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In addition to both an academic career
(see Stephen Chan Academic)
and a lifetime of literary activity
(see Stephen Chan Literary)
Stephen has practised and taught the oriental martial arts. The martial arts tradition in his family was most colourfully depicted by his grandmother and her skills with the sword. As Stephen has pointed out, the sword was not of much use in the warlord violence, Japanese invasion, and civil war of her China . Nevertheless, she would entertain her infant grandson with tales of miraculous abilities and energies, and – perhaps unfortunately – the infant believed her. This led to the often ill-advised undertakings of his later life.
Of more note and general good, however, were Stephen's efforts to teach the martial arts in Africa, notably Zambia and Zimbabwe . Here, the effort was to reach out to poorer sections of the community, for the sake of health, self-defence and discipline; but also for the sake of bringing to life another culture, far from the African townships; and simply for the sake of escapism, so that young people, alienated and deprived because of poverty, could live out some daydreams borrowed from the kung fu movies of Hong Kong.
Stephen’s martial arts biography can be viewed by clicking through:
As an effort to help the young African teachers of martial arts, Stephen has created the Kwok Meil Wah Foundation, in honour of his late-mother. Please click through to:
Stephen has been national karate coach of Zambia , chief instructor of the University of Zambia Karate Club and the University of Kent Karate Club . His students and their own students have won national championships in Zambia, Zimbabwe, Hong Kong, Ireland, Norway, international open championships in Denmark, national student championships in Britain, and competed in national championships as far afield as Singapore. For the websites of some of his students and their organisations, see:
UKC Karate (Chris Barron)
QUB Seidokan Karate Club (Martin Rice)
Ko Ken Ryu Karate Jutsu (Andy Roosen)
Seidokan Karatedo & Kobudo Club. Northampton, England (Mamdouh Yanni)
Simon Semilo Chilembo
Zen Okinawa Seidokan Karate Toide Renmei
Kokusai Dentokan Bugei Renmei
Dentokan - SOAS, London
Stephen owes longlasting debts to his principal teachers in Okinawa and the US . For information on these teachers, particularly Shian Toma and Roy Jerry Hobbs, see the web sites:
Zen Okinawa Seidokan Karate & Toide Renmei
Kokusai Dentokan Bugei Renmei
Stephen has appeared on the covers of Combat and Traditional Karate magazines, has featured as a centrespread and pullout poster in Combat and been the subject of reports and articles in US, European, and African journals and newspapers.
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