Mian Quan (literally "Cotton Fist") is a northern Chinese

martial arts Martial arts are codified systems and traditions of combat practiced for a number of reasons such as self-defense; military and law enforcement applications; combat sport, competition; physical, mental, and spiritual development; entertainment; a ...

style which most likely originated in the province of

Hebei Hebei or , (; alternately Hopeh) is a northern province of China. Hebei is China's sixth most populous province, with over 75 million people. Shijiazhuang is the capital city. The province is 96% Han Chinese, 3% Manchu, 0.8% Hui, an ...

. There is no definite given record of the creator or origin of the style. The theory for this style is that defense becomes offense and softness turns to hardness, and the practitioner's attacks always follow after the opponent's. Soft attacks gain the upper hand for a practitioner and sets up the opponent for a harder, more dominant array of movements. It was one of the

wushu Wushu may refer to: Martial arts * Chinese martial arts, the various martial arts of China * Wushu (sport), a modern exhibition of traditional Chinese martial arts * Wushu stances, five key stances utilized in both contemporary wushu and traditio ...

styles demonstrated at the

1936 Summer Olympics The 1936 Summer Olympics (German: ''Olympische Sommerspiele 1936''), officially known as the Games of the XI Olympiad (German: ''Spiele der XI. Olympiade'') and commonly known as Berlin 1936 or the Nazi Olympics, were an international multi-sp ...

Berlin, Germany Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constituent ...

. Lan Suzhen performed a modified version of the art at the 1953 Tianjin Sports festival and it was generally well received. The style is simple to use as it does not require advanced movements such as

grappling Grappling, in hand-to-hand combat, describes sports that consist of gripping or seizing the opponent. Grappling is used at close range to gain a physical advantage over an opponent, either by imposing a position or causing injury. Grappling i ...

, therefore only using punches and kicks. Mian Quan requires balanced posture, with the majority of the body relaxed and a short-range attack span. Some lineage below, I could go more however our current system is not called Mian Quan hence I only offer 2 names. Mong Gwa Yu - creator of Mian Quan. Son Fu Ai (1888-1956) - last student of Mong Gwa Yu

Trivia

Mileena of the Mortal Kombat series uses Mian Quan as a secondary fighting style in '' Mortal Kombat: Deception'' and a primary in '' Mortal Kombat: Armageddon''.

References

External links

Mian Quan information
Chinese martial arts {{martialart-stub