Sifu George Yau

[Jaybo]

Hi guys

I have mentioned a couple of times before; that I havent officially trained in Wing Chun for about 9 years. I have however, been training with a friend over the last few months. My freind trained for many years under the CIRCA Randy Williams system; the sytem that I studied and his highly trained, he lived and breathed wing chun. He is also a balintawak instructor so sometimes he does apply balintawak theories. He is a very good instructor and ideal until I am able to get back to a club.

Back on topic though, I have been reaserching my lineage and I get to a bit of a dead end when it comes to Sifu George Yau, Randys instructor. There is no record of his lineage and I am curius of who tought him. Does any one have any info about him?

[donbdc]

George Yau Kwok Chiu was originally from Hong Kong and was a top student in Hung Kuen under the late grandmaster Chiu Kau (present Grandmaster Chiu Chi Ling's father, direct descendant of Wong Fei Hung). He left Hong Kong in the 70's and came to Los Angeles Chinatown, where he worked as a cook and taught small groups of waiters and other restaurant staff. He also had a small practice as an acupuncturist and herbalist and was Randy Williams' next-door-neighbor and eventually became his Sifu. Wing Chun was not his specialty - he was always a Hung Kuen stylist at heart, but had learned quite a bit of Wing Chun in his time with Grandmaster Chiu, who was himself a contemporary and friend of Yip Man, as their schools were very near each other. As friends, their students frequently exchanged forms and techniques.

Don Berry CRCA Frederick MD

[Jaybo]

Hi

Thanks for your detailed response. Very interesting. It makes you wonder why he didn't teach randy hung kuen. Not the lineage I expected but an interesting one.

[donbdc]

"He always tried to teach me and I did in fact learn one form but resisted learning because I loved WC."

Don Berry

[Jaybo]

I guess that's why randy did some training with Augustine fong; to have some sort of lineage back to yip. What became of George? I heard that he went into hiding?

My friend always tries to make me learn balintawak, but I am like randy and love wing chun. Balintawak is awesome but I have no interest in learning it

[donbdc]

I have had opportunities to study w/ a lot of great kali/escrima and Silat teachers. I like them all but my heat belongs to WC.
But George never "went into hiding". He left the country to study Chines Medicine. He was always in plain view!

Don Berry

[Jaybo]

Cool, glad to hear it. Stories get changed as they get passed on. Is he still alive? Does randy still keep in touch with him?