San Soo Drama Part 1; The Dialects: By Master James Benckert. July 10 2003
I've been asked many many time why all the confusion about lessons, names, techniques and etc. Let me explain it by saying this;
Those of you that studied with Chen Duk for many years know of the difficulty in understanding some of what he said. I studied with Chan Duk for just under 25 years and was still asking him to re-explain certain things to me up until he died in 1991. This was partially due to his accent, and part due to the many dialects he spoke. This created great confusion among his students resulting in what I call the "San Soo Drama". Therefore let me address this language problem as explained to me by Jimmy.
Chan Duk told me he spoke Say Yup, or Sei Yup (4th most used dialect). However, a language not used by the main stream population. Other rare languages used were; Sam Yup, Nig Yuen, Yeung wo, Hop Wo and Hip Kat. However, Cantonese and Mandarin are the most widely used.
Jimmy said he as well as most Chinese spoke a mixture of several tongues at the same time (in Jimmys case, say yup, Cantonese and some Mandarin), and this is why the names of the founders, family members and technique names changed all the time.
As he explained it, "There are thousands of tsai li fo san soo schools and teachers. Because of this, and the fact that dialects very so greatly from village to village, many tsai li fo practitioners pronounce the same names of their teachers, family and schools completely different than other members within our system." I then asked him, is Choy Li Fut the same system we learn, to which he replied; "Choy or Tsai Li Fut or Fo is simply the short version name of this art (tsai li ho fut hung)". He went on to say; "however, there are many many different tsai li fo styles, its what follows the choy or tsai li fo that make all the difference".
Part 2: Confusion
A lingering question among Tsai Li Ha Fut Hung gar san soo students is "why all the confusion?" So let me begin here:
Chen or Chan Duk (Jimmy Woo) rarely gave in depth explanations to his students during class periods. He would answer questions in a general way when in a group so as not to give away to much.
If you asked Jimmy a question when no one else was around, what he told you may vary depending on his relationship with you. This occurred because Jimmy figured that if a student did not measure up to a particular set of standards, or if he did not like that student, then he would not waste his time on deep explanations.
He further looked at teaching the so called secrets of the art in a very traditional way. That is, he did not want to teach something that someone might used against him, or his family later. For instance, one day, I saw a student asking Jimmy a question, I noticed that Jimmy neither answered yes or no to him, but rather simply shook his head up and down in a yes manner and walked away. However, knowing the answer myself, I later approached Jimmy about what had happen. He said, "I do not lie to my students, however, its just not any of his business. By shaking my head I do not have to lie, but I do not have to tell him anything either".
Also, Jimmy rarely explained the basic categories of each system within san soo. This led to teachers and masters within this system having to create some sort of systematic teaching method, adding more fuel to the san soo confusion/discrepancy drama. To further complicate matters, some students were taught complete theories, while other were taught only partial, or semi-partial aspects of the same theory, while still other only would get the head nod causing them to develop theories as they saw fit.
What is more, those that start out with Jimmy know full well that he deny that existence of many techniques such as spinning back kicks, roundhouse kicks, chi, sticky hands and etc only to see him include them later on saying; "it just would have confused everyone in the beginning". In addition, Jimmy also started naming techniques such as eagle claw (ying jao), dragon claw (lung jao), one knuckle punch (lung yen chui), thumb knuckle punch (gok chui), or horn fist, begging dog blow (gou chui) and etc. Seeing that I drew all of Jimmy's forms for him from 1980 till his death I was given a great many of these Chinese names. However, when I started putting these names on the forms, he denied he every said them.
This resulted in more confusion creating what I call "I'm the only one that knows" complex. This consists of masters upon hearing or being exposed to some thing they've never heard from Jimmy, to say; " I never heard that before, therefore Jimmy never said it", or "I'm the only one who knows this or that". One merely has to talk to two or three masters or black belts to see this mentality. I remember years ago, in Jimmy's absence, he had Juan teach a lesson during the Saturday black belt class. It consisted of a lesson in which at the end of the technique, upon knocking the opponent to the ground, he palmed to the spleen while folding his thumb into is palm, explaining, "your thumb will become entangled in the opponents clothing and break if this is not done". Most upper belts at that time had never seen or heard of such a thing and began the "Jimmy never said such a thing syndrome". That is, I never heard Jimmy say that before, therefore, its not true. Even I have found myself caught up in this syndrome, when Tom Ackers told me Jimmy was not born in Hawaii. Not until I talked to Warren Woo did I believe it.