You may have heard of martial arts like taekwondo and wing chun, but do you know what is "Singa Fist"?

Created more than 30 years ago

Singa Fist (or 新加拳 in Mandarin) was created more than 30 years ago, in 1985.

It was born when eight grandmasters of different martial art styles from the Singapore Martial Arts Instructors Association combined moves from their respective craft.

These eight styles are silat, taekwondo, karate, Northern Shaolin kungfu, Southern Shaolin kungfu, judo, aikido, and silambam.

"The spirit that drove this endeavour was a national unity to celebrate the cultures behind Singapore’s various martial arts."

- TODAY voices forum letter, April 24, 2017.

One of the grandmasters, Teo Choon Teck, became its founder and the art form is still being taught today.

Here's a demonstration of the silat, Northern Shaolin kungfu, and silambam components of Singa Fist, published by Chinese radio channel Capital 95.8:

When classes for Singa Fist started, Teo welcomed thousands of students from all ethnic groups to his Sancheendo Martial Arts Institute in Kallang. 

"Back then, there were a lot of Chinese, Malay, Indian students...whoever wanted to learn, I would teach and there really were quite a number of interested students.”

- Teo Choon Teck, CNA article, 23 Sept. 2017.

Many learnt of the martial art class via word of mouth, advertisements. The class was even invited to perform in the 1987 National Day Parade.

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A slow decline

However, over time, the art form went into decline. Mention Singa Fist today and you'll probably get a blank look.

Even a quick Google search for "Singa Fist" yielded only three relevant results. It's almost as if this martial art form never existed.

Teo, in the interview with Channel NewsAsia, mentioned that his knee surgeries hampers him from teaching the class. But even without his leg problems, it seems that Singa Fist is seeing a waning interest.

"Anyway, nobody wants to learn it, and nobody practises it anymore...sometimes I think it’s a waste … but there’s no use. Just let it die out.”

- Teo Choon Teck, CNA article dated 23 Sept. 2017.

Today, the Singa Fist class size numbers about 10 practitioners, a far cry from its glory days.

Reasons for its decline that have been put forth include how it isn't as 'sexy' as other international martial art, or that it's not as useful as other self-defence/combative forms, but such reasoning miss the point.

More time needed?

Singa Fist, as a product of its time, represents the aspirations of a culture with a new growing identify.

Take Hainanese Curry Rice and Singlish, which took bit and pieces from elsewhere and made them more than the sum of their parts, to become part of our identity.

Perhaps this home-grown martial art needs more time and attention to evolve into something that we Singaporeans can feel passionate about, just as we do for Singlish.

If you're interested in learning Singa Fist, Taichokun teaches it as part of their grading for Brown Belt.

Interested parties can contact them at Geylang East Grove Residents Committee. The class trains every Saturday at 8pm. 

You can catch the History Channel's short YouTube video on Singa Fist below:

Top image adapted from a screenshot from History Channel YouTube video. 

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