History of Fanchento

Bruce Lee’s principle “Absorb what is useful and reject that which is useless” has become one of the most quoted statements in martial arts circles in recent years. Lee did not have one particular style that he trained. He taught that one must not bind oneself to the restrictions of a single style. He learned various martial arts including numerous styles of Kung Fu, Thai Boxing, Kali, Judo, Ju Jitsu, and Aikido. He also practiced western boxing, wrestling, fencing and French Savate. Bruce Lee’s impact spread far and wide, and has radically awakened the consciousness of many martial artists all over the world.

One of those artists profoundly affected by this awakening was Grandmaster Edward Liang who having trained in a variety of traditional methods of Kung Fu in China immigrated to the USA – the hub of the renaissance. It was at that time that Liang revolutionised his own form of martial arts training in the true spirit of Bruce Lee and opened a school in New York City in the mid 1960’s. Following true Taoist philosophy and Lee’s very own words, Liang resisted the temptation to give what he was teaching a more specific name than simply Kung Fu, and even this was considered a limitation. However, as with Bruce Lee, Liang found that students were not ready to let go of the need for a name for what they were doing just yet, and so he called his teaching Cobra Kung Fu, to symbolise the first animal whose movements and energy are drawn on in his teaching process.

It was in the 1960’s that Mickey Davidow, already a Black Belt in Judo, Ju Jutsu and Karate, traveled to America to further his study of the martial arts with Grandmaster Liang. In the mid 1970’s, Mickey achieved his instructor status from Grandmaster Liang and began teaching Kung Fu in his garage in Johannesburg. Out of respect for the Chinese origins of this way of teaching, Mickey decided to use a Chinese term to describe this type of Kung Fu. The Chinese word “Fanchento” (more correctly pronounced fang se dow) is a Cantonese term for the Cobra snake and reflects the dominant animal energy used in the initial 5 years of training in this practice of the art.

Fanchento is now a non-classical form of Chinese kung fu, heavily influenced by the principles of Jeet Kune Do. It is a move away from the choking limitations of classical style and tradition, being alive, fluid and continually adaptive. At some times it looks like wrestling. At others, kickboxing, Judo, Aikido or Tai Chi Chuan. Classes may sometimes even resemble a Yoga session or even a university philosophy tutorial. Training moves toward the ultimate reality - simplicity. It seeks not to accumulate but to eliminate. To remove all that is not our true selves and arrive within - where we started in the first place - as free, healthy and simple individuals. Fanchento is self-mastery through focus of energy to one point

Techniques and training are not an end but a means to an end, a tool through which we see ourselves, face our fears and expose our inadequacies. A technique mastered is one without ego, without thought, instinctive and natural that can be executed with ease and economy - something that is forgotten but is always there, ready in its perfection. One technique mastered is worth more than a thousand well learned.

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