# Bak mei kungfu in viet nam



## crisvan (Jul 31, 2016)

*Hello everyone, I'd like to send a warmest greeting to brothers and sisters who have been practicing martial arts and searching for its true origin and power. Bakmei is one of the kungfu style that has been lost since Thanh dynasty. There are so many martial artists out there who have been trying to learn it but they all failed or they could not learn its best technique. On my path, i have found a  Bakmei master in Viet Nam who has been teaching his disciples the lost style. I think this is the real and original Bakmei kungfu*
* Now i would love to take a look at these 2 perfornances below called "cuu bo thoi" and "18 ghosts hand" which is commonly practiced by Bakmei practitioners*







*CUU BO TOI*


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## Dong xiao hu (Aug 14, 2016)

I knew some guys from Vietnam 25 years ago that practiced back mai. they were very skilled.

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## crisvan (Aug 15, 2016)

Dong xiao hu said:


> I knew some guys from Vietnam 25 years ago that practiced back mai. they were very skilled.
> 
> Sent from my Z797C using Tapatalk


thanks you for your reply . Would you tell me which martial arts do you pratice ? and How can you know bak mei kung fu


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## Dong xiao hu (Aug 15, 2016)

I practice Northern mantis, FMA, and capoeira. I only know a few bak mai techniques that I have picked up over the years I'd hardly say I know bak mai. Wouldn't mind learning it though.

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## crisvan (Aug 15, 2016)

Dong xiao hu said:


> I practice Northern mantis, FMA, and capoeira. I only know a few bak mai techniques that I have picked up over the years I'd hardly say I know bak mai. Wouldn't mind learning it though.
> 
> Sent from my Z797C using Tapatalk


So what so you thinks about this guy's skills, i saw him training in the park. So how long did you train kungfu ?


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## Dong xiao hu (Aug 15, 2016)

His skill is good it's a little different from some bak mai I have seen, but it solid.

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## crisvan (Aug 15, 2016)

Dong xiao hu said:


> His skill is good it's a little different from some bak mai I have seen, but it solid.
> 
> Sent from my Z797C using Tapatalk


oh well, do you have any video? would you send to me plz ?


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## Flying Crane (Aug 15, 2016)

The Dragon House in San Francisco, CA is an MMA gym, but the owner came to SF from China in 1996 as a kung fu guy, teaching Bak mei and dragon styles.  He still teaches those, as well as running an active MMA gym.  I know that Bak mei has not been lost.

Do an internet search for dragon house San Francisco, I believe there is a clip on his website of him doing a Bak mei set.


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## Dong xiao hu (Aug 15, 2016)

I haven't any videos of me doing what little bak mai I know.

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## crisvan (Aug 23, 2016)

Dong xiao hu said:


> I haven't any videos of me doing what little bak mai I know.
> 
> Sent from my Z797C using Tapatalk


So you're learning bakmei kungfu


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## Dong xiao hu (Aug 25, 2016)

No. I learned a little bit of Bak Mai from people I knew 20 years ago.

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## crisvan (Aug 27, 2016)

Dong xiao hu said:


> No. I learned a little bit of Bak Mai from people I knew 20 years ago.
> 
> Sent from my Z797C using Tapatalk


wow, you were learning bakmei kungfu 20 years ago, so which level bakmei do you learn and do you have any video ?


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## isbal (May 10, 2017)

hello,

a bit of a dig here but if the OP still comes around... It's always treacherous to gauge skills on video but these ones seem pretty good. I understand you train with him. Is the lineage from Tai Chek Cam / Diep Coc Long?


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## VPT (May 11, 2017)

As far as I am aware of, all Bak Mei in Vietnam comes from Tsang Wai Bok after he returned to his native Saigon in (I think) 1954. The different student lines might have spread out since then and have some individual variation.

Bak Mei itself is an art with less than 100 years of history. No kidding.


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## isbal (May 11, 2017)

Yes that's right, all (I would assume) viet lineage come from tsang wai bok/tang hue bac, that's why it's also interesting to assess from which of his students it is attached. Tai check cam is one famous of his pupils, I know at least another, i can already see some difference in what is taught. Therefore my question. Those individual variations


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## VPT (May 11, 2017)

isbal said:


> Yes that's right, all (I would assume) viet lineage come from tsang wai bok/tang hue bac, that's why it's also interesting to assess from which of his students it is attached. Tai check cam is one famous of his pupils, I know at least another, i can already see some difference in what is taught. Therefore my question. Those individual variations



Buuuuuut then there's also this, I just remembered. Hoi An, 1995-1996. Farely standard traditional Vietnamese, but smomeone has learned Bak Mei's Sap Ji:





Is that other one possibly Cheung Bing Fat/Truong Binh Phat? That lineage has some videos on Youtube in Chinese.

May I ask what's your connection to Vietnam? Feel free to PM if you wish.


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## isbal (May 12, 2017)

haha, nice finding  i like the execution although we move apart from the PM principles.I'm not surprised though, some PM forms have infused in the viet martial arts community (e.g. quan ki do). 
My Master was based in HCMC (as he liked to say ) .


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## VPT (May 12, 2017)

I take it that he's not in HCMC anymore. 

Which forms do you study?


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## isbal (May 15, 2017)

I practice another style nowadays, but still practices PM forms at some point, mostly gau bo tui and sup bat mor kiu, I learned meng fu chi lum  but not rnoough to remember all of it correctly :s

You practice viet lineage PM too?


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## VPT (May 15, 2017)

Actually not. I practice a Guangzhou lineage of PM, but have spent time in HCMC and will quite likely spend even more in the future. I'm just interested in the dissemination of PM in Vietnam, since they have some interesting variation there. For example, the Sap Baat Mo Kiu (Thập Bát Ma Kiệu in Vietnamese) in the video linked by OP is missing a kick, and Gau Bou Tui stance has feet unusually parallel to Chinese versions.

They also have unique forms like the following "Four horses linked fist":


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## isbal (May 15, 2017)

Yeah I practiced this form (something like sai ma lin wan). there are other forms found in some PM schools in VN like Dan jing (singular force), even one I don't remember in chinese borrowed from another style by a late master (obviously with PM principles added) : turtle hiding under lotus leave or something like that.

There are definitely differences compared to HK schools, Tsang hue Bok being classified as an "early" disciple compared to the main HK lineages...


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## Knapf (Jun 27, 2017)

I am also a Bak Mei student


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## VPT (Jun 30, 2017)

Nice! 
Where do you train and how long?


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## Knapf (Jul 1, 2017)

VPT said:


> Nice!
> Where do you train and how long?


In Malaysia.Roughly two years if I add up the entire hours I spent


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## VPT (Jul 5, 2017)

I think I know the Dutch school. Instead of Cantonese they instruct in Hakka, amirite? I am fairly positive that your lineage does not trace to Vietnamese Bakmei, which after all is the topic of this thread.  Yes, I know, I train non-Tsang Wai Bok lineage as well, but I do like to talk about it too! 

Knapf, how does your lineage trace to CLC? Does it have any relation to Tsang Wai Bok? 

I am going to stimulate Bakmei conversation in another thread.


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## VPT (Jul 5, 2017)

Everything always traces to China but with Bakmei we are actually talking about a style whose sole founder and first grandmaster died in 1964. Also, maybe 99 % of Bakmei outside China (excluding the Tsang Wai Bok lineage in Saigon, Vietnam) is Jeung Lai Chyun's Hong Kong-era teaching (now I got his name right!). So there's not much space for lineage purism in Bakmei. 

However, I am one of the DREADED "history guys"... 

That's why I'm most interested in _when _was Bakmei transmitted to Malaysia and by _whom_. Was it from CLC's (apparently it should be "JLC"...) pre-HK era or after his migration there?


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