Encounter With Crazy Ming.

This is from an article I wrote for the Chinatown Blog.

Encounter with Crazy Ming

March 13, 2010 by Adam.

Some people have commented that they would like to know more about the history of Kung Fu in Chinatown. Chinatown used to be a very small and tight community where everyone knew each other, so the man I am telling a story about in this article might be known to many of the old timers. His nickname was Crazy Ming or “Ngau Ming.”

I think I was in College when I met him. Jing, Sifu’s son, told me Ngau Ming would be stopping in with his son so I should try to be at the school when he came so that we could do some forms for him. He was an old friend of the school and had brought us down to Worcester to do Lion Dance (He owned a restaraunt there). Before we used to have people with sticks to barricade some space for the Lion Head to move. Apparently in Worcester, Ngau Ming had done this job himself by swinging a Gwan Do (Polearm Sword made famous by General Gwan) around hard. Needless to say people moved and obviously Ngau Ming had his nickname for a reason.

Upon going into one of the restaurants, the head waiter in the front had said, “Oh that’s okay. We don’t need a Lion Dance.” Ngau Ming replied in angry tone dabbled with expletives about the man’s mother, her reproductive organs, their age and smell, that he should get the owner out to the front right now, and did he know who he was talking too. etc.

In Chinatown Ngau Ming had quite a name for loving to fight. He would hang out at the bars, get drunk and get into fights with Americans, and then befriend them afterward. When I met him I realized more clearly why it was easy for him to get into a fight. He had a crazy stare that just looked off and made you nervous even if you were his friend. Whether he was born like that or became like that over a lifetime or a combination of both is unknown to me. He had met Sifu in China. And at that time I think he was already in “Collecting” business. He did the same sort of occupation in Hong Kong and probably in the States too. He saw a great deal of violence and talked with one of the other Chinese Workers associated with our school about just how disgusting those fights can look in real life, when hands are being hacked off etc. In other words he was a Gong Wu/Jiaghu person if there ever was one. And he also practiced various forms of Kung Fu.

In China he had actually questioned Sifu’s skill. Sifu demonstrated a technique which passed/parried his attack and pushed him flying out the door. He came running back in and bowed down saying “Sifu!”

But for some strange reason I do not understand, when he came to the school with his son, he seemed to praise Jing’s (the son) Kung Fu over the father, our Sifu, Woo Ching. All of us know that Woo Ching’s power, fighting, skill, Gung Lik, and many other aspects of the art far exceeded Jing, especially when Woo Ching Sifu was in his prime. But Ngau Ming kept talking about Jing’s sword form. When I performed a form, he said “That’s alright, but it’s not as intelligent as Jing’s Kung Fu. I only want my son to learn from Jing.” I should back up and say that by this time he had already written a large check to our Sifu.

Now all these events I describe didn’t happen one after another, but rather all jumbled up, mixed together, repeated again in a very bipolar schizophrenic like fashion.

“Son bow down to Jing and let’s take a picture of it!”

“Take a picture in the Lion Head!”

“Son show them that Karate form that Lo Fahn taught you. They don’t have Kung Fu where we are so he has to do Karate. But you can’t use that form if you’re really fighting!

See son block this punch.” He threw a punch at his son and his son passed it and avoided. “See that’s not what they taught you that’s the hand techniques I showed you.”

The techniques in the Karate form were a lot like Fukienese White Crane and were more straight in and a hard to hard philosophy of fighting. His son was very courteous and good at his form. I have heard that he has since grown very tall and done well in some fighting tournaments.

Then at some point he started praising my Kung Fu, saying that I was strong and young and should keep practicing, while touching my stomach. I stepped back he stepped forward. I sort of thought he was going to punch me in the ribs as hard as he could. Not to be mean, but just out of excitement, like “Wow you do Kung Fu!” Punch.

I said, “Hey what do you want to do first.” I wasn’t sure if he wanted to try hands or what, but I got the feeling he was going to start punching. I was getting a little on edge because he had alreday challenged my skill and now it looked like he was going to physically challenge me. At the same time, he had just donated a large sum of money to the school. Awkward situation, you had to be there. His wife told him to stop scaring people.

Suddenly the conversation shifted to story telling, “You know Master X?” (Master X is a Sifu who was quite well known in Chinatown for being a good fighter, and people say able to punch while holding 100 pound bags of rice. His name is not really Master X, but I will refer to him as Master X in this story unless he reads this story and tells me I can use his name.”

“Master X and me are sworn brothers. (geet bai hing dai) I was able to hit him like this!” and he demonstrated his Kung Fu (now at a distance from me.) A second a go I thought that if I went hard to hard with him at close range I would 90% win because he was old and short and skinnier than me. After seeing him demonstrate, if I had to fight him, I would definitely stay outside and be cautious.

His hand were so fast. The technique was to touch the attaching punch and then follow it in with a counter punch. Now many people practice this, but his hands were very fast. Real Kung Fu Fast. As in not just technique, and youthful quick hands, but the counter strike had gung. Even when I demonstrate this technique to others and they say “Wow that is fast.” I have to explain that his hands were much faster.

Now if people ask me, do you think Ngau Ming could beat Master X in a fight, I would say I don’t know, and maybe not. Ngau Ming often tied or even lost his bar fights. He also didn’t always look where he was punching and hunched his head over much the same way boxers do, which can leaver the back of the head open or leave you open to a tackle which would result in two people rolling on the ground.

But if you ask me, “Do you think Ngau Ming really was able to hit Master X?” I would reply yes, because of the speed of the hands, and the technique’s philosophy. Especially if it was unexpected. Apparently Master X’s reply was, “You are the first person able to hit me.” and none of the students wanted to play hands with Ngau Ming. Again, he was also sworn brothers with Master X, which would explain the dynamic of the situation.

If I had played hands with Ngau Ming before seeing him demonstrate, I could easily have been knocked down, out, or dead, especially if the counter strike attacked the neck. he learned the techniques in China from Tong Bak (Grandfather Tong?) who other of our members have also talked to recently when they went back to China to visit family. That Kung Fu is supposed to be Hung Gar, but is recognized as the practitioners as completely different than any other Hung Gar, and is claimed to be by the practitioners to be more original than other Hung Gar. To us, the stances and philosophy is similar to Bak Mei or some Hung Gar Bak Mei mix. But who ware we to judge since that is not the system we practice. (We practice White Crane. Both the Shaolin and Tibetan Branch. Sifu also absorbed the best of the Kung Fu of the surrounding Villages, and Masters he defeated in Guangzhou while hiding out there.)

As Ngau Ming left he continued to touch my stomach pushing on it with his fist even as we saw him off to his car. “Keep up! Keep Practice! More Power! Very Powerful.” He kept telling me in English, despite the fact that we had been conversing in Chinese.

Meeting him was definitely an eye opener in many ways and a good experience. His was the true face of many of the average Kung Fu practitioners in China of that generation. They learned Kung Fu for fighting, but also were so excited by the joy of doing the moves that besides life or death fights, they might not be able to restrain themselves from challenging friends. I think if he was younger, he definitely would have started hitting me. Not that he would have meant anything bad by it, but simply because seeing how my Kung Fu was in the form, we would want to try and crack it’s code, or solve the puzzle playing out the Kung Fu in real time fist to face.

The reason why he so respected Jing’s Sword form, was because he saw no counter to those moves. They were too fast and smooth. Also, I think his real fights, the gang related ones, involved the long knives they used to hack away at each other and seeing that must have left a deep impression in his mind, as he spoke of regret of having been a part of that stuff now that he had dealt with those memories in old age.

I have heard since that he passed away in his sleep. Considering his life, which had much violence,drugs, and gambling in his youth, I would say he had a good and peaceful end, being survived by a strong son, and a good wife who was a good businesswoman as well.

I don’t know where his son is now, but we would love to have him at our school if he would still want to learn with us.

Infant Chi Gung

I have discovered a series of exercises that can be a rigorous workout for the parent while at the same time being safe and soothing for the infant. Some of them utilize slings, car seats, and much can be done simply holding the baby safely in your arms. Though some of these techniques require more attention to detail and experience with holding children. Nonetheless. It for the young mother and father to get in a very good full body, chi Gung workout, while simultaneously soothing your child. The motion will stop crying pretty much every time so long as there is not another reason for crying (i.e. feeding time or diaper changing time.)
There is no need to get in a car, or to turn on a hair dryer. This works even better and enables you to stay or get into incredible shape in a short period of time.

Since you can do the workout face to face with your child maintaining eye contact, (that is before the doze off) you can bond with your child as well. You do not need to "make time" for these things as it is possible to do all of these at once.

To Learn how, or if a friend is interested in learning how
Contact me at 781-888-0631
acheung-whitecrane@hotmail.com