Just by chance, at a social gathering, a friend asked if I heard of Master Deng Yick (鄧奕) who was regarded as the king of long staff. What a small world! Master Deng was my uncle’s sifu and that is the style of Wing Tsun that I was exposed to as a kid. My friend could easily have forgotten about this video let alone mentioned it at dinner. If he didn’t know I was a martial art fanatic, the conversation probably wouldn’t even come up. This branch of Wing Tsun is not popular. Furthermore, both Master Deng and my uncle both passed away for many years. This long staff form, the Six and a Half Point (六點半棍), is regarded as one of the style’s top secret and I never expect to see a video of Master Deng himself on YouTube. This is all karma and I am forever grateful.
My grandparents lived in Shatin (沙田) which was considered quite remote as the country-side way back in the 60s and 70s. The small house was on top of a hill and surrounded by land that can be used to grow vegetables, tomatoes, etc. I used to visit my grandparents as often as I could to help out with sloughing, planting and other garden work. While I love my grandparents, the honest truth was that I love to hang out with my uncle to learn Wing Tsun or chat about martial arts or some of his latest ideas / experiments. Sometimes Master Deng also visited and I try to absorb what I can. In English, Wing Tsun covers both Ip Man’s style and Deng’s style. However, 永春 and 詠春 are written differently in Chinese and are actually different branches from the same origin – there are differences in details and approaches.
The following is a rare video of Master Deng. It is kind of funny to see my uncle goofing around at the end of the clip…that was exactly how I remembered him too. 🙂 The video was supplied by Master Deng’s son and released by Ming Pao.
Exercise
Any random thoughts or things that peek your interest from the video.