In Enter the Dragon, a karateka (Bob Wall) shatters a wooden board with his punch to intimidate Bruce Lee before a fight. Lee gives his famous retort, “Boards don’t hit back.” A somewhat similar comment was made regarding the animal and TDH strikes on our loyal training dummy, Big Wang, who endures punishment without complaint each week. “The dummy has no arms. A real opponent has arms and will be trying to hit you back.”

Evolving Martial Artists also realize that utilizing training equipment does not replace two man training and sparring. The fast, powerful and accurate expression of their fighting techniques against dummies, heavy bags, punching mitts, or bricks is never equivalent to hitting a living, moving, thinking opponent. Sure, Big Wang is tough and takes your most lethal blows, but remember: boards and Big Wang don’t hit back.

Lawrence Tan

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It’s ironic. On the same day that the celluloid Shaolin master, David Carradine, died, an authentic kung fu master and Hong Kong film legend, Shek Kin, passed away. Although martial artists and film goers may know him as Han, Bruce Lee’s evil nemesis in Enter the Dragon, Shek Kin was a pioneer of early kung fu films. Please do not take this lightly: he was truly one of the first martial arts action stars. No doubt, as a child living in Hong Kong, Bruce Lee was thrilled and inspired by Shek Kin’s kicks and punches in the original black and white “chop socky ” films. Shek Kin achieved fame for playing the arch villain in over 80 films based on the Cantonese martial hero Wong Fei Hong.

As Far East editor for Inside Kung fu magazine back in the seventies, I interviewed Shek Kin in 1975 at his apartment in Hong Kong, after the international success of Enter the Dragon. As a point of interest, Shek Kin was in his late 50′s when he fought Bruce Lee in Enter the Dragon. He was a true master; modest, unassuming and gracious. Here is an excerpt from the end of his interview, in his own words:

An old Shaolin boxing proverb states: “Boxing has no set methods and hitting has no set rules….” Each…nation’s martial art uses basic weapons differently. Power is delivered differently, the patterns of offensive and defensive movements differ and the tactics and strategy differ.…
We should not think in terms of style; we should think in terms of martial arts in general….We should study the best aspects of other systems and better our Kung fu. With this constant exchange of new ideas and the changes that should result from the influences, more and more new styles will emerge as time goes on. Although there will be many new systems, the basics will always be the same…

With the surging popularity of mixed martial arts, Shek Kin’s words sound like those of  a contemporary martial artist. Yet they were spoken thirty four years ago by this Grandmaster of Northern Shaolin. As they say, the more things change, the more they stay the same.

Nevertheless, Shek Kin was an old fashion traditionalist insisting that the primary goal of kung fu practice is for health and longevity. Self-defense is secondary. Unlike Lee and Carradine, Shek Kin lived a long life. He was 96.

Something for an Evolving Martial Artist to consider. What do you think?

Lawrence Tan

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