What did Stephen Chow mean about Praying Mantis?

Question

In "Shao-lin soccer," Stephen Chow mocks a skinny kid who shows him a praying mantis form and says "you're giving kung fu a bad name." In an earlier movie I read that he killed a master of a "lost" praying mantis style with a can of bug spray.
Is Praying Mantis considered less effective for combat by other kung fu practitioners?

I'm not sure what he meant, Northern or Southern. I looked into the Wiki and other places for evidence of what he meant, and couldn't find anything, just that there's several types usually classed as northern and southern. Is there something wrong with one of them?

Answer 1

In the movie, the Chinese conversation actually went as follows,
Stephen, "You've studied Praying Mantis Fist?"
Shaking Kid nods, "A little."
Stephen, "Then stop giving Shaolin kungfu a bad name."

This conversation is based on the assumption that the audience knows the commonly spread history that Praying Mantis kungfu has its origins in Shaolin temple and that it is considered one of the higher level arts at the temple. A monk would normally practice years of other fists before even touching the basics of Praying Mantis. The shaking kid's rendition made a mockery of Shaolin arts with his watered down attempt at holding the posture "Praying Mantis Catches the Cicada."

Because the Praying Mantis system's widespead fame in Hong Kong, many movies have made the style the top and bottom of the kungfu foodchain with masters of deadly mantis in some and idiots of shaky mantis in others. The exchange in this movie was actually paying homage to the classic hongkong kungfu flicks.

Answer 2

Basically any style of martial arts where the practitioner strikes a pose is considered to "foofy".

This striking pose thing became big at the turn of the nineteenth century by a man named Wong Fei Hung. Hung was a martial artist and a doctor who helped out allot of people in his time using his skills. One thing that stood out in every body's mind was the fact he would name the positions that he was performing while fighting. This is why people "strike the pose" now. But in recent years people who do strike a pose have been novice fighters at best and tarnished many Kung Fu styles known today.

Mantis just so happens to be one of those styles. Mantis is a good system as long as it is taught with the intent of being used as a fighting style. In order to learn this style properly (like many other styles in china) you will receive many bumps and bruises.

Answer 3

are you talking about southern or northern mantis?

i'm not the guy to ask. southern is unrelated to northern and rather secretive. it is meant for fighting and doesn't look as pretty either.

Answer 4

That is a matter of opinion and we all know what opinions are like...