Q&A – Sashes in Wing Chun Kuen
Rene Ritchie, February 11th, 2008
Toby asks:
Everyone here should be aware of the surface level knowledge that is taught to a white sash student.
Traditionally, Chinese martial arts (of which Wing Chun Kuen is one) do not use “sashes” to denote student level, rank, or instructor experience. They don’t use anything.
Judo began the practice of using colored belts (initially a few, later more) to designate experience levels for competition. Philosophically, Judo was trying to move away from the older practice of Jujitsu and into a modern, sport-based structure. In martial arts, you know something or you don’t; you can use it or you can’t.
But the Judo idea quickly spread to Karate and other Japanese arts, and into Tae Kwon Do, American Kenpo, and other arts. Instructors realized that belts were a motivator for students (status being desirable) and a financial incentive for themselves (desire creating demand). White, brown, black became White, yellow, orange, blue, green, brown, black, became purples and reds and half-colors and stripes and all sorts of other ways to increase the steps, increase the motivation, and (for those who instituted belt fees, testing fees, association fees, and other surcharges) increase the profits.
When Chinese teachers came west and saw commercial Japanese and Korean schools with belt-ranking systems, some decided to implement a China-cized version, substituting sashes for belts. Others who had backgrounds in TKD or Karate and then learned a traditional, rank-less Chinese art, integrated sashes in as well.
In the best of cases (some would argue Judo still and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu now both represents this), belts reflect skill level, aid students in improving, and cost next to nothing aside from the cloth. They can also be handy when schools become widespread, multi-state or multi-national organizations with set standards and high-mobility of students between locations. (Leung Ting’s WT and William Cheung’s TWC would be examples of this).
In the worst cases (some would argue McDojos are in part defined by this), the belts become something bought instead of skill earned (pay the fee, get the belt, actually knowledge and ability be damned), confuse students, and gouge them financially. (Plenty examples of this too, unfortunately).
I had or have colored belts in judo, karate, and BJJ, and did Wing Chun Kuen longer than any of those without any strip of cloth to denote it (traditional mainland sifu — never heard of the practice).
But that’s just it. Sometimes the practice of ranks and sashes can become so widespread, people actually refer to them without realizing how modern, and in some cases anachronistic, they are. The modern and commercial becomes seen as the traditional.
We gain the benefits of stability and interoperability, of scaling and fitting in, but what do we lose?
The small classes where the sifu knew every student and their individual level, replaced by the gigantic class with sub-teacher of the moment looking at colored strips of cloth before deciding which generic drill to begin.
Like most things, there are benefits and risks, and knowing both helps maximize the former and minimize the latter.
(Personally, I’m wearing a black belt right now — leather with a metal buckle from the mall)
Hi Rene,
A lot of interesting points here and very good insight in to why the ‘Sash’/ ‘T Shirt Patch’ has entered the TCMA IMO.
My old Sifu used to say that it was not possible to teach Wing Chun in the same method as he perceived most modern Karate Schools teach. What he meant by that was in a uniform manner during lessons, when particular techniques were drilled by every student, irrespective of level. In that respect, they had belts just to fulfill the incentive part to which you refer and not to let the teacher know who needs which bit next.
In Wing Chun, with a large school, it is vital to know who’s had which bit of the system so far. Especially if the school is open 5 days per week and the students are free to decide on which days they’ll train. If the school has multiple instructors, it makes it very easy for any of them to come in on any day and continue the students education, from where the last instructor left off. It means important parts of the system are not missed out. It also means that instructors need to know the entire schools syllabus off the top of their heads.
This is altogether different from the teaching of a one technique fits the whole (large) class theory, which would lead to the inevitable missing of certain parts of the system, as well as increase the risk of students filling in gaps with unique interpretations and later passing them on to unsuspecting others, further watering down the system for future generations.
Personally I agree with you that having no gradings, small personal groups and a lack of cultural costuming, is far less rizlable than the alternative, but I can also see why the alternative exists.
Kind regards
Shen
@Shen:
Excellent points. I know my own sifu never liked the large classes or trappings of of big schools (he said it reminded him too much of his time in the People’s Army).
I think most things are rather neutral, and if a decent sifu is doing things for a helpful reason, then they’re generally well done and beneficial. However, the same thing can be used by a scammer to bilk students, so the only thing to do is not judge the practice itself, but help inform people to better decide if a specific place is going to be good for them (to learn in).
I was familiar with the ‘grading’ structure of Karate when I was much younger and was astounded to hear Miyagi dismissing this so purely in the first Karate Kid movie (My belt is canvas! You like??) I later understood why when I met my Chinese Sifu.
Man Sifu has a certain way of ‘labelling’ students by the colour of their sash and t-shirts but this is really just an indication of their ‘objective’ in training not so much their skill level. We were a ‘Troupe’ if you like, so uniform was the norm.
When my Sihing and I started The Yum Yeurng Academy we instilled a ‘cycle’ system as we thought it reflected what we were doing, our ‘purpose’. I’ve always appreciated a gradings use, but also understand why it isn’t so important in Traditional Chinese systems as a skill indicator, especially at higher levels. We tend to relate the colours to Five Element theory which also links with the program being studied, and Shaolin I believe.
Like everything, coloured sashes have their place in Traditional arts as long as their purpose is explianed properly and not used just as a money printing machine…