This is a belated posting. I meant to post this 2 days ago.
Look Beyond the Pointing Finger: the Combat Philosophy of Wong Shun Leung
Recalling the Life of Bruce Lee's Teacher
by David Peterson
January 28th 1997 was a very sad day for the martial arts and, indirectly, for fans of Hong Kong cinema - specifically, for fans of the legend that is Bruce Lee. On that day, Wing Chun Kung-Fu Master Sifu Wong Shun Leung, 61, teacher and friend of the late martial arts superstar, lost his fight for life following a massive stroke and ensuing coma that had befallen him some sixteen days earlier. Considered by many to be a fighter and instructor of unparalleled skill, Sifu Wong was renowned for earning the title of “Gong Sau Wong” (King of talking with the hands) after surviving countless “beimo”, or “comparison of skills,” throughout the 50s and 60s, emerging every time as undefeated and undisputed champion.
These were not tournament fights as conducted in the
West, with rules, protective equipment or time limits. Instead, they
were full-on fights between representatives of the various schools of
combat in Hong Kong, and Sifu Wong is said to have “let his hands do the
talking” by winning the majority of these “contests” within just three
punches! In one such match, arranged by a reporter working for a
prominent Hong Kong newspaper of the day, Wong (who stood barely 5ft 6in
tall and weighed in at around 120lbs) easily defeated a visiting
Russian boxer named Giko, a giant of a man who weighed over 250lbs and
stood some twelve inches taller than the dynamic Wing Chun exponent.
Wong almost single-handedly put this previously
low-profile martial art in the public spotlight, gaining great prestige
for his teacher, the late Grandmaster Yip Man. Wong’s reputation as an
invincible fighter also attracted the attention of the young Bruce Lee,
who had only recently joined the Yip Man Wing Chun school after having
been introduced to the system by his friend William Cheung, who was
later to become a prominent, some might say controversial, spokesman for
the Wing Chun clan. Initially, Lee had trained with his friend Cheung,
but when Cheung left for Australia to further his education, Lee became
the protegé of Wong Shun Leung who, at almost six years his senior and
assistant instructor at the school, commanded the young (around 16 years
of age) Bruce Lee’s unwavering respect.
In the beginning of their student/teacher
relationship, Wong found the young Lee to be quite lazy in his approach
to training; consequently, his progress in the art was relatively slow.
It wasn’t too long, however, after witnessing first hand the devastating
effectiveness of Wong’s skills, that Lee began to take his Wing Chun
training far more seriously. In fact, Lee was so keen to learn from Wong
that he even found devious ways of monopolising his sihing’s teaching
time. Wong was, at the time, running training sessions out of his home
(his father had helped him set up a small area for this purpose), as
well as helping his teacher Yip Man conduct classes at the kwoon. After
unsuccessfully approaching Wong for private lessons, the young “Little
Dragon” found another method of getting his own way.
On more than one occasion, after school was finished
for the day, Lee would rush to Wong’s house in order to arrive before
his “sihingdai.” Later on, Sifu Wong would often recount this story to
his students, this writer included, saying how Bruce would check that he
was indeed the first to arrive, after which he would make up some
excuse to leave for a while, whereby he would head downstairs to wait
for his classmates to arrive. Sitting on the steps, looking dejected, he
would greet his friends with the news that Wong was ill, out on an
errand, or otherwise indisposed, then walk with them down the street,
even going as far as to help them board a bus for home. Once he was sure
they had all departed the scene, Bruce would double back to Wong’s to
take advantage of what was now a private lesson. Eventually, Wong became
aware of this little ruse and, according to others of that era, gave
his young disciple an especially realistic lesson, complete (so the
story goes) with black eyes, split lips and a bloody nose!
Despite his awesome reputation as a fighter, Wong was
not a violent man per se, but he revelled in the chance to test his
skills and the effectiveness of Yip Man’s art. “I didn’t actually learn
Wing Chun just to go out and fight. Kung-fu should really be used as a
way of protecting yourself in circumstances where you are physically
threatened,” he was quoted as saying in an interview conducted in
Australia some years ago. “After I learned the skills of Wing Chun from
Yip Man, I often had the opportunity to test them. By experimenting with
my skills I could discover their limitations and how they compared with
other disciplines and so improve myself.” It was during this period of
“experimentation” that Wong Shun Leung first introduced Bruce Lee to the
experience of the “beimo” and in the very first of Lee’s matches, Wong
(who was actually refereeing the fight) coached him between rounds,
urging him to continue when it had appeared that Lee was about to give
up the fight.
It could be rightly said the resulting victory changed
the course of Bruce Lee’s life, certainly it heralded the beginnings of
the training regime that would see him become the martial arts
superstar the world was to discover many years later. It is reported
Grandmaster Yip Man, on learning what had transpired, took Wong aside
and said, “Fortunately you accompanied him to the venue and encouraged
him to go on with the match. This trial of martial skill may well be a
decisive influence on him in the future. If someday Siu Lung [Bruce]
succeeds, the credit should rightfully go to you.” In writing about this
period in Lee’s life, Jesse Glover (his first American student) stated,
“Wong was four years senior (in training) to Bruce in Yip Man’s clan
and Bruce studied privately for a year and a half under both him and Yip
Man.” Glover also wrote that Wong was “the man most responsible for the
development of Bruce Lee,” and that “In ‘59 Bruce told me that Wong was
the greatest fighter in the Wing Chun style, and that he had
successfully defeated all challengers.”
As fate would have it, circumstances arose that led to
Bruce having to leave for a new life in America, curtailing his
opportunity to train with Wong. For the next several years, apart from
the occasional visit by Lee to Hong Kong for filming or family visits,
his relationship with Wong was restricted to a steady stream of letters
between teacher and student. Many of these letters survive today and, in
one such letter, Lee wrote, “Even though I am (technically) a student
of Yip Man, in reality, I learned my Kung-fu from you.” Over the years,
Lee would strive to be able to overcome the skill of his teacher, using
Wong’s level of expertise as the yardstick by which he measured his own
development as a fighter. But try as he might, Bruce Lee was never able
to defeat Wong Shun Leung in combat.
Many of the personal fighting concepts Lee would
eventually become famous for can be traced back to the lessons he
learned from Sifu Wong and, even after obtaining fame and fortune from
his martial arts and film careers, Lee never forgot where his roots
were, spending whatever time he could with his teacher when back in Hong
Kong during the final years leading up to his own premature demise.
Sifu Wong once spoke to me of an occasion when he and Lee began to
discuss their favorite topic early one evening, retiring to the hallway
while their wives sat with their children watching television. At 7.00am
the next morning they were still there, having talked, trained and
tested their martial theories right through the night!
Lee was keen to involve Wong in his movies, offering
him a part in Game of Death, specifically the role later to be played by
basketball star Kareem Abdul Jabbar, that of Lee’s final opponent at
the top of the “Tower of Death” at the end of the film. “My character
was to have beaten Bruce,” Wong told Bey Logan in a 1986 interview for
Britain’s ‘COMBAT’ magazine, “but he would still have managed to kill
me! I told him that I didn’t want to go and die in my first movie!” Wong
also added that “I wasn’t in dire financial straits at the time, so I
didn’t have to do the film [just] to make money.”
However, Lee wasn’t one to give up easily and, when
shooting Enter the Dragon in Hong Kong, he invited Wong to come on
location to discuss the fight scenes. Anyone viewing the documentary
Bruce Lee: the Man and the Legend can briefly observe Wong on the “Han’s
Weapon Room” set sparring with an extra and reacting to punches thrown
by Lee himself. Over the years Sifu Wong was involved in a number of
film and television projects, including the movie Bruce’s Fingers in
1976, starring Bruce Lee look-alike Bruce Le (Lu Hsiao-lung), in which
“Sifu” simply played himself, the hero’s instructor. He was also the
Wing Chun consultant and action choreographer for the film Stranger From
Shaolin (aka: The Formidable Lady From Shaolin) starring Michelle Yim,
and a Hong Kong television mini-series called The Story of Wing Chun.
Sifu Wong Shun Leung also starred in a training video
on his style, entitled Wing Chun: the Science of In-fighting which was
produced as part of a series of instructional tapes in the early ‘80s.
He also occasionally authored articles on his beloved Wing Chun for a
number of Chinese-language martial arts magazines, and was the subject
of several articles and interviews in magazines all over the world. A
number of these articles were concerned with his famous pupil Bruce Lee,
and delved into the relationship between the two of them, attempting to
determine his role in the career of the superstar and often attempting
to extract controversial views on Lee and other Wing Chun practitioners.
Always the diplomat, Wong would never allow himself to be drawn into
such discussions, preferring to either restrict himself to positive
comments, or else choosing to make no comment - dismissing the enquiry
with a wry smile.
On the whole, Wong preferred to downplay his role as
Lee’s instructor, not wishing to take advantage of someone else’s
achievements. Instead, he just got on with the job of passing on the
skills of Wing Chun, which he constantly tested and refined over the
years, adhering to the motto “To improve myself with each days
training.” In addition to teaching Kung-fu, Sifu Wong was a practitioner
of the ancient Chinese art of “tit dar” (bone-setting), the traditional
method of treating sprains, bruises, dislocated and broken bones (a
very useful skill, considering his line of work!). He was also an
accomplished self-taught calligrapher with a profound knowledge of
ancient forms of writing unknown to many modern Chinese, with which he
would spend many hours writing classical poetry as a form of relaxation
and self-improvement.
Rather than stand on his own personal soapbox and
proclaim his own greatness, as many of his contemporaries in the martial
arts have tended to do in recent years, Wong made no such claims and
rejected the many grandiose titles which others attempted to bestow upon
him, preferring to quietly set about destroying the myths and
“kungfusion” associated with the Chinese fighting arts. He taught a
devoted band of followers who travelled from all corners of the world to
obtain his instruction, and he regularly travelled to Europe and
Australia where he conducted seminars and workshops for the students of
his representatives there. Sifu Wong shared his knowledge with great
enthusiasm, believing that anyone, regardless of race, color or creed,
was worth teaching. As long as a person was prepared to work hard,
“Sifu” was more than willing to call them his student.
Refusing to cash in on his connection with Bruce Lee,
or on his own formidable reputation as a fighter and instructor par
excellence, Sifu Wong insisted he was a simple man with no special
talent, and was never one to “blow his own trumpet.” You were more
likely to hear of his past exploits from other people and, on those rare
occasions when he did speak of such events, he would always refuse to
name names or criticize rival styles, his only real gripe being with
instructors who wasted their student’s time with endless, useless
techniques and combat drills. “You can always get more money (if you run
out),” he would say, “but you can’t get more time.” On the subject of
Wing Chun, his most common advise to his devotees was, “You must be the
master of Wing Chun, not it’s slave,” meaning one must take the concepts
of the system and make them work, rather than get bound up in
unnecessary analysis and potentially dangerous limited thinking.
It appeared that, after so many years, Sifu Wong was
finally about to gain the recognition and rewards that had long eluded
him. All manner of book, film and video projects had been discussed in
the months leading up to his untimely passing, the most significant of
these being the proposed movie Story of Yip Man, starring none other
than comedic sensation Steven Chow Sing Chi, himself a former student of
Wong Shun Leung and a lifelong Kung-fu fan and Bruce Lee aficionado.
Chow had been in training with his former instructor in preparation for
the upcoming role and negotiated for Wong to be the technical consultant
on the film. There was also a distinct possibility Wong would have an
on-camera role and would most likely be involved in the choreography of
the action sequences.
With the approaching 25th anniversary of Bruce Lee’s
death, there had also been much talk of interviews and book projects,
including one arranged by Steven Chow. Writers and producers from Hong
Kong and around the world had approached “Sifu” with a view to include
him in their proposed ventures, and preliminary work had been done on at
least two of these. Australian producer, martial artist and Bruce Lee
aficionado Walt Missingham was already set to begin shooting at the
beginning of April when I had the sad task of informing him of my
teacher’s death. Sadly, this and all the other projects will now either
not take place, or else will be completed without the input that
“Sifu’s” vast knowledge and experience would have added to them. More
disappointing still is the realisation that Sifu Wong will now not be
able to enjoy his long overdue recognition.
The man often referred to as “Wing Chun’s Living
Legend” is now no longer with us, but his influence will be felt for
many years to come through the efforts of his many students, both in
Hong Kong and around the world. Members of the world-wide “Wong Shun
Leung Wing Chun Martial Art Association,” this writer included, are
dedicated to spreading the skills and knowledge passed on to them by
this outstanding teacher and exponent of the art. While Wong Shun Leung
was not one to take flashy titles with any seriousness, always insisting
that to be called “Sifu” by his students was sufficient recognition of
who he was, in the hearts and minds of all who witnessed his awesome
talent or benefited from his wisdom and instruction, he was one of the
greatest Masters of Wing Chun (and the Chinese martial arts in general)
in this, or any other century.
Tragically, like his famous student Bruce Lee before
him, Sifu Wong left us far too early in life but, like Lee, those of us
fortunate to have been touched by his greatness, whether directly as his
students or indirectly through the cinematic exploits of his famous
pupil and friend, are all the richer for having known him. The “Legend
Behind the Legend” may be gone, and will certainly be greatly missed,
but Sifu Wong Shun Leung - father, teacher and friend to so many - will
definitely never be forgotten. The next time you enjoy watching your
film hero Bruce Lee on the large or small screen, spare a thought for
the great man who inspired him to such greatness.
About the Author
David Peterson has been training in the Chinese
martial arts since 1973. He became a student of Sifu Wong Shun Leung
after travelling to Hong Kong in 1983. He is a teacher of the Chinese
language and principal instructor of the ‘Melbourne Chinese Martial Arts
Club’ where he instructs in the “Wong Shun Leung Method”. Peterson is
one of only two authorised and qualified instructors of Wong’s system in
Australia, and a fully endorsed member of the world-wide ‘Wong Shun
Leung Wing Chun Martial Arts Association’ and the Hong Kong-based ‘Ving
Tsun Athletic Association’. He is also a freelance writer whose articles
have appeared in many local (Australian) and overseas journals,
including “Combat”, “Inside Kung-fu”, “Black Belt”, “Masters of the
Martial Arts”, “Impact: the Action Movie Magazine”, “Eastern Heroes”,
“Australasian Fighting Arts”, “Blitz Australasian Martial Arts
Magazine”, “Australasian Martial Arts Magazine”, “Traditional Martial
Arts Journal”, “Impact Martial Arts Magazine”, “Qi Magazine”, “Martial
Arts Illustrated”, “Kicksider” and “Kung Fu Illustrierte”. More
recently, his articles have featured on several international Web sites
in both the English and German languages.
Photo Credits
Left: chisao.com
Middle: wingchunarnis.wordpress.com
Right: www.dvtfederation.com
0 comments:
Post a Comment