What is the difference between northern and southern schools of Chinese kung-fu?

Question

Having studied Kung Fu. I wondered what your thought were?

Answer 1

Northern Chinese were typically taller than the Southern Chinese. So Northern chinese emphasized reach while southern emphasized close in techniques. The most obvious example of this is the two main mantis styles, Seven Star Mantis (Northeren and Shaolin derivative) and Southern Mantis (Southeren, it says southeren...).

Answer 2

I remember my grandpa mentioning a little trivia about that. The chinese people who lived in the mountainous northern region of China were used to climbing the mountains and hills while carrying firewood and buckets of water which made their legs strong, so Northern styles like Shaolin Changquan for example emphasized kicks and jumping a lot more than the southern styles. Southern styles on the other hand put more emphasis on hand techniques and immovable stances since most of the people who lived south of the Yangtze river worked as boatmen who were used to rowing oars while balancing on a swaying boat thereby developing good upperbody strength and solid stances commonly found in southern styles like Wing Chun.

Answer 3

the southern style are more aggressive than the northern style. the southern style needs to be close to their opponents to deliver the blows whereas the northern style keeps their opponents at bay with their reach thus more defensive..

Answer 4

i have heard a story that in the south, they often fought on boats that were not very stable, so they developed lower stances, while the northern people fought with much higher stances and more high foot techniques.

Answer 5

no difference