A Favour to Charlie Wan There was, in Fatshan, an associate of Yip Man, by the nickname of Charlie Wan, who was then badly in need of a large sum of money. Charlie Wan was a pugilist of the Choy Lee Fut style noted for its practical skills of fighting, quite different from those of Wing Tsun Kung-fu. Though they were friends they never discussed martial art techniques, nor did they ever argue over the art of fighting. For this reason, the meddlesome citizens of the town of Fatshan did not know, but were eager to find out, which of the two were the better fighter. One of them had thought out a way to test them at last – that was, to hold a contest between the two of them for fund-raising purposes. This would, in the first place, attract and satisfy large crowds of kung-fu fans, and secondly, would serve to meet the monetary needs of Charlie Wan. Charlie Wan, at first, refused this suggestion, thinking that this would impair the friendship between himself and Yip Man. However, for the sake of easing his own needy situation, he finally agreed to the contest, with the stipulation that there should be a suitable go-between to arrange it. This problem was solved by Lee Kwong Hoi, who agreed to arrange the fight and to be the judge. For the opposition, Yip Man had no objection to this at all, thinking this would not only solve his friends problem, but would also promote the art of fist-fighting in Fatshan. For increased publicity, Yip Man even suggested that he would be blind-folded during the fight. This really stirred up much talk about the tournament, and the people of Fatshan became very anxious to know how this man, who had knocked down Kam Shan Mao in the first minute, would fight when he was blindfolded. Some feared that Yip Mans chance of winning was very small. On the day of the fight, spectators poured into the area. At the order of Lee Kwong Hoi, the judge, the two pugilists began their bout. Charlie Wan took the offensive at the very beginning, while the blindfolded Yip Man, well trained in detecting the intentions of his opponent by the feeling of his bridge-arms, remained in contact with his opponent. Though the attacks of Charlie Wan were fierce and powerful, yet Yip Man managed to dissolve them one by one, and very often succeeded in chasing his opponent and rendering couter attacks. In this way they exchanged punches and kicks, to the great satisfaction of all the onlookers. At last the clever Lee Kowng Hoi, fearing that one of them would inevitably be wounded in the end, declared a stop to the fight. So the fight ended in a draw, admidst a hail of cheers from the spectators.
Posted on: Sat, 11 Oct 2014 07:34:54 +0000
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