Donnie+Yen

= Overview = Donnie Yen, a Hong Kong actor, film producer, and a great martial artist, though he is not as well known as Jet Li, Michelle Yeoh, and Jackie Chan he has starred in many movies with these three actors/actresses. Today, Donnie Yen can be known as a “martial arts master” =﻿Table of Contents= =**- Craving For Martial Arts**= =**- IP Man!**= =**- Analysis**=
 * - Early Years**

**Early Years**
Donnie Yen was born on July 27th, 1963 in Canton, China. His mother was Bow-sim Mark and was a Wudangquan, in other words an internal martial arts master. His father was a newspaper editor, and his name was Klyster Yen. Chris Yen, his younger sister, is also an actress and a martial artists, she appeared in //Black Rose, Adventures of Johnny Tao, and Give 'Em Hell Malone//. At about age 2, Yen and his family moved to Hong Kong and when he was 11 they moved to Boston, Massachusetts. After moving to Boston and dropping out of school, he chose to practice Wushu, but his parents started noticing that he was spending all of his time in the Boston Combat Zone. In response to noticing this, they sent Yen to Bejing and put him with the Bejing Wushu Team for about two years. When he was returning to the United States, he met Yuen Woo-ping and his action choreographing career was soon to begin.

**Craving For Martial Arts**
Since his mother was a Wudangquan, she had so much priority in teaching her son and daughter martial arts. As soon as Yen could walk, his mother started to teach him the way of traditional and modern Chinese WuShu and Tai Chi. In time, he mastered all of what his mother had taught him. The external and internal principles of martial arts. As time went by, his craving for more martial arts knowledge grew more and more. Every kung fu movie that had ever came out, Yen would get his hands on it and watch it. The difference about Yen and most other people in this world was that he could accurately repeat the moves that were shown in the movie displayed by Jackie Chan, Ti Lung, Bruce Lee, and Fu Sheng. He even chose to skip some days of school just to fit in so many movies in one whole day. Yet, he still craved more knowledge about martial arts. Yen decided to learn about other martial art types, so he went to his friends and compared what they knew to what he knew. He went to other schools to see what they had in store for him to learn and eventually he was on his way to finding his true potential of his skills on martial arts.

**IP Man!media type="youtube" key="SXXEnDLShz0" height="349" width="560" align="right"**
Donnie Yen stars in what I think is a great and influential movie called IP Man. In this movie Donnie Yen is IP Man, the maincharacter of this movie. He is known as the best fighter in Fo Shan, China and his martial arts technique is Wing Chun. Wing Chun is a calm and very good defensive form of martial arts. One must have correct balance, structure, and stance. Relaxation is the key to this style of martial arts. One does not rush into the fight, but rather keep up their defensive and let the opponent come at him/her. Even if one misses a hit, it will be way easier to have a follow-up attack and trapping your opponents arms will make them immobile to attack back. After seeing IP Man demonstrates his skills against another master in the movie, a gang of about 6 men come seeking to fight every single master of each of the schools, to show that he is the best and wants to make a school of his own for money and to also show that his martial arts is the best of all. Once he finally meets IP Man he is humiliated and defeated with ease. IP Man restores the honor of the town and everyone has much respect for him. On July 7th, 1937, the Marco Polo Bridge incident had occurred. Japan had taken over China and causing all the lives of the people of china to slowly die out and starvation was a very huge problem. The population of Fo Shan had decreased from 300,000 to 70,000 due to this tragedy. IP's house was taken and was turned into Fo Shan Headquarters. IP was desperate to try and save his family of starvation, so he tries to go out and get a job. Successfully, he gets one at a coal mine as a coolie. Later, he notices his friend Lin goes missing, he later finds out that the Japanese hold matches and for ever Japanese you beat in a match, you obtain a bag of rice. IP Man chooses to fight 10 of these men at once, seeing that his old friend had gotten killed, this is how he takes action. Soon enough, the Japanese commander, Miura, who specializes in karate, wants to find out more about IP Man and wants to see him fight again. Miura threatens IP by telling him if he doesn't train his men, he'll die. IP refuses anyways and challenges him to a fight, which of course Miura accepts. IP and Miura fight in the town square and eventually, IP defeats Miura, but Miura's deputy Sato, shot IP. Sato was killed by his own gun because of Li Zhao (translator for the Japanese, but a Chinese man still) IP Man is taken away and is found out to be alive and starts a Wing Chun school in Hong Kong.

**Analysis**
Donnie Yen, not that many people know about him. Especially compared to the infamous Jackie Chan, or the "one inch punch" Bruce Lee. what about the high-flying Jet Li? Sure, he may not be as well known as these three, but he was involved in a huge movie with a huge event, known as the Marco Polo Bridge Incident. Also, Bruce Lee was Donnie Yen's inspiration to continue on and do martial arts. Just like Yen, many people were inspired by Donnie Yen, his will to continue on and learn so much more about martial arts and the different types of martial arts that were out in the world is very impressive.

Being starred in the movie, “IP Man”, Donnie Yen “encounters” the Marco Polo Bridge Incident that occurred on July 7th, 1937 until July 9th, 1937. The Marco Polo Bridge Incident is the battle between China's National Army against the Imperial Japanese Army. Tough times are brought upon the Chinese. Yen is forced to move out of his home because it is taken over and has become the headquarters of the Japanese Army. The Japanese always have round trips to scout the areas and whenever they would see a Chinese man or woman run, they would chase them down and kill them. Population level went from 300,000 to 70,000 within these 2 or 3 days. The Japanese seemed much more paranoid then the Chinese were. Every time a Japanese soldier would fail to return to his post, even if he was late, the company commander would notify to the regimental commander, that is because he always assumes that the soldier has been captured by the Chinese men or army.

At about 3:30, the morning of July 8th. Japanese reinforcements arrived from Fengtai. The Chinese had put some of their own troops in that area as well. 4:50, two Japanese investigators were allowed into Wanping. The Chinese had not known that those two men were Japanese and because they had not realized that, an ambush had occurred 10 minutes after those two men had entered. Japanese infantry started to assault onwards with the back up of armored vehicles on their side. Two places were getting attacked, first and most obvious, the Marco Polo Bridge and second, a modern railroad bridge, which was located at the southeast part of the town. The Chinese were well prepared as their colonel had the defenses with 1000 men, with the main priority to protect the bridge. Eventually they would get overran, but as the clock continues to tick on, they obtain reinforcements and when the mist and rain starts to drift in, they take all advantage of it and re-obtain the bridge at 6:00 on July 9th, 1937. A truce was attempted between the Japanese and Chinese, but Japanese General Masakazu Kawabe did not accept the truth. He continued to bomb and attack Wanping, being insubordinate to his superiors' orders for about three hours of his life. Finally, he ceased his attacked and was moved to the northeast. Although this wasn't shown in the movie, Yen was the hero that saved his town of Fo Shan. He never lost his dignity as a Chinese man and fought his way to the top in order to save his family. He is a hero that everyone looks up.

Yes, Yen's inspiration was the “one-inch punch” Bruce Lee, many other peoples' inspiration was Bruce Lee as well, but Yen seemed to take this to a whole other level. He studied all the time and learned all the different types of martial arts possible. In all of the movies he has starred in, he shows many different styles of martial arts/fighting, he is a very versatile kung fu fighter. All of his hard work lands him to where he is today. Many people are very inspired by him now. He is the “it” in the action star filming and is known to be a master of martial arts in many different areas, especially in Hong Kong. His martial arts skill is very impressive, he brings the martial arts out in a way that most others can't. With Jackie Chan and Jet Li getting into their older ages, he is the new generation of our time. He will bring out martial arts even bigger then Jackie Chan and Jet Li had done!

Works Cited "Donnie Yen Philosophy." //Donnie Yen's Official Website//. Web. 19 May 2011. . "Donnie Yen." //Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia//. Web. 19 May 2011. . "Donnie Yen Biography." //Donnie Yen's Official Website//. Web. 19 May 2011. . Meng, Benny, and Alfredof Delbrocco. "Wing Chun." //Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia//. Web. 19 May 2011. . "Ip Man (film)." //Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia//. Web. 19 May 2011. . "Martial Arts Actors." //Squidoo : Welcome to Squidoo//. Web. 24 May 2011. . "Marco Polo Bridge Incident." //Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia//. Web. 24 May 2011. . "Donnie Yen." //Shupes//. Web. 24 May 2011. [].

Gee, Garrett, Benny Meng, and Richard Loewenhagen. //Mastering Kung Fu: Featuring Shaolin Wing Chun//. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics, 2004. Print.