old master with long wise beard, who will tell you mysterious stories from ancient China about flying fighters. The main secret of Kung Fu is practicing, practicing and practicing again and the right mental attitude, patience and trust. Then everything else develops by itself.

Our classroom atmosphere is that of a friendly family especially between Sifu and students. The Sifu acts with care and does his best to teach the student, and the student treats the Sifu with respect, but not as god, as in other Wing Tsun styles. The relationship between the students and between students and Sifu does not end after class or at the school door but helps and supports outside.

Things like teachers beat students to prove themselves, secrecy, self-congratulation are not welcome in our organization, but we teach in an atmosphere of mutual help with understanding and harmony. Therefore, many students come to us, who have become victims of other violent Wing Tsun teachers and finally discover the real values of Chinese martial arts.

On the other hand, of course, it must also be taken into account that a teacher is there to improve mistakes of his students and this does not necessarily affect only the martial arts, but also the behaviour.

I behave according to Confucius: "Who flatters me is my enemy, who criticizes me is my teacher". So, if you are looking for a teacher, who is right in all things or who teaches you "I fulfil your wishes Wing Chun”, you are wrong here, but if you are looking for a real teacher, who will show you the right way, regardless of whether it is against your ego, then you have found the correct Sifu in me.