Doc-Fai Wong Responds
to the Kung Fu Forum
I haven't read the kung fu forum in the Internet for many years. I?ve
learned the forum has no value and most of the information offered was
either inaccurate or untrue. Last month, one of my fans sent an e-mail with
some text copied from one of the forums and I found it to be quite amusing.
All the people who were discussing me were people who did not know me at
all! The information that they were presenting was completely inaccurate!
The only thing that the reader can get from these forums is gossip and
slandering of other martial artists.
I would like to take this opportunity to set the record straight. I will
answer questions which people may have because of incorrect information
presented on these forums. I believe that when someone doesn't like me, no
matter how I explain myself, he or she is not going to believe me. Therefore
I?m not answering any direct questions from the forum. I am doing this for
one time only for my fans and my friends.
In the 1960's, when I was learning from my Sifu, Lau Bun there were four major lion dancers and kung fu performers at that time. I performed the "Five Animal Form"; Dave Leong performed the "Plum Blossom Spear Form". Clifford Wong performed the "trident Form"; Johnny Fong performed the "Kwan Do Form". We also performed other individual and two person sets too. Besides the four of us as the main performers at that time, some of my junior classmates, Larry Young and Susan Lam were also part of the demo team. During that period of time, the kung fu people in San Francisco Chinatown called me Ng Ying Siu Jee "Five Animal Kid" My classmate, Mr. Tim Hall is one of the witnesses of this, and can confirm it nowadays.
After Lau Bun passed away in 1967, my si-hing Jimmy Jew Leong took over the
Hung Sing Studio and relocated the studio to Spofford Alley in Chinatown,
San Francisco. He appointed me to be the head instructor for the new school.
In this way my si-hing Jimmy Jew Leong could continue to instruct Lau Bun?s
beginner students. Since he was the new owner of the Hung Sing studio, it
was referred to as ?The New Hung Sing?. Because the versions of the forms
(sets) that Master Jew taught were different from what I learned from Lau
Bun, I had to learn the new versions in order to teach the new beginners. He
also had me to represent him for all the Kung Fu Activities such as: Lion
dancing, parades, kung fu association meetings, etc. Later, my si-hing Jew
encouraged me to teach outside of Chinatown. Slowly, over time, I had less
time to help him teach anymore. All the new beginner students of The New
Hung Sing Studio, who only saw me once in awhile, incorrectly assumed I was
a senior student of Master Jew. Only a few of his senior students knew about
my true background. After I opened my own school in 1968 and named it Shau
Hung, I went back to teaching the versions of the forms that my teacher Lau
Bun taught me. Up to now, I am still teaching the Lau Bun style of Choy Li
Fut forms without changing any of the movements.
One CLF website listed most of Lau Bun's students on it. Much to my surprise
I noticed that my name was not included! However, just because my name is
missing from someone's website doesn't mean I'm wasn't a student of Lau
Bun's. I can see they only look at me as their competitor not as one of
their seniors or Si-Suk; therefore they don't want to tell the truth. I
laughed when I saw the names of all the junior classmates I taught. In fact,
most of them are not actively training anymore. That is fine with me, after
all that website belongs to them and they have right to list whoever they
want. But that website's students get an incomplete and confusing history of
The American Hung Sing School. I feel it is important that all my students
and their organizations truly understood the real relationship between Lau
Bun and me. After all this is part of the history of Choy Li Fut and should
be represented correctly. Obviously this is most important to those of us
who were close to Lau Bun and pass on his knowledge. The rest of the CLF
world and other lineages don't care if it is true or not!
I have never claimed that I am ?the last living carrier of Professor Lau
Bun's legacy?. A student of mine, who wrote my biography, said I am ONE of
the last disciples of Lau Bun. I have not said anything about being the
?highest-ranking CLF master in the U.S.?. Some of my students have written
Articles have said that I am ?one of the highest ranking? in the system. Of
course in kung fu we don't have black belt degrees, they simply mean the
lineage generation from the founder of Choy Li Fut. Starting with Chan Heung
as the first generation, I am the fifth generation, and from Jeong Hung Sing
I am the fourth generation. Therefore the generation level is very high, but
still nobody has ever claimed that I was the highest; just ONE OF THE
HIGHEST...
About taking the information from their website and putting it on my own
website (www.plumblossom.net), I would like to clarify this. My student,
Sifu Steffan de Graffenried of Golden Eagle Martial Arts Centers in Alabama,
put up Lau Bun's article first. He translated the Spanish article from the
website of one of my students, Sifu Sebastian Gonzales who teaches in Spain.
Sifu Gonzales got the information from me. Recently I put up an article for
each of the past masters on the lineage chart of my website. After Sifu
Steffan de Graffenried told me that someone else was using our information
for their website, I decided to rewrite Lau Bun's bio using the previous
article. I didn't take any information about Lau Bun from other people's
websites, I got all the information from my late teacher Lau Bun himself and
from some senior classmates only. In fact, Lau Bun's nickname "Don-do" Bun I
got from Lau Bun's own mouth. Of course not too many people from the old
studio had heard about that. The information on our website has been
available for several years so anyone could have used it without permission.
About the allegation that my position was paid for, not earned; how much did
I pay for it? Who told you that? In 1987, ten years after my "Sifu" testing
in 1977, I was in Hong Kong with 15 of my
students training with my teachers. During the association banquet, my Hong
Kong teacher, Great-Grandmaster Hu Yuen Chou (Woo Van Cheuk) announced his
retirement and ranked me the title of Grandmaster and awarded me the
certificate for the title. 15 of my students witnessed the ceremony. A few
months later, my other teacher in Hong Kong, Great-Grandmaster Wong Gong,
also awarded me the certificate of Grandmaster in front of his association
banquet. I have not paid for these awards, not even a dollar.
I always claimed that Lau Bun is my first CLF teacher. After he passed away,
with my si-hing Jimmy Jew Leong's approval, I took discipleship (bai si)
under Hu Yuen Chou who not only taught me the practical part of CLF, he also
taught me Yang Tai Chi, Wudang Sword and Chi Kung. Hu sent me to learn forms
(sets) from my Hong Kong si-suks: Wong Ying Sam, Tong Sik and Wong Ha in
Vancouver that he had not learned from the system or he was too busy and
didn?t have time to teach me in the beginning. Later, Hu Yuen Chou
discovered that Wong Gong had lots of the forms that the system had thought
lost which he wanted me to learn from him. Every set that the above masters
taught me has a manuscript to go with it. My Chi Kung teachers are Prof.
Peng Si Yu and his wife Mrs. Yu (Ou-Yang Min). I have not learned or bought
forms from Lee Koon Hung or from the Chan family members. I treated all my
teachers with full respect and they treated me like a son. I think that I
treated my teachers even better than my parents. I don't understand how
someone who doesn't know me can accuse me and say that I said bad things
about all my teachers and I contacted some teachers in Hong Kong to learn
sets for money and refused to refer to them as my sifus.
Someone also said that I went to Chui Kwong Yuen for lessons and was told
off. The next time I encounter Sifu Chui, I must question him about that. If
he said that, he must be confusing me with somebody else. I have never
visited his school in Hong Kong. We met in the association meetings a few
times and hardly talked to each other.
About my classmate in the old Hung Sing Studio Mr. Sam Louie; he has never
taught me anything. If you know him, next time when you see him, ask him
what sets or things did he teach me?
I have never claimed that I am the Jerng Moon or the keeper of CLF. In fact,
no such title exists in the real Martial Arts world. It is only used in kung
fu movies and kung fu storybooks. The title Grandmaster that I gained from
my teachers is for the leadership of my organization. It?s not representing
the entire CLF system.
The statement said, how could a dead man teach anyone anything? In one of my
Articles that I said Jeong Yim died young; I didn?t mean that he died in his
20?s. There are no documents of his year of birth or death. When the Chinese
say he died young; that could mean less than 50 years old. Now, I see that
their web site has his year of birth and death. I don?t believe that it is
factual. If Jeong Yim died in his 40?s, he could teach Chan Ngau-Sing Choy
Li Fut.
Back to my young age; my teacher Lau Bun always told other students that I
performed the best five animal forms. He also mentioned that Jimmy Jew Leong
was the best before my time. Therefore, in every exhibition, Lau Bun had me
do that set. This set is a slow motion form. Someone wondered why I always
do slow kung fu forms? My favorite forms are Lau Bun?s Five Animal form,
Wong Gong?s Buddha Palm form and the CLF Snake form. All these forms are
internal forms and must be performed at a slow pace. If I did them at a
quicker speed, then someone might say that I don?t know how to do internal
forms correctly.
About the video tape in which I did the Ping Kuen form; I did the set at
regular speed and slow speed for teaching. The complete display of the forms
was too long for the videotape and the producer decided not to use my
regular speed version. They just used my slow motion version for the final
editing.
When I am performing in master?s exhibitions, the sponsor sometimes requests
that I perform either Choy Li Fut forms or Tai Chi forms. Sometimes when too
many people were doing CLF form, they want me to perform Tai Chi instead. If
both my son (Sifu Jason Wong ) and I are performing together, my son will
perform CLF and I will perform Tai Chi.
I hope that this has clarified most of the questions that my CLF system
family members wanted me to answer. I have never said anything bad about
other instructors and martial artists. I just don?t understood how someone
who does not even know me can hate me? If you have any questions, please
e-mail me at docfai@yahoo.com or stop by
my studio to have a friendly chat.
People respond
to Grandmaster's Article [Click Here]
See a Photo of Grandmaster Wong taking the master level testing
in Hong Kong
in front of Wong Gong and Hu Yuen Chou in 1977