WTF is White Crane?

Hi and welcome to the first step of a thousand-mile journey.  :-)

White Crane Kung Fu is an often misunderstood style.  One of the fore-most reasons for this misunderstanding is probably because there are different styles of "White Crane".  There are wikipedia entries for each style, so I won't waste too much exposition on them.

• Fujian or Fukien White Crane:  This is a short-range southern style of Kung Fu known for qigong breathing, Qin Na, and "crane wing" strikes using the open hand.
• Crane style Kung Fu:  This is not a style by itself, but most often a part of the 5-animal styles, most notably from Hung Gar.  The techniques are similar to the Fujian White Crane style strikes.
• Tibetan White Crane, aka Lama Fist or Lama Pai, aka Hop Gar:  This is a hybrid style, most probably transported from Tibet, using characteristically large swinging arm strikes and jumping footwork.   

From the time I started training with Zhu Sifu in about 2002 to about 2006 when I left Arizona, we had always simply called it "White Crane".  From my limited understanding of these other styles, it seems like Zhu Sifu's White Crane is more of a 70-30 hybrid of Tibetan White Crane with Fujian style White Crane.  Of course, sticking to "styles" and "lineages" as we know them now is more of a modern phenomenon.  Most Chinese Martial Artists trained in multiple styles and incorporating techniques or even entire forms into your own style was normal practice.  Before becoming a practitioner of White Crane, Zhu Sifu was already proficient in his own Zhu Gar (or Zhu family style kung fu) as well as Hung Gar, and perhaps other styles as well.  

From talking with Zhu Sifu, his direct Sifu was a man named Wen Yuen Tak who, like him had also learned a variety of martial arts, and was purported to be a great fighter.  The story is that Wen came across a man named Leung Chen Ting who was fleeing from some people (I never got who).  Wen gave him refuge for 3 years, after which Leung taught him the martial arts that would become his lineage of White Crane.  Of course, I have no idea of the voracity of this story.  It could be true, or maybe just a story.  Historically, that time would have roughly coincided with one of the most chaotic times in Chinese Hhstory, when the Empress Dowager held a weakgrip on the country, as it was simultaneously falling into the hands of colonial powers as devolving into banditry and warlordism.  So, it would not have been at all surprising for anyone (let alone a martial artists) to have gotten into trouble with any number of forces (warlords, bandits, colonials, imperial troops, etc) and have had to fled for his life.

In the end, I think the martial arts itself is more important than the lineage, and how you know, train, and use the martial arts is more important than the technique.