It seems that Yao Zong Xun's lineage was influenced to some extent by Yao's experience with western boxing, and the hand techniques reflect this. I was wondering about other branches of yiquan (also Wang Xiang Zhai"s) do these have more similarities to xingyi etc

The techniques my teacher taught were similar to Xingyiquan, and most strikes were done with the open hand.

Wang Shang Dzai thought western boxing's cross-punch was the bee's knee's.