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Wing Chun is the name of a system of martial arts developed in southern China approximately 300 years ago by a woman.

During the reign of Emperor K'anghsi of the Ching Dynasty (1662-1722), the Shaolin monastery called Siu Lam of Mt. Sung, in the Honan province, had become very powerful through Kung Fu training. The Manchurian government was afraid of an uprising and sent troops to destroy the Siu Lam. However, it was internal treachery that sealed the fate of the monastery, with traitorous monks setting it alight. Only a handful of monks managed to escape the onslaught of the Manchurian army. 

Wing Chun's originator, the Buddhist nun Ng Mui, was a master of Shaolin Kung Fu and is believed to have been one of the fabled five ancestors who escaped the temple's destruction. She used this knowledge to invent a way to take advantage of the weaknesses inherent in the other Shaolin systems. She started thinking of the concepts while observing a battle between a cobra and a crane. This new system was well-guarded and passed on to only a few, very dedicated students.
Later, the style became known as Wing Chun, after Ng Mui's first student, a woman named Yim Wing Chun (translated as Beautiful Springtime). 


Bruce Lee and Yip Man

It is arguably the most famous single style within the Shaolin system. In 1949, Yip Man, who was considered to be the grandmaster of modern Wing Chun, brought the style out of China into Hong Kong and eventually to the rest of the world. It was made known to the west by Bruce Lee and James Lee in the late 1960s in what was the single most influential introduction of Chinese Kung Fu outside China. 

There are two concepts that are essential to Wing Chun: 
Centerline and Simplicity

It is a style that emphasizes economy of movement and combines the practical applications of using both defense and offense simultaneously.