Tiger Swallow Fist

Lau, a practitioner of Tiger Swallow Fist

Tiger Swallow Fist (虎燕拳; pinyin: Hǔyànquán; on'yomi: Koenken) is a fictional legendary martial art that marries the power and grace of two animals — the tiger and the swallow.

Description

Huyanquan is a unique martial art, combining two styles of Shaolin Kung Fu into a lethal form of weaponless combat. The shaolin monks looked to nature for guidance and developed many forms of kung fu based on the movements of animals. Originally there were five shaolin animal styles: tiger, crane, leopard, snake, and dragon. Over the centuries new animal forms were developed, including praying mantis, monkey, and swallow.

From the tiger comes strength, with simple strokes of full force. Huyanquan has many direct, powerful attacks, especially with the fists or with strong palm strikes emulating a tiger's paw. From the swallow comes speed, with quick combination attacks. Merging the two yields a style that is an offensive powerhouse -- quick, strong, and straight to the point.

Huyanquan is something of a unique style likely based on the various martial arts in Chinese cinema and is therefore not commonly practiced in modern times. Much of its power lives on in legend, as it once stood as one of the most feared of all fighting styles. In regards to concept, it is also somewhat based off of Yanqingquan.

Trivia

• The Tiger Swallow Fist martial art is also the fighting style used by the character Lan-Di from the other SEGA IP, Shenmue.
  • Lan-Di coincidentally, is also an antagonist that shares the same Japanese voice actor as Lei-Fei (Takahiro Sakurai), who was Lau Chan's assailant.
  • Further adding to the irony is while Lan-Di has already mastered the Tiger Swallow Fist, Lei-Fei seeks to learn of its secrets and is not a bonafide practitioner of it yet.

Practitioners

• Lau Chan
• Liu Kowloon