Yip Man's Foshan students?

[sihing]

I've read in a few posts about Yip Man's previous students before he landed in Hong Kong, in 1949(or so). Does anyone have any information on these students, like how many were there, and where are they now? I never heard about any students before Yip moved to Hong Kong, from what I had read and heard he didn't like to teach much and only did so in Hong Kong to earn a living.

Thanks,

Sihing

[kj]

From a past thread on Ip Man's early students, Lon Gi (http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=13447&highlight=lon+gi) in particular, who still lives in Foshan.

Regards,
- Kathy Jo

[sihing]

thanks Kathy, that was informative.

Sihing

[Whiplash]

Wasn't Lo Man Kam one of those Foshan students as well?

[YiWan]

Hi to all,
today we have in Fatshan two direct, oldest living Yip Mans students. The oldest living one is KWOK FU sifu (83), he is living a little bit outside Fatshan, is still active and with his son KWOK WAI JAN sifu has lot of folowers in region.
here his photo from last year, december :

http://www.wing-chun.cz/images/Friends/KwokFu.jpg

Second one is well known LUN KAI sifu.
Both of them you can see every morning in Fatshan Jing Mo Hui.
greetings
YiWan

[KPM]

In Leung Ting's book "Roots and Branches of Wing Chun" he has a section on Yip Man's Foshan students with some comparative analysis of the forms they learned compared to what Yip Man taught later in his career.

Keith

[AmanuJRY]

Chow Kwong Yiu
Lun Kai
Kwok Fu
Chan Gee Sun
Lui Pak Ying
Chow Sai Keung
Chan Sum...
...and later, Tsang So.

[reneritchie]

Nice to hear Kwok Fu is still alive. I'd heard he'd passed away.

Hope you're enjoying China, Ivan!

[sihing]

okay, Yip Man had a few students before Hong Kong 1949. Does anyone know if Yip had kept in contact with these students? Were these students instructor levels by the time Yip had to leave Foshan? Just courious that's all, about Yip's early years.

Sihing

[Miles Teg]

Im guessing contact would have been difficult. At that time Chinese let, who ever wanted to get out, out of china. But I dont think they let people back in.

[reneritchie]

They closed the borders, the bamboo curtain fell, and friends and family were parted for decades.

"Instructor Level" is meaningless. People who taught were teachers. All that they needed was more knowledge than the person who they taught.

They learned for a few years, then trained on their own thereafter.