Title for an Expert or a Martial Arts Teacher in Chinese Culture
Shifu is a Chinese cultural term. Although its pronunciation always sounds the same, there are two ways of writing it using Chinese characters, and they bear two different meanings. The first variation, Shīfù 師傅 ('Expert Instructor'), is used as an honorific, which is applied to various professionals in everyday life. The second variation, Shīfù 師父 ('Father-Teacher'), is an honorific usually reserved as a title to describe teachers of Chinese Martial Arts, and those who might teach other encompassing Chinese traditions, such as painting, sculpting, Feng Shui, singing, etc. While in China both variations are commonly used, in English-speaking countries people are mostly familiar with the second way of writing, in the context of martial art traditions. In its second iteration, Shifu has a deeper meaning than just a teacher, but one of giving the utmost care for his pupils, as would a father. The martial honorific is also commonly Romanized as Sifu (from Cantonese Chinese) or Saihu (from Hokkien Chinese).
