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Gossips and rumors from the kung fu forum

Recently I have been receiving lots of email from my students all around the world questioning the troublemaking nonsense posted about me on the internet. I'd like to take a moment to explain the true situation of my background with my teacher Lau Bun. I don't want my students to respond to these comments on the kung fu forums because I don't want them to be reduced to the same level as those gossips with too much time on their hands. I really don't care what other people think of me. However, I do want my students to know the facts and the truth. Of course these internet opinions are just idle misinformed gossip. No one can change the thinking of people who like to make trouble. You just can't be friends with everybody!

First, I want to say that I have no intention of claiming any titles or names in the American Hung Sing which is lead by Grandmaster Dino Salvatera. I wish him and his group success in carrying on the teaching of Lau Bun's teaching without us being a part of it.

How long I studied under the direction of Lau Bun is not the issue. What is important is how well I learned Lau Bun's techniques and secrets. I worked diligently for the past 43 years in three lineages to master the arts of the system. I don't want to make claims about which Hung Sing Branches I belong to, instead I would prefer there to be unity within the choy li fut community. Anyone who writes that I did not study the teachings of Lau Bun directly with him is mistaken. I did in fact study under his direction, of this there is no doubt. One particular third-generation student, only a student of a student of a student of Lau Bun's, questions the fact that Lau Bun was my teacher. He isn't in a position to write me out of the history and the lineage of Lau Bun's teaching. He wasn't even there!

Second, I have never claimed that I teach the original Lau Bun forms. What I said was that I teach the way that I learned from Lau Bun. During the time I was training under Lau Bun, senior students like Roy, EY Lee, Ah Foon, Tim Hall, Lucky and his brother Johnny, were all learning the sets the same way. However, Sifu Jew Lang's sets are quite different from the way we learned. I don't know what Lau Bun taught him in the old days. Perhaps he learned the forms that way or he changed them on his own. Of course, this is not a problem. He can teach what he wishes. The point is that when I helped Sifu Jew Lang teach at his school, I had to relearn the forms the way that Sifu Jew wished them to be taught. And because of this someone has mistakenly said that I learned Lau Bun's forms after he died from my kung fu big brother, Sifu Jimmy Jew Lang.

Yes, Sifu Jew did teach me the gim (straight sword) set that he created. The reason I say that Sifu Jew created the gim set is because I witnessed Lau Bun teaching it to Susan Lam, my junior kung fu sister and the movements are totally different. Therefore I have not practiced and have not taught the gim form that Sifu Jew taught me. On the other hand, Sifu Jew asked me to teach one of his senior students the rattan shield and sword set that he did not learn from Lau Bun. I respected his request and taught it. I don't think there is anything wrong with that! We were in the same school and in the same kung fu family. trading forms and sets with our kung fu brothers is fine! I don't see anything wrong with it. Sifu Jew is still around today, so anyone can verify the facts with him.

Third, someone said that I was teaching on my own when Lau Bun was still alive. I was too busy training and learning and helping out Lau Bun teaching in his Hung Sing school, how can I had time to teach anyone on my own? I have no idea how this story got started! The only people teaching when Lau Bun was still alive were Chan Bing Tong and Jimmy Jew Lang. I have never tried to claim that I am Lau Bun's successor or that my learning is the best or that I am the only one teaching his arts. I was too young at that time, so I went to Hong Kong to continue learning the system for my own knowledge.

Learn forms from the Chan Family?
Then there was someone who wrote that I learned forms from the Chan family or approached the Chan family for forms and scripts. That is just ridiculous! I only learned King Mui sets from my teacher Hu Yuen Chou. As part of my training, he ordered me to learn sets from his kung fu brothers that he had never learned from his teachers. Back in the old days, the choy li fut masters only taught their students a few hand and weapon sets. Dr. Hu Yuen Chou was a very open-minded sifu. He taught me that if one is to teach kung fu fulltime, one must know more sets in order to compete with the other kung fu systems. He sent me to his kung fu brothers to learn sets he thought I should know. He personally taught me all the sets that he learned from Chan Ngau Sing and Chan Yiu Chi. Wong Gong is one of the instructors that he wanted me to learn from. Wong Gong was my Si-Suk from the beginning. Because he taught me so many advanced choy li fut forms, later on Hu Yuen Chou wanted me to address Wong Gong as one of my sifus too. As far as learning from the Chan family, I have never approached them for any scripts or forms at all. All I can say is "no way Jose"!

Recently I have been honored to visit on several occasions with my Si-Suk, Chan Sun Chiu, the present Keeper of the Chan Family. But I have never asked him or anyone in his family to give me scripts or forms. I have never paid or bought forms from anyone in his family. Besides, think about it! No instructor is willing to sell their best special forms and secrets to outsiders. In fact many people have written to me and wanted me to sell them some of my special advanced forms and they were willing to pay me good money. But I told them I only teach those forms to my advanced students. My special advanced forms are not for sale to the public.

Another misinformed person wrote that I paid money to get special forms. And, they went on to say that I didn't even want to acknowledge the people that sold me their secrets as my sifus! And then there was an anonymous poster who wrote that I had approached the Chan family to ask for an advanced internal form and the response was: "you are the highest ranking choy li fut man in America, you should already know this form". I was accused of doing the same thing with Lee Koon Hung. These serious unsubstantiated accusations are simply ridiculous! I say to the world here and now, "no, no a thousand times no"! One wonders who created such rumors and for what reason?

I will acknowledge all my teachers and kung fu brothers who have offered me knowledge of choy li fut at the end of this article.

My time with Lau Bun
I started kung fu training in San Francisco Chinatown when I was 12 years old with couple of my Buddhist brothers. I learned Wu style tai chi with Kwan King Hung (Bruce Lee's adopted father). Frank Lew also taught me Fut Gar kung fu at the same time. In February 1963 I officially joined the San Francisco's Hung Sing School under Lau Bun's direction. Since I already had a good martial arts background, my teacher Lau Bun didn't make me go though the 6 months of horse stances training. In only one and half years of learning from Lau Bun I caught up to some students who had been there 3 years ahead of me. I mastered the Shaolin Five Animal form in approximately two years after joining the school. Many of the students who signed up with the school before me were jealous of my achievement because my teacher Lau Bun taught me so fast.

Lau Bun had me perform the Shaolin Five Animal form in San Francisco Chinatown for the Chinese New Year celebration and other events. I participated with Lau Bun's Hung Sing School in Marysville, California's annual parades and kung fu and lion dancing demos for the Bomb Day Celebration each year. I also went to Los Angles with Lau Bun to celebrate The Hop Sing Tong Association's annual spring banquet and did lion dancing and a kung fu demo. I demonstrated the Five Animal Form, the two man Rattan Shield and sword form, and the two man staff fighting form in L.A's Chinatown in 1966.

During the years that I was learning choy li fut kung fu with Lau Bun, he taught me directly most of the time. Sometimes when there were senior students around, he asked one of them to show me the new moves of the form that I was learning. He was there watching and corrected me if the senior student taught me wrong. Most often it was Roy that Lau Bun selected to help me. I was not the only student like that, most of his students learned the same way - being assisted by the senior classmates with Lau Bun's supervision. I did most of the teaching for him for about one and half years before his death on September 6, 1967. I was with Lau Bun consistently learning and practicing for more than 4 hours a day, seven days a week until he died. Some of the other students were only there to hang out for social gathering or to sit around and chat. Yet later they claimed to have studied with him for many years. I sweated and worked hard to learn from him. His health was not so good in the last year of his life. But he was not disabled. He was still able to walk and move. It's not like he was lying in bed and had someone else teach me. Besides, most of the years I was his student, he was still in good health.

After Lau Bun passed away, our senior classmate Jimmy Jew Lang took over the school and moved the Hung Sing School to the Spofford Alley in Chinatown. Before Lau Bun's death, I was helping him teach a few of the new students in his school. My senior kung fu brother Jimmy Jew Lang asked me to help him to keep the group and offered me free workout training space. He made me an instructor at his school. Since it was now his school, I had to learn and teach his way of doing the forms. This was different from the way that I learned them from Lau Bun.

After Lau Bun died, I did pick up a few forms that I had not learned from him from a couple of Lau Bun's senior students. Bob Louie taught me the Elephant Form, because he knew it best of all. I also learned the Don-do (broadsword) set from Shanghai Hung. One day, before his passing, Lau Bun and I were chatting after class and he told me that Ah Hung was the only one that he taught the broadsword form to. That was the same day that he told me the story that he had a nickname in China: "Don-do Bun". Of course later on, Lau Bun's students made up their own don-do form to teach in their schools.

Anyway, I did learn all the major forms that Lau Bun taught in his time. I am still teaching all his forms. At the same time, I also teach Kong Chow and King Mui lineages forms too.

Anonymous Gossip
No one who knows me would dare say that I wanted to pay money to buy special kung fu forms from some choy li fut instructors and not want to take them as my sifus? I have always told my students who my teachers were and where each of my forms comes from. I am happy to stand up to anyone hiding behind the skirts of an anonymous internet name and refute these defamatory accusations.

Acknowledgement
I would like to take this opportunity to gratefully acknowledge all those who have offered me knowledge of choy li fut in my life: My Sifus - Lau Bun, Hu Yuen Chou and Wong Gong. My Si-Suks - Wong Ying Sum, Tong Sik, Mok Man Yan, Lam Chau, Leong Biu and Chan Sun Chiu. My Si-hings - Jimmy Jew Lang, Roy Lau, Bob Louie, Shanghai Hung and Wong Ha. I thank these generous souls, some of whom taught me choy li fut kung fu forms, others who gave me form scripts and some provided me with training tips and historical knowledge of the system. I thank all of them who helped me launch my career in choy li fut. I want all my students and their students to remember these names.

If you should read my name associated with anyone not mentioned in my acknowledgement, it is a mistake, and probably the result of rumors created by malcontents who resent me for some unknown reason.

Have I ever written anything bad about Sifu Jew or Dino Salvatera? I make it a point to never say or write anything negative about any other choy li fut instructors. If anyone should say I have been bad mouthing someone have them show it to you. They won't be able to do it!

Work hard and enjoy your kung fu training. And remember; it's always a bad idea to chop off someone's head to make yourself look taller!