As a teenager, Bruce Lee (李小龍) was often bullied. On one occasion, while walking down the street with a friend, a gang of ruffians picked a fight.
Lee: “Quick, let’s get out of here.”
The friend: “Don’t be silly. I will beat the hell out of them.” And he did.
“Don’t you know I’m practicing wing chun (詠春)?” the victor asked.
Shortly afterwards, in 1956, Lee asked his father for US$25 and followed in his buddy Lo Man-kam’s (盧文錦) footsteps by becoming a pupil of Ip Man (葉問).
Lo can recall many stories like this from his youth in 1950s Hong Kong, where he studied kung fu under his uncle Ip, the grandmaster of the wing chun style of kung fu.
A world-renowned wing chun sifu (師父), or master, Lo doesn’t exude awe-inspiring seriousness as might be expected. Rather, he likes to crack jokes and make visitors and students feel relaxed and at ease at his apartment on Bade Road where he resides and teaches wing chun.
In the living room, replete with trophies, medals and memorabilia, several faded photographs of Ip stand out and affirm Lo’s status as a kung fu legend.
Rewind to 1950, when Ip fled to Hong Kong from Guangdong Province shortly after the Chinese Civil War ended. An acquaintance helped to get him a job teaching kung fu at a hotel. At first, there were only five or six students, one of which was Lo.
Studying under the wing chun master didn’t come cheap. While taichi chuan (太極拳) and shaolin chuan (少林拳) teachers charged US$5 a month, US$15 to US$25 was required to become Ip’s pupil. At the time, a police officer’s monthly salary was about US$90.
“It was just like my grandmaster [Ip’s sifu Chan Wah-shun (陳華順)] who had taught only 16, 17 pupils during his entire life. He couldn’t really make a living out of it if he didn’t charge more,” said the 77-year-old Lo, which explains how wing chun became known as “boxing for rich men’s sons” (少爺拳).
A wing chun sifu can only take in a limited number of students at one time because of the martial art’s unique teaching method. Its practitioners’ skills and knowledge come from one-on-one practice and training because the school focuses on honing reflex reactions and not fancy moves and techniques that can be learned through group drills.
“Wing chun is about the relationship between people ... If you don’t fight a person who knows kung fu, how do you know you can use kung fu?” Lo said.
After a decade-long apprenticeship under his uncle, Lo left Hong Kong for Taiwan in 1960 and joined the military. On re-entering civilian life in 1975, Lo opened a school in Taipei and has taught and promoted wing chun ever since.
Members of the elite strata of society have studied under Lo, such as one of Chiang Kai-shek’s (蔣介石) grandsons and the King of Brunei and his brother and sons.
The master’s expertise in combining wing chun with judo and other close-range combat techniques makes him a sought-after instructor by intelligence, police and military bodies, both at home and abroad. He has achieved many firsts during his professional career. Lo was the first head coach of Taiwan’s SWAT team and the first Chinese coach to train US military personnel.
To Lo, the trick of his trade is to maintain an open mind about other martial art styles. “You don’t know who your rival is, nor can you anticipate his or her moves. Therefore, there is no assumption in fighting. You contact, sense and respond. That process becomes part of your physical reflexes, which can be called wing chun, or any other name for that matter,” said Lo.
Over the years, Lo has traveled extensively, to France, Germany, Switzerland and Hungary, giving lectures, demonstrations and training and has taught foreign students hailing from more than 50 countries.
Lo makes sure he has room for students from abroad to stay at his place. The current tenant is a young Japanese man, who comes to Taipei for three months each year to study wing chun.
Owing his popularity among Westerners partially to Bruce Lee’s fame, Lo has developed a distinguished teaching method that employs physics, mathematics, kinematics and military tactics to explain and dissect the martial art.
“In Chinese culture, it is all about ownership and authority passed down by the father and grandfather. For Westerners, it’s science and reasoning,” he said.
The going is tough for students at Lo’s school. During his teaching career that spans 34 years, some half a dozen students have mastered the martial art to Lo’s standard.
At his advanced age, Lo stays active teaching classes five days a week, and traveling. He is as popular as ever, partly thanks to Donnie Yen’s (甄子丹) Ip Man (葉問), which was released last month and elicited a surge of interest in wing chun.
“I must have received more than 50 phone calls and taken in 10, 15 new students [after the movie was released]. But I can assure you, three months later, only five will remain,” Lo said. VIEW THIS PAGE
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