---
title: Southern Praying Mantis (南螳螂) — the Hakka mantis
---

**Southern Praying Mantis (南螳螂, *****Nán tánglán*****)** is a [Hakka short-bridge art](https://wulin.openmindspace.org/hakka-arts) of close-range infighting — and one of the most commonly **misunderstood** arts in Chinese martial arts, because of its name.

<Callout type="warning">
  **It is *****not***** a branch of Northern Mantis.** Despite sharing the word "mantis," Southern Praying Mantis and the [Northern Praying Mantis (螳螂拳)](https://wulin.openmindspace.org/praying-mantis) of Shandong are **entirely separate arts** — different region, different lineage, different body, different everything. Both simply borrowed the mantis as an image for hooking, grabbing hands; that is a **convergence of names, not of styles.** A Northern Mantis stylist and a Southern Mantis stylist practise nothing in common.
</Callout>

## How it moves

Southern Mantis is pure Hakka short-bridge fighting:

- **The phoenix-eye fist (鳳眼捶)** and clawing, hooking hands at very close range;
- **Extremely short bridges** — sticky, sensing forearm contact, controlling the opponent's bridges and infighting from a tiny distance;
- **Explosive short "gong" power** — sudden whole-body force released over inches;
- An upright, compact, **narrow-gate** frame — almost no kicking, everything decided up close.

It is, in feel, far nearer to [Bak Mei](https://wulin.openmindspace.org/bak-mei) and [Southern Dragon](https://wulin.openmindspace.org/southern-dragon) than to anything from the North.

## The branches — legend and dispute

Southern Mantis is really a **family of related branches**, each with its own legendary origin and an uncertain relationship to the others:

- **Chow Gar (周家)** — the most widespread branch, traced traditionally to **Chow Ah-Nam (周亞南, c. 1800)** — a **legendary** founder — and documented through the master **Lau Soei**, who established it in Guangzhou and Hong Kong.
- **Chu Gar (朱家)** — closely related to Chow Gar (some hold them a single root), attributed to a **Ming-loyalist refugee** of the imperial **Chu (朱)** house. The surname is itself the tell: **朱 was the Ming royal surname**, so this is the familiar **anti-Qing founding myth** pattern, not documented descent.
- **Kwong Sai Jook Lum (江西竹林, "Jiangxi Bamboo Forest")** — a temple-attributed branch whose relationship to Chow and Chu Gar is **disputed**; it spread notably into overseas Chinese communities.
- A minor **Iron Ox (鐵牛)** branch is also named.

<Callout type="info">
  **The honest summary.** Southern Mantis is a **genuine, coherent Hakka close-range art**, but its **origins are legendary and its internal genealogy is disputed** — and it has little public-domain primary text, surviving mainly through oral and modern in-copyright transmission. The wiki records the branches and their traditions, labels the founders as the legends they are, and does not adjudicate the branch disputes it cannot resolve.
</Callout>

## See also

<PageRef space="notes" slug="hakka-arts" text="The Hakka Short-Bridge Arts — the family it belongs to" />

<PageRef space="notes" slug="praying-mantis" text="Northern Praying Mantis (螳螂拳) — the entirely separate art it is often confused with" />

<PageRef space="notes" slug="southern-shaolin" text="Southern Shaolin &amp; the Five Elders — the anti-Qing myth behind the Chu Gar origin" />

## Sources

**[1]** *Southern Praying Mantis*, English Wikipedia ([en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern\_Praying\_Mantis](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_Praying_Mantis)) — the branches (Chow Gar, Chu Gar, Kwong Sai Jook Lum), the body method, and the distinction from Northern Mantis.

**[2]** Chow Gar and Kwong Sai Jook Lum lineage associations, and Benjamin Judkins, *Kung Fu Tea / Chinese Martial Studies* — context on the Hakka mantis traditions and their contested origins.