Wing Chun (Chinese: 詠春 or 咏春, lit. "singing spring") is a concept-based fighting art, form of Southern Chinese kung fu, and close-quarters system of self-defense. Etymology In Chinese, this martial art is referred to as 咏春拳 (simplified script) or 詠春拳 (traditional script). If it is written in an almost identical way in traditional and simplified, it is not pronounced and transcribed in the same way according to the regions and their dialects: Yǒngchūn quán in Mandarin pinyin, Wing-chun kuen in Cantonese Wade-Giles. It is made up of 2 terms: 拳 (quan/kuen) which means “fist, boxing” and the term 詠春 (wing-chun, in Cantonese) meaning "singing spring". The full name is thus translated as "singing spring boxing". In its short designation, the martial art is simply designated by these two sinograms: the sinogram 詠 yǒng/wing: "to sing, to sing..." the sinogram 春 chūn/chun: "spring, vitality..." This martial art is sometimes referred to by 永春, characters different from 詠春, but pronounced and transcribed in the same way: They are literally translated as "eternal spring", the character 永 meaning "eternal, endless". These characters also designate the Yongchun region near the city of Quanzhou (Fujian). If the use of 詠春 seems privileged today for wing chun styles, 永春 still appears in the name of other southern Chinese martial arts (with 永春 often transcribed Weng Chun); for example jee shim weng chun and Yǒng Chūn Bái Hè Quán (永春白鶴拳). Romanization In the West, the name of this martial art has been transcribed variably due to the use of different or personal Chinese language romanization methods, and differences in pronunciation between Chinese languages (but Cantonese was often preferred) or according to Western languages. In addition, some wing chun masters voluntarily created their own term, in order to dissociate their personal teaching from traditional teachings. For example, Yip Man's Ving Tsun or Leung Ting's Wing Tsun. Finally, this martial art is pronounced quite identically in the West, but is written with many spellings: ving tsun, wing tsun, wing tsung, yongchun, weng chun, wyng tjun, ving tjun, wing tzun, wing tschun. Wing Chun is the most common form, used apply to all lineages of this martial art. Context Context of the name Wing Chun varies between various branches of Wing Chun. Common legend is that the name is derived from Yim Wing-chun, the mythical progenator of the martial art, who was a student of the legendary Abbess Ng Mui.