There is a decent chance you already know something about Foshan without knowing you know it. If you have watched a Wong Fei-hung film, or any of the Ip Man films, or a fair slice of Hong Kong cinema from the last fifty years, you have been watching stories that started here.
Foshan is one of the most important places in the history of Chinese martial arts. Not in a museum sense, either. Schools still teach here, lion dance troupes still rehearse in courtyards, and if you walk around the old town on the right evening you will hear drums.
Why here
Foshan was a wealthy trading and craft town long before it was an industrial one. Wealth brought merchants, merchants brought goods worth protecting, and that created steady work for people who could fight and, more importantly, teach.
At the same time the town was full of guilds, clan associations and temples, all of which ran their own lion dance teams and their own martial arts halls. Those two traditions grew up together and they are still tangled today. Ask about martial arts here and the conversation drifts to lion dance within about a minute.
Wong Fei-hung
Wong Fei-hung was born in Foshan in the nineteenth century and became the most filmed folk hero in Chinese cinema. Dozens upon dozens of films have been made about him.
What is interesting is that he is not remembered mainly as a fighter. He was a physician who ran a medicine shop, treated the poor, taught Hung Ga kung fu and led a lion dance troupe. The character that survives in popular culture is a man of restraint who fights reluctantly and heals more often than he hurts, and that reputation appears to have a genuine basis rather than being a screenwriter’s invention.
There is a memorial hall dedicated to him in the Ancestral Temple complex in central Foshan, and it is one of the easiest and most rewarding stops in the city.
Ip Man and Wing Chun
Ip Man is the other name that brings people here. He was born in Foshan, learned and taught Wing Chun, later moved to Hong Kong, and among his students was a young man called Bruce Lee.
Wing Chun itself is worth understanding a little, because it explains why the films look the way they do. It is a close range style built around economy: short movements, a centre line you defend and attack along, and the idea that you should not use more effort than the situation requires. It was developed to let a smaller person handle a larger one, and there is nothing decorative about it.
The Ip Man Tong memorial hall in Foshan tells his story, and it sits close enough to the Ancestral Temple that you can comfortably see both in one visit.
The Ancestral Temple, which is the heart of all of this
Zumiao, the Ancestral Temple, is the place to start. It dates back centuries, it is beautifully preserved, and it is not only a temple. The complex holds the martial arts memorial halls, a Cantonese opera stage, and some of the finest Shiwan ceramic roof decoration you will see anywhere.
Those roof ridges deserve a moment. They are crowded with figures from opera and legend, made in the local kilns, glazed in deep greens and browns, and they are the point where Foshan’s ceramics tradition and its storytelling tradition meet on one roof.
On many days there are lion dance or martial arts demonstrations in the courtyard. They are aimed at visitors, and they are also genuinely good, performed by people who train seriously.
Lion dance, which is a sport here
If you think of lion dance as a New Year decoration, Foshan will change your mind. The southern lion tradition is strong here and it is athletic and competitive. Two performers work inside one lion, and the good teams perform on raised poles with jumps between them that are frankly alarming to watch.
The lion heads themselves are made locally, and the workshops that build them are an art form of their own: bamboo frames, papier mache, painted by hand and finished with fur and mirrors. Some workshops welcome visitors, and watching a head being made is a lovely, quiet hour.
Can you train while you are here?
Yes, and more easily than you might expect. Foshan has working schools, and quite a few are used to occasional foreign visitors dropping in. You will not become a Wing Chun practitioner in a week, but a single session with a real teacher in the city where the style grew up is a memory worth having.
Ask your hotel, or ask us if you are here with us. Arrangements are usually informal and people are welcoming. Go with respect, arrive on time, and do not turn up expecting a film scene.
How to fit it into a working trip
Most of this sits in Chancheng, the old central district, and it clusters tightly. The Ancestral Temple, the Wong Fei-hung memorial and the Ip Man memorial can be done comfortably in half a day, and the surrounding old streets are pleasant to wander afterwards.
Late afternoon is a good time. The light is better for the roof ceramics, the heat has eased, and you can finish with dinner nearby. If you have one free afternoon in Foshan and no strong preference about how to spend it, spend it here.