Rating: 
Summary: True Combat Science
Review: The reader who derided this as a collection of old myths and articles clearly has not done his research. This book represents the efforts of the authors to discover the true history behind wing chun kung fu. The research here is new and debunks myths about the origins of wing chun.The idea that this system is a knock-off of William Cheung's kung fu (I believe he and the authors enjoy a friendly relationship) is groundless, as all modern wing chun can be traced to its shaolin roots. Through studying the system it is self-evident that this is no knock-off, but instead represents a true paradigm shift in combat science. The hung fa yi system is concept driven, not technique driven. All techniques are based upon the necessity to control space and time on the battlefield with maximum efficiency and simplicity. This is an excellent book and I highly recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: Truth in martial Arts
Review: There are two things that I want to address here: 1) This book is an excellent source of information for anyone who is interested in digging past the popular myths that have been perpetrated throughout history regarding Wing Chun and its origins. Also, it address the core essentials and formulae necessary to a completely effective martial arts form. 2) I would like to make a personal statement regarding the comment that has been posted labeled "There's One Born Every Second." It's rather pathetic that you would make such statements yourself and yet hide behind anonymity. What are your credentials? What have your studied? Are you actually from mainland China? Have you visited the rebuilt Shaolin Temple? Have you been praised by various governing bodies for the work that you've done in researching martial arts and in particular Wing Chun? Have you received accolade after accolade for having established the first Ving Tsun museum and praised for its accuracy and authenticity by masters the world over? I didn't think so. You know nothing about Sifu Meng. You know nothing of his background. You know nothing of his qualifications. Before you go advising others about how poor a book he, Sifu Loewenhagen, and Grandmaster Gee have written, you might want to take a step back and do a review of your own position in all of this and ask yourself why you feel the need to hide behind anonymity. I'm not afraid to show my name while I praise his book. I'm not afraid to state that I am a student of his and look forward to completing his program. I recommend this book to all students of martial arts who wish to learn more about Wing Chun. However, I do have a biased opinion on the mater. Read the book and judge for yourself.
Rating:
Summary: Truth in martial Arts
Review: There are two things that I want to address here: 1) This book is an excellent source of information for anyone who is interested in digging past the popular myths that have been perpetrated throughout history regarding Wing Chun and its origins. Also, it address the core essentials and formulae necessary to a completely effective martial arts form. 2) I would like to make a personal statement regarding the comment that has been posted labeled "There's One Born Every Second." It's rather pathetic that you would make such statements yourself and yet hide behind anonymity. What are your credentials? What have your studied? Are you actually from mainland China? Have you visited the rebuilt Shaolin Temple? Have you been praised by various governing bodies for the work that you've done in researching martial arts and in particular Wing Chun? Have you received accolade after accolade for having established the first Ving Tsun museum and praised for its accuracy and authenticity by masters the world over? I didn't think so. You know nothing about Sifu Meng. You know nothing of his background. You know nothing of his qualifications. Before you go advising others about how poor a book he, Sifu Loewenhagen, and Grandmaster Gee have written, you might want to take a step back and do a review of your own position in all of this and ask yourself why you feel the need to hide behind anonymity. I'm not afraid to show my name while I praise his book. I'm not afraid to state that I am a student of his and look forward to completing his program. I recommend this book to all students of martial arts who wish to learn more about Wing Chun. However, I do have a biased opinion on the mater. Read the book and judge for yourself.
Rating: 
Summary: There's One Born Every Second
Review: There is no such thing as Shaolin Wing Chun which this book claims. This book is not representative of Chinese martial arts, Chinese history, or kung fu, especially Wing Chun Kuen, about which it's authors make grand claims but present no proof. Some of the other reviews appeared to attempt objectivity, but the authors were obviously ignorant of Chinese history. Mastering Kung Fu, as the book is called, is divided into "history" and techniques. Technique recipes are of little value as real Kung Fu is not formulaic and dead and resembling karate as shown in the the book, but instead free flowing and alive as taught by the real Wing Chun kung fu ancestors whose art has been well documented in another book, "Complete Wing Chun." The formula they push is simple marketing. Also, given the nature of Shaolin religious study, the assertions of the authors make no sense regarding it. As for the "history", "Mastering Kung Fu" is a mixture of facts copied from history books and fiction masquerading as fact melded together to blur the line between fact and fiction. For example, the founding of the "southern Shaolin temple" is represented as key to HFY history. The book claims emperor Li Xi Min "ordered" the southern Shaolin Temple to be created by a bunch of "martial monks" who, years earlier saved his life, giving the date as "60 years after the founding of the northern temple". Yet a couple of pages earlier, the book states that the founding of the northern temple came around 400 A.D. Li Xi Min did not become emperor until long after 600 A.D. The dates are questionable, but it is known that Damo, who was listed as the founder of Shaolin martial arts, arrived at the temple before the reign of Li Xi Min, and according to history, the temple was already there. Most Wing Chun history only goes back to the mid-1800s and the red boat era. There is absolutely no evidence whatsoever connecting a person from 500 A.D. Shaolin Temple in Henan to the Red Junks of 1850's Fatshan. Given these examples, and there are many more inconsistencies and misstatements of facts, and that the book's dates are inconsistent with its purported history of such critical events to its claims, what can the wise reader conclude from it? This is historical presentation on a par with historical potboiler novels. The picture of the Red Boat was actually a publicity still from a little known Chinese movie, although someone carefully added scratch marks give it an aged look. The drawings are done in a style imitative of a certain Chinese period, but were obviously made up from whole cloth in fleshing out the book. Spend some time with Google researching Wing Chun and make up your own mind.
Rating: 
Summary: My Kung Fu is better than your Kung Fu
Review: This book has some thought provoking content, however one has to wade through too many comments like:
"Hung Fa Yi is the only martial system to ultimately reach maximum levels of efficiency." (p 65)
Really, the ONLY one? Based on the authors' exhaustive study of every martial system in existence? There are many similar gems to be found in the book all proclaiming one style (theirs of course) to be the best.
Additionally there are many references to this style as a "science" and not an art, as if to say "those other guys are arts, but we're science". This is a semantic game There is nothing here that a true scientist would call science, despite references to time, space and energy that sound like they come out of a science fiction movie. What a shame. I really wanted to like this book, but there's too much to wade through to get to the meat. I would really like to see an edited second edition. For now, there are plenty of other books that leave out the rhetoric, making it hard to recommend this one.
Rating:
Summary: Someone Has done thier reseach
Review: This book is definitly a higher level of thinking than all the other wing chun books I have read. I am a senior instructor thru the Ving Tsun Athletic Association and most of the books out there our still at the technical level of thinking not truely getting in depth in the principles and science aspects. The history is for more logical than the famous nun story. This book also is the first of its kind to truely connect the spiritual and philosophical aspect to Wing Chun. The time and space chapter was really good by explaining a science perspective like I haven't seen before. It has definitly made me more aware of the uderstanding of the system as a whole, not a small part.
Rating:
Summary: Great Job VTM!!
Review: This is a great piece of history! So many secrets brought to the light, so many myths dispelled! Absolutely wonderful. This will become one of the milestones of the martial arts world (required reading for any serious martial artist!), too bad it doesn't contain any more information! It is clear that the authors have done their homework, to understand the history as well as the physical kung fu! Kudos on a job well done!
Rating:
Summary: Great!!
Review: This is an excellent book that is sure to reveal some of the gems in shaolin wing chun. I recommend this book for anyone interested in kung fu or martial arts.
Rating: 
Summary: One of the best yet, but with one disappointing aspect
Review: This is definitely the best organised and most detailed book on the history and theory of a substyle of Wing Chun so far produced. The writing is well executed and assisted by topical and precise drawings, and good (though not exceptional) B&W photographs. It raises the standard of technical Wing Chun books and articles to a new height. The book's main proposal is that there exists a Hung Fa Yi "formula" which allows "dimensional" fighting, allowing a follower of the "formula" to provide the physically precise and perfect strategy and tactics to overcome any attack, even in the frenzied chaos that is violent assault, and no matter how strong or fast the opponent(s), and no matter what (presumably other) systems they may be trained in. To accept this is to adopt the "paradigm shift" of Hung Fa Yi, which I think is more accurately described as an "act of faith". Do you believe this? I think, and the HFY practitioners contend, that the only way is via direct experience. They argue their case well, but not totally convincingly. There is a time honoured tradition in Wing Chun of denigrating and bashing the efforts of other practitioners, and the big disappointment of this book is that it avoids the opportunity to allow its system to stand alone, but instead tries to bring itself to the top by putting others down, just like too many before it. All other lineages (except the one practised by the guy who wrote the foreword) are lumped into something called "Popular Wing Chun" ,and used as a straw man at regular intervals. Bruce Lee is characterised as a worthy seeker after martial truth, robbed of his opportunity to truly self-actualize becuase the HFY formula was kept from him. Sportfighting is denigrated, the authors referencing that famous WC expert Gichin Funakoshi to bolster their argument. Generalisations and judgements are made about other WC systems which are just plain wrong. Other legitimate historians are also maligned. Without this, it would get 4.5 stars from me. With the style and sifu bashing, it never will. I wanted to give it 3.5 but I can't. The "reviewer" who says it's just like William Cheung's style is misinformed. I've been an instructor of his TWC since 1995, and it is NOT the same stuff, a good thing IMO.
Rating:
Summary: Top notch
Review: This is just a top-notch book on WC. The book is actually mostly text, since it's intended for the experienced practitioner, and so deals mainly with the more advanced topics such as strategy, interval, flow, advanced techniques, and other subjects. This makes it one of the most well-thought out, detailed, and technical analyses of wing chun out there, and should be of interest to beginning and advanced WC practitioners alike. The authors' explanations are very clear and concise, even when dealing with the more esoteric topics. Whether you agree with everything the authors say on some of the more controversial things or not, you'll find this a well done book on wing chun. I suspect it will probably become a classic in the kung fu genre.
| 
