The founder of the Wing Chun Kung Fu System, Miss Yim Wing Chun was a native of Canton [Kwangtung Province] in China. She was an intelligent and athletic young girl, upstanding and forthright. Her mother died soon after her betrothal to Leung Bok Chau, a salt merchant of Fukien. Her father, Yim Yee, was wrongfully accused of a crime and, rather than risk jail, they slipped away and finally settled down at the foot of Tai Leung Mountain near the border between Yunan and Szechuan provinces. There they earned a living by running a shop that sold bean curd.
During the reign of Emperor K'anghsi of the Ching Dynasty (1662-1722) Kung Fu became very strong in the Siu Lam [Shaolin] Monastery of Mt. Sung, in Honan Province. This aroused the fear of the Manchu government [a non-Chinese people from Manchuria in the North, who ruled China at that time], which sent troops to attack the Monastery. Although they were unsuccessful, a man named Chan Man Wai, a recently appointed civil servant seeking favor with the government, suggested a plan.
He plotted with Siu Lam monk Ma Ning Yee and others who were persuaded to betray their companions by setting fire to the monastery while soldiers attacked it from the outside. Siu Lam was burned down, and the monks and disciples scattered. Buddhist Abbess Ng Mui, Abbot Chi Shin, Abbot Pak Mei, Master Fung To Tak and Master Miu Hin escaped and went their separate ways.
Ng Mui took refuge in the White Crane Temple on Mt. Tai Leung [also known as Mt. Chai Har]. It was there she met Yim Yee and his daughter Wing Chun from whom she often bought bean curd on her way home from the market. At fifteen, with her hair bound up in the custom of those days to show she was of an age to marry, Wing Chun's beauty attracted the attention of a local bully. He tried to force Wing Chun to marry him, and his continuous threats became a source of worry to her and her father. Ng Mui learned of this and took pity on Wing Chun. She agreed to teach Wing Chun fighting techniques so she could protect herself. Wing Chun followed Ng Mui into the mountains, and began to learn Kung Fu. She trained night and day, until she mastered the techniques. Then she challenged the bully to a fight and beat him.
Ng Mui later traveled around the country, but before she left she told Wing Chun to strictly honor the Kung Fu traditions, to develop her Kung Fu after her marriage, and to help the people working to overthrow the Manchu government and restore the Ming Dynasty.
After her marriage Wing Chun taught Kung Fu to her husband Leung Bok Chau. He in turn passed these techniques on to Leung Lan Kwai. Leung Lan Kwai then passed them on to Wong Wah Bo. Wong Wah Bo was a member of an opera troupe on board a junk, known to Chinese as the Red Junk. Wong worked on the Red Junk with Leung Yee Tei. It so happened that Abbot Chi Shin, who fled from Siu Lam, had disguised himself as a cook and was then working on the Red Junk. Chi Shin taught the Six-and-a-half-point Long Pole techniques to Leung Yee Tei. Wong Wah Bo was close to Leung Yee Tei, and they shared what they knew about Kung Fu. Together they shared and improved their techniques, and thus the Six-and-a-half-point Long Pole was incorporated into Wing Chun Kung Fu. Leung Yee Tei passed his Kung Fu on to Leung Jan, a well known herbal Doctor in Fat Shan. Leung Jan grasped the innermost secrets of Wing Chun, attaining the highest level of proficiency. Many Kung Fu masters came to challenge him, but all were defeated. Leung Jan became very famous. Later he passed his Kung Fu on to Chan Wah Shan, who took me and my elder Kung Fu brothers, such as Ng Siu Lo, Ng Chung So, Chan Yu Min and Lui Yu Jai, as his students many decades ago.
Beginning in 1990, Zhen Wu Southern Chinese Kung Fu was established and founded by Grandmaster Brandon Chan.
By 1994, it was registered under the Malaysia Zhen Wu Ving Chun Martial Art Association. Throughout the years, this association managed to generate many Sifu. From then on, this association formed up extra classes throughout other states and giving seminars with demonstration performance. This association also created the grading and training systems for the students which are not available in any other Chinese Kung Fu in Malaysia. This association was the first to apprehend this system. Besides this, the systems also include the Ving Chun 36 Combat Fighting Technique. This association was certified by the Ministry of Youth and Sports to promote Ving Chun in Malaysia. At the same time, in 29 December 1994, Grandmaster Brandon Chan received the Mandate Honorary Certificate in Martial Arts Programme from the Prime Minister of Malaysia. The Ministry of Youth and Sports Malaysia approved the certification on having Malaysia Zhen Wu Ving Chun Martial Art Association as the main centre to introduce Ving Chun Martial Arts throughout the whole nationwide. This association was featured 5 times in TV3, once in Astro and was broadcast over 2 million viewers in Malaysia including interviews from overseas reporters and featuring in local martial arts magazines. At that time, Grandmaster Brandon Chan was also providing articles to these magazines on Ving Chun.
In 2003, Malaysia Zhen Wu Ving Chun Martial Arts Association was renamed and registered under the government act to Malaysia International Ving Chun Kung Fu Federation which in later, the development of the Malaysia Ving Chun Instructor Council and Malaysia Ving Chun Combat Fighting Association. Forming up this 3 establishment is to properly monitor the responsibility and discipline of each individual instructor. The Malaysia Ving Chun Combat Fighting Association also created the 36 Steps Ving Chun Combat Fighting Techniques for the Malaysia Police Force and the National Army. Other than these, Malaysia International Ving Chun Kung Fu Federation also formed up the Ladies Self Defense Techniques.
The Malaysia International Ving Chun Kung Fu Federation grading system has 13 levels which are divided into 5 stages. This system is to benefit those who have no knowledge or skills in martial arts and also to benefit those who had learned martial arts previously.
Within the spans of 16 years, Malaysia International Ving Chun Kung Fu Federation has spread throughout the 13 States in Malaysia and several other countries like Singapore, Thailand, Philippines and USA.
When Ip Man was thirteen years old he started learning Wing Chun from Chan Wah-shun (陳華順). Because of his sifu's old age, Ip Man had to learn much of his skills and techniques from his master's second eldest disciple Ng Chung-sok (吳仲素). Three years into Ip Man’s training Chan Wah-shun died. One of his dying wishes was to have Ng continue training Ip. At the age of 15 Ip man moved to Hong Kong with help from Leung Fut Ting a relative. At age sixteen, Yip Man attended school at St. Stephen's College in Hong Kong [6] . It was a secondary school for wealthy families and foreigners who lived in Hong Kong. According Ip mans two sons[7], while at St. Stephen's Ip Man intervened after seeing a foreign police officer beating a woman. The story goes that the Police officer tried to strike Ip Man who used his martial arts to strike the officer down at which point Ip Man and his classmate ran to school. The classmate is said to have told an older man who lived in his apartment block. Ip Man was invited to see this man and the man asked Ip Man what martial art he studied. The man then asked Ip Man to show him his first 2 forms (Sil Lim Tao and Chun Kiu). The man then told Ip man that his forms were “not too great.” [8] . Ip Man was then invited to Chi Sau (a form of training that involves controlled attack and defence), Ip Man saw this as an opportunity to prove his Kung Fu was good, but he was beaten after just a few strikes. It turned out that the old man was his master's elder fellow-disciple (and so, by Chinese tradition Yip Man's martial uncle), Leung Bik (梁璧), son of his master's master Leung Jan (梁贊). After that encounter, Yip Man continued his training lessons from Leung Bik. By the age of 24, Yip Man had returned to Foshan, his Wing Chun skills tremendously improved. [9][10] In Foshan, Yip Man became a policeman[11]. He did not formally run a Wing Chun school, but taught several of his subordinates, his friends and relatives. Amongst those informal students, Lok Yiu, Chow Kwong-yue (周光裕 (六仔)), Kwok Fu (郭富), Lun Kai (倫佳), Chan Chi-sun (陳志新) and Lui Ying (呂應) were amongst the most well-known. Chow Kwong-yue was said to be the best student among his peers, but eventually he went into commerce and dropped out of martial arts all together. Kwok Fu and Lun Kai went on to teach students of their own. Wing Chun in the Foshan and Guangdong area was mainly passed down from these two individuals. Chan Chi-sun died young, and Lui Ying went to Hong Kong. Neither of them took any students. Yip Man went to Kwok Fu's village house during the Japanese Occupation. He only returned to Foshan after the war, to once again take up the job of a police officer. At the end of 1949, after the Communist party won the Chinese civil war, being an officer of the Kuomintang, he decided to escape to Hong Kong without his family when the Communists had come to Foshan. In Hong Kong, he opened a martial arts school. Initially, business was poor because his students typically stayed for only a couple of months. He moved his school twice, to Hoi Tan Street (海壇街) in Sham Shui Po, and then to Lee Tat Street (利達街) in Yau Ma Tei. By then, some of his students were skilled enough that they were able to start their own schools. Among the first were Leung Sheung, Lok Yiu, Chu Shong-tin, and Wong Shun Leung. Some of Yip Man's students and descendants compared their skills with other martial artists in combat. Their victories over other martial artists helped to bolster Ip Man's reputation as a teacher. In 1967, Ip Man and some of his students established the Hong Kong Ving Tsun Athletic Association (香港詠春拳體育會). In 1972, Ip Man suffered throat cancer and subsequently died on the 2nd of December that same year. Within the three decades of his career in Hong Kong, he established a training system for Wing Chun that eventually spread across the world.
Grandmaster Ip Chun, eldest son of the late Grandmaster Yip Man, was born in 1925 in Foshan in the Zheyieng Delta region of the Guangdong province of Southern China. He began studying Wing Chun with his father when he was 7 years old, however he admits that he did not really want to learn at that time and he remembers relatively little from that early tuition When the communists took over China, they began to persecute the wealthy, the influential and anyone connected to the Kuomintang (the political party founded by Sun Yat-Sen, the first president of the Republic of China). Since Yip Man was both wealthy and a Captain of Local Police patrols of Namhoi he felt forced to leave China, finally settling in Hong Kong after a short stay in Macao with friends. However being only 24, Ip Chun stayed behind to continue his studies at a University studying Chinese history and traditional Chinese music, he also read a lot of books researching Chinese Philosophy, Buddhism and Chinese Poetry In 1950 Yip Man began teaching Wing Chun in Hong Kong to make a living and over the following 22 years he taught hundreds of students, some of whom trained to an exceptionally high standard such as Wong Shun Leung, Lok Yiu, Leung Sheung and Tsui Shun Tin. Ip Chun meanwhile finished his studies and chose to teach as a profession, teaching Chinese history, music and science, whilst during his leisure time he helped the Chinese Foshan Entertainment Department organize Chinese Operas. During this period he was awarded 'The person with the most potential in Chinese art' for music research. Unfortunately Mao Tze Tung's policies and campaigns meant that in 1962 Ip Chun and his younger brother Yip Ching were forced to leave China for Hong Kong where they lived with their father During the day Ip Chun worked as an accountant and newspaper reporter, at the same time he restarted his Wing Chun studies with his father,maintaining the Chinese tradition of passing down the Kung Fu skills from father to son. Master Ip Chun trained with his father most evenings and since Grandmaster Yip Man's home in Tung Choi Street, Mong Kok was also his Wing Chun school, Master Ip Chun was able to witness and study his fathers Wing Chun and his teaching methods every evening In 1967 Master Ip Chun began teaching Wing Chun in Hong Kong with his father's blessing and it is testimony indeed that some of those first students such as Ho Po Kai and Leung Chung Wai still train with him today. Later between 1970 and 1971 he and Sifu Lau Hon Lam taught a class of around 20 students in Ho Man Tin. Students in that class included Leung Ting Kwok (Patrick) who now teaches for Master Ip On 1st December 1972 Grandmaster Yip Man passed away aged 79. Six weeks before, knowing he had not long to live he made the supreme effort to commit the Siu Nim Tao, Chum Kiu and Muk Yan Jong forms to 8 mm film in order to record and preserve the pure Wing Chun system, this crucial piece of film footage he entrusted to his two sons for posterity, and true to his fathers wishes Master Ip Chun has carried on his father's teachings, keeping the Wing Chun pure and maintaining its principles and concepts. Today at almost Seventy Five years of age Master Ip Chun is one of the most successful Wing Chun teachers in Hong Kong teaching five days a week to individuals at his home or to small groups at the Ving Tsun Athletic Association as well as teaching a class in Sha Tin once a week. Some of his senior Hong Kong students now teach at several locations around Hong Kong including several of the Universities. In 1992 Master Ip Chun decided to set up the Ip Chun Wing Chun Kuen Martial Arts Association
Chan Xian Wu (traditional Chinese: simplify Chinese: pinyin: Cantonese: Chan Zhen Wu); also known as Brandon Chan was born in Kuala Lumpur.
My love for martial arts came at an early tender age when I was 9 years old. I began watching lots of movies which features kung fu or any other styles of martial arts. I was beginning to be obsessed and it became a hobby at first.
During my early days, I was always being bullied by others because of my skinny body structure and had a weaker body too. Because of this, I told myself that I wanted to learn kung fu and to fight them back. I always thought of becoming a hero, saving people from all this villains and bullies.
One fine day, my father’s cousin recommended kung fu to build up my strength because of my weak body. At that time, I was suffering from asthma too as a young boy. At first, I took up Tai Chi in order to revive my energy and strength. Later, I went and took up another form of martial art from my uncle who was at that time, teaching the Southern Art Chinese Kung Fu.
During my younger years, I happen to watch a movie about a kung fu fighter who was so quick with his hands and legs, and at that time, I didn’t know who he was until later when I found out, he was the legendary Bruce Lee (mandarin; Lee Xiao Long). Because of the influence of Bruce Lee, I began to learn Nunchaku by myself without an instructor.
I was working hard daily on perfecting my martial art skills and techniques. Although, I thought that I was pretty good and fast at that time but something else was still missing. So, during my secondary years in school, there was a Tae Kwon Do class being held. I obviously wanted to learn more and I took up this new art in school. During my training and sparring session, I never spoke to anyone about my previous experience in learning other forms of martial arts. During sparring classes, some student got curious on how I happen to hit them with some fast moves without them seeing it coming. I was able to achieve this because of the hard training when I was learning the Southern Art Chinese Kung Fu.
When I took up Tae Kwon Do in school, I was practicing everyday to improve my kicking techniques. I then participated in world competition trying to prove to myself and also to find out how far I had progress. I managed to win the light-weight category in free sparring and was also the 1st Runner-Up for displaying patterns. That got me boosted up and I began to train harder on my kicks. One day during a sparring session, I managed to knock down my opponent who was left motionless for hours and that shook me up a bit. From then on, I was pretty uptight of using my kicks during sparring sessions.
Occasionally, we had a neighbor who visits my family quite often. I befriended him because both of us have something in common which is kung fu. At that time, I wasn’t aware that he was a Sifu (Master) in Hung Sing Choy Lay Fut another form of Chinese martial arts. All I know he was learning it. While still pursuing in Tae Kwon Do, I wanted to see how far I had progressed so I ask him for a try out and that try out change my life forever about high kicking. This is how the story goes, at first, I decided to give him a taste of my different types of kicking techniques which I have been training for many years and thought I could get him to feel the power of my kick. Before I even landed one of my kick, he managed to jump in a split of time and got whole of me and the last thing I remember, I was laying on the ground. To my surprise, I was thrown a few feet away. I never thought this could happen after so much training and effort I put into my daily routine. I realized that what I have learnt previously, I was not satisfied at all and hunger for more answers. So I decided to ask this great man to be his disciples. After that incident, he proudly spill out the beans by telling me that he is a Sifu in Hung Sing Choy Lay Fut.
That began another new journey in my life. I started to learn everything from the beginning by polishing my skills and techniques towards my inner qi, the wooden dummy techniques, other different types of weapons, toughening my arms and legs and mostly everything, including the empty handed forms. I started to train harder and harder by hitting tree trunks, lifting more than 70kg with my wrist and arm, strengthen all my fingers and many more ways that I could think of, to improving my skills, techniques, strength and fitness.
At a point, I even built my own wooden dummy made from raw cement. It was built in a square shape instead of the original round shape. At that time, it was known as the Ching Jong. During my daily training routine, I was hitting it day and night to strengthen the core muscles around my arm. It took me several tough months to endure the pain and during one of my daily training, I accidently broke the whole body with my arm. I was so motivated and began to train in other aspect to strengthen my body. I would place heavy bricks on my body while lying down and to toughen my fingers, I began to thrust my fingers through metal tins. I told myself that within the period of 3 months, I had to penetrate the metal tins surface using only my fingers and I managed to do so. That didn’t stop me from training and improving further on my skills and techniques.
During my training routine, I underwent a pretty tough training system as I had to wake up early as 6 in the morning for school. After that, I will try to complete my homework and start training again until the late hours. As a teenager, I often wanted to try out my skills with other martial artist just for the sake of wanting to know how good I was at that time. With the amount of training I put in, I was confident and had the courage to fight and manage to win every time. That even brought further up my spirit in challenging fights and tournaments, and I was truly a happy man.
From then onwards, I began to increase my knowledge and skills in learn stick fighting from one of my elder brother. He apparently took this art in France under Dan Inosanto. I was so fortunate at that time, having to learn another new form of martial art. While I was pursuing it, I was also giving Tae Kwon Do lessons. Throughout the years of teaching TKD, I managed to promote 50 students to the category of black belt. That was a great achievement for me and I even set up classes to teach Chinese Kung Fu.
At that time, my Choy Lay Fut Sifu introduced me to Grandmaster Wong Yum Sun. He was the 2nd generation of Ving Chun Kung Fu in Malaysia taught under the late Grandmaster Yip Kin from Guangdong, China. Grandmaster Wong was not keen to teach me at first. I had to go through hard times in getting him to accept me as his disciples because during the older days, Ving Chun was not taught openly and only to a few selected students in Malaysia. It took me 3 grueling months to finally be able to be accepted as his last disciple. I was on top of the moon. I was never hesitating in finding out more answers and even hunger for more knowledge, skills and techniques.
At the beginning, I did my research and suggested certain ideas to my Sifu; unfortunately, he was reluctant to accept any ideas. He decline most of it because it was not the appropriate way to learn as my Sifu was saying. The idea was not just to promote Ving Chun but to develop it nationwide. At first, I help to develop the Malaysia Martial Art Council then I tried to gather some Masters from various martial art centers to participate. Overall, it turn out to be a big disappointment as some of the Master wanted more than responsibility, instead they crave for power.
That didn’t stop me from going further, so I went on and founded a federation under the Malaysia International Ving Chun Kung Fu. I was able to make my mark and became the President of this Federation that was supported by the Malaysian Government and this programme was also approved by the Ministry of Youth and Sports. I had achieved what I dreamt of and was awarded the Mandate Honorary Certificate in Martial Arts Programme from the Prime Minister of Malaysia. It was truly a proud moment.
The Federation was also included in several TV appearance, newspaper and magazines. We even organized an event to promote other martial arts such as Ving Chun, Aikido, Muay Thai, Shaolin Kung Fu and Silat. It was called the 5 Master Seminars and about 300 participants took part in this martial arts cultural exchanging event. I later went on to introduce Ving Chun to the Police Academy and the Army. It was known as the 36 Steps Ving Chun Combat Fighting.
After appearing in various magazines, jealousy occurs. There were other Sifu or Masters who wanted to challenge me and I never declined their offers. At one time, a Chinese newspaper accidently wrote something wrong in one of their article saying that I was the Ving Chun “Person-in-Charge” for Malaysia. That created a misunderstanding and many people in the martial arts society was not happy and wanted me to leave the Ving Chun Association. Apparently, my Sifu managed to quickly sort things out.
Over the years, I began to fulfill my dreams on promoting Ving Chun, solely on Ving Chun but nothing else in mind.
I met up with Grandmaster Ip Chun in Hong Kong. He was delighted that I have contributed so much within a span of 16 years and promoting Ving Chun and indeed, it was very successful. At the same time, Grandmaster Ip Chun ask me whether I would be interested in spreading the Ving Chun martial art and I was honored to do so and decide to be his disciple. Even at that time when I was accepted by Grandmaster Ip Chun, I didn’t break the news to other people until recently in year 2009.
Listed here are some of my achievements:
·Founder & President of Malaysia International Ving Chun Kung Fu Federation.
·Mandate Honorary Certificate in Martial Arts Programme from the Prime Minister of Malaysia.
·Awarded for Outstanding Young Malaysia Awards 2007
·Founder & President of Malaysia Zhen Wu Ving Chun Martial Arts Association.
·Founder & President of Malaysia Ving Chun Kung Fu Instructors Council.
·Founder & President of Malaysia Ving Chun Combat Fighting Association.
·Former Secretary of Malaysia Master of Martial Arts Council.
·Martial Arts Choreographer & Actor.
·Founder of Zong Zi Do.
·Advisor & Editor for Malaysia Martial Arts Magazine.
·Regional Coordinator of Far East Asia World Wing Chun Union.
She was an intelligent and athletic young girl, upstanding and forthright. Her mother died soon after her betrothal to Leung Bok Chau, a salt merchant of Fukien. Her father, Yim Yee, was wrongfully accused of a crime and, rather than risk jail, they slipped away and finally settled down at the foot of Tai Leung Mountain near the border between Yunan and Szechuan provinces. There they earned a living by running a shop that sold bean curd.
scattered. Buddhist Abbess Ng Mui, Abbot Chi Shin, Abbot Pak Mei, Master Fung To Tak and Master Miu Hin escaped and went their separate ways.
round the country, but before she left she told Wing Chun to strictly honor the Kung Fu traditions, to develop her Kung Fu after her marriage, and to help the people working to overthrow the Manchu government and restore the Ming Dynasty.
om Siu Lam, had disguised himself as a cook and was then working on the Red Junk. Chi Shin taught the Six-and-a-half-point Long Pole techniques to Leung Yee Tei. Wong Wah Bo was close to Leung Yee Tei, and they shared what they knew about Kung Fu. Together they shared and improved their techniques, and thus the Six-and-a-half-point Long Pole was incorporated into Wing Chun Kung Fu. Leung Yee Tei passed his Kung Fu on to Leung Jan, a well known herbal Doctor in Fat Shan. Leung Jan grasped the innermost secrets of Wing Chun, attaining the highest level of proficiency. Many Kung Fu masters came to challenge him, but all were defeated. Leung Jan became very famous. Later he passed his Kung Fu on to Chan Wah Shan, who took me and my elder Kung Fu brothers, such as Ng Siu Lo, Ng Chung So, Chan Yu Min and Lui Yu Jai, as his students many decades ago.
