Kung Fu's Ultimate Warrior

14 書香人物 P E R S O N A L I T Y & B O O K S SUNDAY, MARCH 22, 2009 • TAIPEI TIMES [ HARDCOVER: U S ] SUNDAY PROFILE The inescapable Aged 77, Lo Man-kam teaches kung fu classes twice law of perversity daily, five times a week. PHOTO: HO YI, TAIPEI TIMES BY ALEXander LinKLater THE GUarDIAN, LONDON Daniel Bergner is a New York Times journalist whose previous ‘Wing chun’ is about the books have examined life in a maximum-security prison in relationship between people Louisiana and the fallout from war ... If you don’t fight a person in Sierra Leone. This fine, brief, intense study is not a departure who knows kung fu, how do you from such territory so much as know you can use kung fu? a development of his interest in existential extremes. The Other — Lo Man-kam, kung fu master Side of Desire is the result of long periods Bergner has spent in the company of paraphiliacs — people who operate in what are for many remote regions of erotic experience. THE OTHER SIDE OF DESIRE: He tells the stories of four FOUR JOURNEYS INTO THE FAR P14 subjects. There is Jacob, a discreet REALMS OF LUST AND LONGING man desperate to be cured of a P14 fanatical foot fetish that, though BY DANIEL BERGNER it shames him, also offers a route Features 200 PAGES to transcendent ecstasy. More morally confounding is Roy, a ALLEN LANE Features husband on probation for attempt- ing to seduce his 12-year-old stepdaughter. Operating (just) on compelled to act on it. the legal side of consensual, but at The moral stand-off between Kung fu’s ultimate warrior eye-watering levels of sadism, is a desire and action is what well-known New York dominatrix underpins the finely nuanced called the Baroness, who gets true counterpoints of Bergner’s writing. A nephew and pupil of Ip Man, Lo Man-kam erotic satisfaction from her work. If, in the case of the pedophiles, it is one of the world’s leading ‘wing chun’ masters And then there is Ron, a “devotee,” is only in resisting action that they whose insatiable yearning for remain within a moral framework, sex with amputees gives rise to a what of unfortunate dreamers BY HO YI redemptive love story. such as Jacob, whose desire is Staff reporter Bergner evinces remarkable harmless? If only he could have levels of trust and candor, admitted his foot fetish to his not only from his subjects, wife, instead of trying to annul but from the sexologists and his yearnings with prescribed a teenager, Bruce Lee (李 time, a police officer’s monthly salary was 紅 psychiatrists whose clinical medication, he might have gained 小龍) was often bullied. On about US$90. 紅藍 sessions he attends and who also unique happiness. one occasion, while walking “It was just like my grandmaster [Ip’s As 藍 provide him with a hinterland of The story Bergner tells down the street with a friend, a gang of sifu Chan Wah-shun (陳華順)] who had 黃 incidental case histories — from that most movingly reveals ruffians picked a fight. taught only 16, 17 pupils during his entire 黃 the harmlessly eccentric to the the paradoxical naturalness of Lee: “Quick, let’s get out of here.” life. He couldn’t really make a living out 黑 sexually murderous. These cases perversity is that of Ron, the The friend: “Don’t be silly. I will beat of it if he didn’t charge more,” said the 黑 are presented neither as circus amputee fetishist. “Devotees,” the hell out of them.” And he did. 77-year-old Lo, which explains how wing parades of the weird, nor as as they are known, are often “Don’t you know I’m practicing wing chun became known as “boxing for rich mere clinical accounts of deviant considered repulsive even by chun (詠春)?” the victor asked. men’s sons” (少爺拳). sexuality. Instead, with the amputees themselves. That’s how Shortly afterwards, in 1956, Lee asked A wing chun sifu can only take in a utmost sensitivity and intellectual Laura views Ron when they first his father for US$25 and followed in his limited number of students at one time curiosity, Bergner extends an meet. A car-crash victim, her legs buddy ��Lo Man-kam’s (盧文錦)�� footsteps by because of the martial art’s unique teaching invitation to view all such variants were severed near the tops of becoming a pupil of Ip Man (葉問). method. Its practitioners’ skills and as belonging to a continuum of her thighs. As a result, she left Lo can recall many stories like this knowledge come from one-on-one practice ordinary human desire. her husband, despaired of being from his youth in 1950s Hong Kong, where and training because the school focuses His most obvious moral- a good mother and attempted he studied kung fu under his uncle Ip, the on honing reflex reactions and not fancy psychological dilemma comes in suicide. Yet, having overcome her grandmaster of the wing chun style of moves and techniques that can be learned Lo Man-kam, left, in action on the rooftop of his Bade Road apartment in Taipei. PHOTO: HO YI, TAIPEI TIMES the confrontation with pedophilia. initial misgivings, she now lives kung fu. through group drills. While Roy is a man at war with with Ron, a man whose socially A world-renowned wing chun sifu “Wing chun is about the relationship himself, and not guilty of actually alienating desire dovetails exactly (師父), or master, Lo doesn’t exude between people ... If you don’t fight a To Lo, the trick of his trade is to that employs physics, mathematics, having sex with his stepdaughter, with her physical handicap. awe-inspiring seriousness as might be person who knows kung fu, how do you maintain an open mind about other martial kinematics and military tactics to explain Bergner inserts clear signposting This, it transpires, is not merely expected. Rather, he likes to crack jokes know you can use kung fu?” Lo said. art styles. “You don’t know who your and dissect the martial art. (the only time he does so) to a compensatory relationship, and make visitors and students feel After a decade-long apprenticeship rival is, nor can you anticipate his or her “In Chinese culture, it is all about make sure the reader does not but one in which Laura finds a relaxed and at ease at his apartment on under his uncle, Lo left Hong Kong for moves. Therefore, there is no assumption ownership and authority passed down by confuse the author’s curiosity with fulfillment that was absent in her Bade Road where he resides and teaches Taiwan in 1960 and joined the military. On in fighting. You contact, sense and respond. the father and grandfather. For Westerners, anything too close to empathy. Yet previous existence. In this union wing chun. re-entering civilian life in 1975, Lo opened That process becomes part of your physical it’s science and reasoning,” he said. having done so, he incorporates of the misshapen, Ron and Laura In the living room, replete with trophies, a school in Taipei and has taught and reflexes, which can be called wing chun, or The going is tough for students at the findings of research showing uncover a deeper geometry. medals and memorabilia, several faded promoted wing chun ever since. any other name for that matter,” said Lo. Lo’s school. During his teaching career that 21 percent of a study group What is desire and what shapes photographs of Ip stand out and affirm Lo’s Members of the elite strata of society Over the years, Lo has traveled that spans 34 years, some half a dozen revealed sexual attractions to it? This is not just a nature-versus- status as a kung fu legend. have studied under Lo, such as one of extensively, to France, Germany, students have mastered the martial art to children, while 7 percent indicated nurture muddle. Some of the Rewind to 1950, when Ip fled to Hong Chiang Kai-shek’s (蔣介石) grandsons and the Switzerland and Hungary, giving lectures, Lo’s standard. they might have sex with a child cases in this book reveal a clear Kong from Guangdong Province shortly King of Brunei and his brother and sons. demonstrations and training and has At his advanced age, Lo stays active if not caught. “Given the probable biology of desire. Others reveal the after the Chinese Civil War ended. An The master’s expertise in combining taught foreign students hailing from more teaching classes five days a week, and social undesirability of such delineations of social or cultural acquaintance helped to get him a job wing chun with judo and other close- than 50 countries. traveling. He is as popular as ever, partly admissions,” an eminent British formation. Make no assumptions teaching kung fu at a hotel. At first, there range combat techniques makes him a Lo makes sure he has room for thanks to Donnie Yen’s (甄子丹) Ip Man psychiatrist observes, “we may about which may be which, how- were only five or six students, one of which sought-after instructor by intelligence, students from abroad to stay at his place. (葉問), which was released last month and hypothesize that the actual rates ever, because that may lead you was Lo. police and military bodies, both at home The current tenant is a young Japanese elicited a surge of interest in wing chun. were even higher.” What makes to miss the less palatable realities Studying under the wing chun master and abroad.

Load more