“My kung fu is stronger than yours” is a popular cultural trope and catchphrase, originally referring to the clichéd plots of martial arts films. The phrase is also rendered as “My kung fu is better than yours”, “My kung fu is stronger than your kung fu”, “My kung fu is the best”, etc.

Early mentions[edit]

In 1976, magazine Black Belt published an article about martial artist Leo Fong, where he was quoted as saying: “The plot [of kung fu movies] is usually ‘my school-is-better-than-your school’ or ‘your-master-killed-my-master-so-we’ll-kill-yours’. Those are the basic two themes, even in some of the Bruce Lee movies. The first and second generation Chinese have still heard the legends of the kung fu masters and their exploits and exploitations”.^[1]

In a 1995 interview to Black Belt martial arts instructor Ip Ching recalled a man skilled in the Eagle Claw style who around 1928 joined a martial arts school that was open to every style. The man claimed the title of chief instructor believing that “none of the instructors there had good kung fu” and told the others “your kung fu is rubbish”.^[2] Ip Man was ultimately chosen to defend the others against the intruder.^[2]

Zeke Shif[edit]

On December 25, 1994, the computers of computer security expert Tsutomu Shimomura in San Diego experienced an IP spoofing hacker attack.^[3] The attack was launched by Kevin Mitnick from the domain toad.com in San Francisco via a computer owned by John Gilmore.^[3] On December 27, 1994, Shimomura received a message “Damn you, my technique is the best” on the voice mail.^[4] Three days later the caller left another message, starting with a kung fu scream and saying: “Your security technique will be defeated. Your technique is no good”.^[4] Shimomura’s search f