21-1-09: IP MAN AND ME

Looking back on my ‘Beautiful Springtime’ (part one)

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The martial arts movie ‘Ip Man’, starring Donnie Yen as the legendary master of Wing Chun and teacher of Bruce Lee, goes from strength to strength. What an amazing film it is, evidence that prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" /Hong Kong can still turn out a great kung fu flick! If we were back in the 70s, it would already be in theatres in the US, retitled ‘A Fist Too Fast’ or ‘Return of the Chinese Connection 3’. After the premiere, I joked with Donnie that he should have a cut of the take from the increased revenue from the different Wing Chun schools worldwide.

Like most people in the worldwide martial arts community, I became aware of Wing Chun in terms of it being the style studied by Bruce Lee. Later, he moved away from traditional kung fu to create his Jeet Kune Do, but, when he returned to the US in his late teens, he was primarily a Wing Chun man, and his early students were blown away by the speed and sensitivity of his hand techniques, and the short range power of his punches.

As is stated in the closing moments of ‘Ip Man’, the eponymous master was Bruce Lee’s teacher. The sequel, currently in pre-production, will focus on this relationship. It will be interesting to see how the story incorporates the other students of Ip Man, who were older and, at that time, better known (as martial artists) than Bruce. Foremost among these were William Cheung (Cheung Chuk-hing) and Wong Shun-leung. Though Ip Man was Lee’s official teacher, he also underwent a lot of his basic training with these men, and Wong oversaw the challenges matches that Lee engaged in on the Hong Kong rooftops.

Watching the different martial arts schools duel in ‘Ip Man’ reminded me of my own experiences with kung feuds…

I first met William Cheung in the UK, when I was editing a martial arts magazine called Combat. Bill was then on a crusade to tell the world that his Wing Chun was the ‘original’ version of the art, taught to him in secret by Grandmaster Ip Man, and that everyone else (even Ip’s own son!) was doing an inferior, ‘modified’ one. When I printed my no-holds-barred interview with him, it sparked a furore in the (admittedly small) world of Wing Chun, and there were challenges issued and even matches fought between different experts of the art. One misguided soul even demanded a match with me. Talk about killing the messenger. Perhaps fortunately, he failed to show at the appointed time. (20 years later, I declare myself winner by default!)

In a subsequent Combat magazine interview, also with me, Wong Shun-leung rebutted Cheung’s comments, and Bill subsequently took out a libel action against me for X million (I forget the exact amount, when someone sues me for that much, I tend to lose track after the first six digits or so...) We were busily preparing our legal defense when, at a seminar in Germany, a student of another prominent Wing Chun master, Dr Leung Ting, attacked William Cheung. A video of the brawl was swiftly circulated throughout the kung fu world. We never heard any more about the suit, but Bill, completely without justification, told the American magazine Black Belt that I had set him up.

Despite the fact that I never really considered myself a full on Wing Chun practitioner, I received a further challenge, which I duly accepted. The guy, a William Cheung supporter, wanted me to meet him outside Pete’s Famous Hot Dogs. I told him I had no idea where that was, but he didn’t believe me. How can you live in Birmingham and not know Pete’s Famous Hot Dogs?, he demanded. Turns out he was from Birmingham Alabama and was not aware that Combat was a British publication based (god help us) in Birmingham, England. I told him that we would have to stage our kung fu showdown in “ Britain’s second city’. (That alone should have put him off…) To my surprise, he agreed, on condition I buy him a return air ticket. Using my best psychological warfare, I grimly told him that a one way ticket would be sufficient, and never heard any more… Looking back, we were all too young and too crazy (including William Cheung, and especially! moi)…

Though I’ve not had the pleasure of meeting him since, I hold no grudge against William Cheung, who I understand has much mellowed with age (haven’t we all?). He certainly seemed so on the wonderful Wing Chun documentary produced by his student, Tonny White. Tonny is a good friend of mine, and I hired him as martial arts actor on The Medallion. He told me had passed on my regards to Grandmaster Cheung, and they had been returned in kind.

(Next: Memories of Wong Shun-leung)