A Story

功 = skill, art labor, effort, "kung fu" - Chinese martial arts
夫 = "this, that", "exclamatory final particle"

功夫, often transliterated to "kung fu", (though I prefer "gong fu" because of how I pronounce it) actually means "work". We think of kung fu associated with Chinese martial arts and it is – though when you look deeper at the character 功, it really means "skill", "art", "labor", "effort".

功夫 is the same word one would use to describe their practice and dedication toward anything – art, cooking, philosophy, sport, activism, studies etc. 功 is the same word one would use for "going to work".

功夫 of course also refers to Chinese martial arts or "kung fu". For example, you might refer to Chinese, Cantonese, Hong Kong kung fu movies in Cantonese as: 功夫片 "kung fu movies".

Even in the Chinese martial arts sense, kung fu still refers to work and working towards one's own practice. Sifu, "everyone has their own kung fu, you cannot learn someone else's. Everyone has a different body, mind, perspective. Everyone must find their own truth." It's not about copying the kung fu or movements that someone else does, it's about figuring out, practicing and finding your own kung fu.

"Martial arts" actually has its own word, which is 武術 and is different from 功夫 "kung fu". Throughout this dictionary, you'll see I refer to Chinese martial arts as "kung fu" as opposed to "Chinese kung fu" or "Chinese martial arts" because that's what "kung fu" inherently means to me.

Kung fu encompasses everything from the ancient 少林拳 Shaolin Kung Fu, 太極拳 Tai Chi Kung Fu, 螳螂拳 Praying Mantis Kung Fu to 詠春拳 Wing Chun Kung Fu (as made popular in culture with "Ip Man" movies), to 李小龍 Bruce Lee's 截拳道 Jeet Kune Do which has its foundation in Wing Chun Kung.

You'll notice 拳 appears in all of the kung fu names above, which means "fist" and also refers to the style of kung fu.

Date Added: 3/22/2023
Last Updated: 6/21/2023