Brian Udall & Cheung Yee Keung

Cheung Yee Keung & Chan Hon Chung

Lam Sai Wing was born in the Nam Hoi district of Kwangtung province. He studied with several masters, staying the longest with Wong Fei Hung. After many years of study Lam opened a kung fu school of his own in Canton. In 1911 the Qing dynasty came to an end and the Republic of China was born. In the early years of the new government Lam worked as a kung fu instructor for the Chinese army. When he retired due to age, the people of Hong Kong invited him to settle in their colony. He accepted their offer and taught there until the 1940's. Lam Sal Wing's art of Tiger-Crane kung fu was passed down to Chan Hon Chung.

 

Chan Hon Chung was born in 1909 in a small village of Hing Ling county in the Kwangtung province of southern China. Growing up in poverty, Chan Hon Chung worked and lived in the Mainland China until his teenage years. At the age of 19, he immigrated to Hong Kong with his family. Soon after arriving in Hong Kong Chan Hon Chung started working as a street vendor near St. Joseph College of Hong Kong Island. Chan Hon Chung's life long journey in gung fu began when he joined the "Lam Sai wing National Art Association First Branch". Here he began learning the traditional art of hung gar. He was diligent and hard working. Despite the difficult living conditions of the time, young Chan Hon Chung trained at the Lam Sai Wing’s martial arts centre most evenings from seven until midnight. He would then wake up early in the morning in order to train more before heading for work. He would often concentrate on his weaknesses and try to perfect his skills, sometimes concentrating on a single movement until he got it right. Due to his hard work and strong interest he began to improve and eventually became one of the top students there.

During 1936, Chan Hon Chung traveled to Kwangtung (canton) for business. By this time the Japanese aggression against China had already started. These were difficult times and people were greatly worried about the Japanese forces. Groups of swordsmen were being formed to fight the Japanese forces. Chan Hon Chung was asked by the county authorities to help and train these volunteer swordsmen. Chan Hon Chung trained hundreds of skilled swordsmen to fight against the aggression. Up on his return to Hong Kong, Chan Hon Chung established his own gung fu school and dit da clinic in 1938, the "Chan Hon-Chung Gymnasium" where he began teaching hung gar. As a teacher, he demanded his students to work hard and dedicate the time required to learn the art correctly. He had a lot of students Chan Hon Chung was also one of the first gung fu masters in Hong Kong to accept western (non-Chinese) students. People from different countries from all over the world came to train at his school in Hong Kong. Besides being a well know gung fu master, Chan Hon Chung was also a respected dit da doctor. He treated patients at his clinic school day in day out as well as teaching gung fu openly. Chan

   

He also contributed a lot to the community and often took part in the charity events. Consequently, in 1973, Queen Elizabeth II of England awarded Chan Hon Chung a medal for his contribution to community and efforts in the development of Chinese martial arts. A humble master of gung fu, Chan Hon Chung achieved much through out his life and did much for the development and advancement of gung fu in and around Hong Kong. He appeared in numerous magazines, newspapers as well as TV shows both in Hong Kong and around the world. At times he also acted as a martial arts advisor for the Hong Kong gung fu movies. Chan Hon Chung passed away in 1991 at the age of 83.

Hung Gar Gung Fu will always be remembered because many of China's legendary heroes practiced Hung Gar Gung Fu. Its ideals are still reflected in today's society, never to be forgotten. Wong Fei Hung, Lam Tsai Wing and Chan Hon Chun contributed to making the style what it is today. Hung Gar Gung Fu was developed at the Shaolin Temple. Founded by Hung Hei Gung his real surname was Jyu, who made his living as a traveling tea merchant, he was confronted by some Ching nobles, who started a fight with him. After this incident, Jyu was a wanted man with a price on his head, so he fled to the Shaolin Temple to train. The Shaolin Temple was known for producing Gung Fu fighters through their extremely hard training at the temple. When Jyu arrived Gee Sin Sim See taught him. Gee Sin's expertise was the Tiger, and he took student Jyu as one of his special disciples. He worked closely with Hung and helped him to develop the Tiger system. Gee Sin Sim See is also noted for helping spread the art of Hung Gar throughout southern China. The training that Jyu endured made him one of the most powerful monks at the temple. Jyu's size and strength well suited the powerful Tiger techniques that Gee Sin taught him. He was a proud man with strong virtues, and he had a great desire to show others the skill that he had attained. He studied at the temple for many years, until the oppressive Ching government attacked it. The Ching or Manchu government's attack on the temple was fierce. They wanted Gung Fu suppressed because it gave individual people thoughts, rights, and the power to enforce them. The Ching army marched inside the temple and burn it to the ground killing most of its residents but Gung Fu survived. Hung Hei Gung met Fong Wing Chun a practitioner of the Crane style who learnt from either Fong Sai Yuk or from a woman hermit named Mg Mui. Fong Wing Chun began the task of getting revenge for the murder of her entire family at the hands of some members of the Wu Tang clique (Pak Mei and his student Lee Pak Shan, among others). Hung Hei Gung, a compatriot and training brother of Fong Sai Yuk, avenged Fong's death by killing some of these same members and later married Fong Wing Chun. Hung Hei Gung further refined his style after his marriage to Fong by joining the two animals Fu & Hok (Tiger and Crane) styles together as one. The Hung Gar system has five animals: Dragon (Loong) Snake (Sare) Tiger (Fu) Leopard (Pao) Crane (Hok) This system relates to Yin and Yang, a balance duality, in that it contains hard pounding techniques, and soft elusive movements. It also contains the five elements: Gold (Gum) Wood (Muk) Water (Soy) Fire (Faw) Earth (Tow) Masters of this truly great art were some of the most well-known and respected martial artist of their time. They were famous for their extraordinary skills in gung fu and traditional Chinese medicine as well as for their moral values. The legendary folk hero Wong Fei Hung and his student Lam Sai Wing were excellent teachers and had many good students. Some of these students also became very good teachers and taught Hung Gar openly to the public. Wong Fei Hung is widely considered as the father of the modern day Hung Gar we know and practice today.

Chan Hon Chung & Brian Udall in his Hong Kong Clinic

Chan Hon Chung's 82 birthday celebration Lion Dance