Fukien White Crane

Fukien Pai Ho Chuan (Fujian Bei He, Bak Hok) is sometimes credited as the progenitor of the Southern Hand. It certainly shares some striking resemblances to other southern arts such as Southern Preying Mantis, Bak Mei, Southern Dragon, Southern Snake, Wing Chun, Wa Lu, etc. Sometimes it is just called Fukien Boxing, since it can be thought of as a class of boxing.

The Fukien White Crane Christopher Casey brought back from Taiwan came from S.Y. Chen, P.C. Hsieh, and the Hong Men Huei. Master Chen was regarded as one of the Five Tigers of Taiwan and Master Hsieh was reportedly a bodyguard for Chang Kai Shek. The Fukien White Crane curriculum is quite vast, consisting of many empty hand forms, Joint Hands, specialized drills, weapons, mook training, apparatus, ground fighting, chin na, shuai chiao, kong sao, conditioning (e.g. iron palm, iron body), medicine, etc. However the core of the art is found in the very specialized drills it uses, not in the physical forms.