Eric Lee

[mig]

I have seen some posting about Kung fu during the 70's but I can not find anything about Eric Lee. Why was he the king of kata? What forms? Made up kung fu?

[TenTigers]

Eric Lee did Wun Hop Kuen Do, a Chinese influenced style created by Kajukenbo Sifu Al Dacascos.

[YouKnowWho]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1U7h7wjNjUw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SwLLk2M8wXE

[mooyingmantis]

Yep, he was quite a forms champion back in the day.

[lance]

I have seen some posting about Kung fu during the 70's but I can not find anything about Eric Lee. Why was he the king of kata? What forms? Made up kung fu?

mig , go to Ericlee.com and look under Eric Lee Biography , and you ' ll get information on Eric Lee .

Wun Hop Kuen Do is just a branch of kajukenbo with more of a chinese and filipino
influence than kajukenbo , it also means combined fist art style , and the founder is Sifu Al Dacascos , who evolve the style in 1969 . Like what tentigers said in his post topic reply to your topic . I ' m just elaborating on the style .

He also made a movie dealing with martial arts weapons , with Gerald Okamura the kung fu san soo expert and other martial artist in general . I ' m not sure but I think that the movie was weappns of death , but yet , I can be mistaken . But go and read about Eric Lee , in real life it was at a martial arts exhibition and the host was the Late Sifu Shek Kin . Eric Lee did a drunken form self defense demo and put away 4 guys using the movements of the drunken form .

[mig]

thanks everyone,
I just remember him from articles I read in IKF magazine but never saw the forms he performed as the king of kata. What wass the criteria and how much real Kung fu was incorporated in his forms? Didn't find any videos or YouTube. Thanks

[SPJ]

wun hop

I though it means wen hua like culture

or wu hua like dance flower meaning mixture of many

or hu he like tiger crane

--

the stomping feet or jin gang dao zhui

look like shaolin fist

--

--

:confused:

[SIFU RON]

HE IS QUITE A NICE GUY, I LIKE HIM AND HE CERTAINLY IS THE KING OF KATA

http://i235.photobucket.com/albums/ee214/SIFURON/museumpreopen003.jpg

ME AND ERIC 2007

[ginosifu]

I have seen some posting about Kung fu during the 70's but I can not find anything about Eric Lee. Why was he the king of kata? What forms? Made up kung fu?

He has got some northern shaolin. He even has some of our forms he was selling in the back of some old Black Belt Magazine... Really old, I remember looking at some of his vids back in the late 80's or early 90's.

ginosifu

[mickey]

Greetings,

You can see a glimpse of footage of Eric Lee, in his competitor days (it was actually a form performance), in the dvd "The New Gladiators". One thing I liked in that clip was his doing a single leg squat kick, done with power. I am still curious about where the Won Hop Kuen Do people got that from. Wah Lum was not prominent back then.

Eric Lee also performed to music and was also fond of using a strobe light. Other Won Hop Kuen Do luminaries from that time included, Malia Dacascos, Karen Shepard and Karyn Turner.

mickey

[ginosifu]

Greetings,

You can see a glimpse of footage of Eric Lee.
mickey

You can also see a glimpse of him in the movie "Tiger Claws II:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRG-rL6HzW4

You can see him at 5:00 with Cynthia Rothrock.

ginosifu

[Ben Gash]

One thing I liked in that clip was his doing a single leg squat kick, done with power. I am still curious about where the Won Hop Kuen Do people got that from. Wah Lum was not prominent back then.
Hardly unique to Wah Lum. I mean here's Doc Fai Wong doing it in the 60s
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7j8lNk0SjwQ

[mickey]

Hi Ben Gash,

The way Eric Lee did it was as a forward advancing attack with the toe. There was no rising and falling as in the link you provided. He stepped forward into a one legged squat and shot his leg forward simultaneously.


mickey

[NorthernShaolin]

Ten Tigers is correct about Al.

Al learned his Kung fu along with his wife from my teacher, GM Wong Jack Man back in the late 60's. He learned BSL # 6,7, 8, and 5 as I remember watching Al and his wife learn these sets.

Eric and I competed together back in the early 70's and once he saw me perform BSL Double Sabers at the CKC in 1971 and inquired about it. I told him it was better if he learned directly from my Sifu but he went to see my Sifu without me and was refused because back then if you were learning from a teacher already, you would be refused lessons.

Later Eric hooked up with Lai Hung who was teaching in both Oakland and Sacramento areas and manage to learned some BSL sets as I have seen Eric perform BSL #6 and 8 at a tournament a couple of years later.

[Lebaufist]

Some very nice athletics and movement. Those guys worked for a living. :D

[Jimbo]

I've seen Eric Lee in person a lot over the years, starting at a big Kenpo/Kajukenbo gathering back in 1981, where he performed one of his strobe light forms. Also seen him many times at Ed Parker's Long Beach Internationals where my CLF sifu, who's known him for decades, introduced me to him back in the '90s. He seemed like a cool, down-to-earth guy.

[Lokhopkuen]

He has got some northern shaolin. He even has some of our forms he was selling in the back of some old Black Belt Magazine... Really old, I remember looking at some of his vids back in the late 80's or early 90's.

ginosifu

I've know Eric since I was a kid He learned Northern Shaolin from Johnny So actually, but added extra moves to the form to spice them up:) He's a good guy.

[GeneChing]

Read Eric Lee: On martial arts, media, and essentially maintaining a peace of mind (http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/magazine/article.php?article=43) by Annabelle A. Udo in our 1993 Fall issue (issue #7) (http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/magazine/article.php?article=42)

[Lokhopkuen]

You sir are a repository of coolness:D

[Lucas]

beats being a suppository :eek:

[GeneChing]

There are times when nothing beats a suppository of coolness.

[Lucas]

:eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek:

hey as long as im invited to the after party its all good

;)

[Lokhopkuen]

Lotta time on you're hands huh:p

[GeneChing]

As long as you're bringing some ninjettes, Lucas, you are certainly welcome to the afterparty. :cool:

[Lucas]

oh i'll bring the ninjettes my friend, you just keep that suppository ready to go! ;)

[Lokhopkuen]

There are times when nothing beats a suppository of coolness.

I keep 'em in my EMT jump bag:D

[mig]

What made Eric Lee the king of Kata? Is that because there were not enough Kung fu guys out there during the 70's? What kind of forms, made up or traditional forms made him famous? I understand he practiced several styles but I don't see much in the internet. Anyone has found anything about the forms he performed?

[mickey]

Greetings,

Eric Lee was known as "The Little King of Kata". The term "Little" may have been attached because of his height or keep him from being seen as an economic threat to other karateka. I remember reading that he did perform to music and to strobe lighting as well. And, yes, there were not too many kung fu men competing at the time. I only saw a glimpse of what he performed in The New Centurions. It appeared to be a composite empty hand form or a Northern Shaolin Form. His Sifu, Al Dacascos was into creating competition forms. i remember being told that he liked to compete with double broadswords. In the late 1980's, he put the bulk of his knowledge on vhs. He has yet to release them. From what I remember, there were Northern Shaolin and Northern Lohan forms. There are some West Coast guys here who can do a better share than I can.

Billy shared a link to a dvd that featured the American Masters of the Martial Arts. The link did have Eric Lee on it @1:30. I do not know if the dvd has him doing a complete form. You can inquire the seller.
.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OGr0DZHy__o

And though he had that appelation, he, Malia Dacascos, Karen Turner, Karen Shepard and Al Dacascos were definitely the pillars that gave rise to other creative forms competitors such as James Lew and Al Leong, both students of Douglas Wong, and the West Coast Demo Team.

mickey

[Jimbo]

I've seen Eric Lee in person many times at events over the years, the first time at a dinner function/demo for Kajukenbo and Kenpo people in 1981. Adriano Emperado was there. Eric Lee did perform that time to music and strobe lights. I also saw him at more than one of the Long Beach Internationals. My CLF teacher has known Eric Lee since the 70s, and he was talking to him at the 1994 Internationals and called me over and introduced me to him. I've also seen him since then, many years ago at a birthday dinner for Share K. Lew. Eric Lee seems like a nice guy, and he was very fit. He is a small guy, so I assume that's where the "little" in Little King of Kata comes from, as opposed to any attempt by karate guys to downplay him.

Regarding the forms he did, the strobe lights one had a lot of acrobatics and a split thrown in...I don't remember a name for it. I saw him do a "drunken style" fighting demo at an Internationals which was theatrical in nature (he probably made it up).

I believe that Eric Lee was originally Kajukenbo (or "Wun Hop Kuen Do", which is probably an offshoot). Many Kajukenbo people incorporated movements from CMA into their forms back then. However, I don't think his demo forms were traditional kung fu. Back in the 70s, there weren't a lot of CMA people in the karate tournaments. My CLF Sifu and his students fought in the 60s and 70s karate comps, and Gini Lau (Ying Jow Fan Zi) was a forms champion. As mentioned, Douglas Wong, Al Leong, James Lew, Al and Malia Dacoscos, etc., were also part of that scene. But overall, kung fu was sparsely represented in the karate comps.

@mickey:
Speaking of Douglas Wong, his wife, Carrie Ogawa-Wong, was very good in her forms demos.

[mickey]

Greetings,

Jimbo: Thank you for getting Malia Dacascos' name right. And yes, Carrie Ogawa-Wong did compete well.

I came back to correct Malia's name and add Anthony Chan, Roger Tung and Keith Hirabayashi to the list. Keith Hirabayashi was one of the few who really WORKED the Wushu back in the 1980's. I think he even went to Mainland China to train. He came back and kept working at it and he really got results. If he had competed in the Houston Nationals, he would have been the only one who could have given Art D'agostino competition and I say that as a deep compliment to both men.

mickey

[GeneChing]

Eric Lee was on the cover of our 1993 Fall issue (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/magazine/article.php?article=42). That was our 7th issue.

http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/images/mzine/1993-3cover.jpg

[boxerbilly]

Sorry Gene. I never bought any of Eric's Panther videos. Or I would send you a link !

[GeneChing]

I got ya covered. ;)


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PPzJ4vz89G4

It's been a while since I've seen Eric. We crossed paths at an S.F. tournament a few years ago. I think that was the last time I saw him. He's always been very cordial to me.

[mig]

I got ya covered. ;)


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PPzJ4vz89G4

It's been a while since I've seen Eric. We crossed paths at an S.F. tournament a few years ago. I think that was the last time I saw him. He's always been very cordial to me.

Hey thanks for the video. Watching the video, I asked myself is that for real. In the old audience people would be impressed, today people are more informed and educated about street fighting, sport fighting or self defense. How would you rate this? How he became the little king of kata? How much kung fu the jury knew to name him the king of kata? If I remember correctly during those I practiced Shaolin demos started.

[mickey]

Greetings mig,

If the video shows anything, it shows that he is still on his path. He is still growing. Now if he stepped to the audience to say, "Not only am I the King of Kata, I am Short Nuff the true Shogun of Harlem!", people will laugh. He is just doing his own thing. A lot of people have enough trouble doing just that. The appellation that was given to him was nothing more than that. And it was GIVEN to him. There will be others, hopefully. He has no monopoly on it.


mickey

[PalmStriker]

I got ya covered. ;)


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PPzJ4vz89G4

It's been a while since I've seen Eric. We crossed paths at an S.F. tournament a few years ago. I think that was the last time I saw him. He's always been very cordial to me.
:) The vid shows Master Lee is good at beating up the dude from Metallica, but what about someone like Bolo?

[GeneChing]

What is the likelihood of facing off with someone like Bolo? On the other hand, knowing how to take out 'Lars' is far more practical.










;)

[mickey]

Greetings,

Bolo is only 5'6".

The question really is what will PalmStriker do?

Given his poor diet and resulting sagging condition that he erroneously evolved into an absolutely hideous truth that will face us all, he will bite Bolo and keep chewing on him; every now and then he will stop and say. "Now, THIS is Chinese food!"


mickey

[GeneChing]

...I've actually never met Bolo. Tiger Claw had ties to him as they were connected to the production of Tiger Claws (1992) and TC2000 (1993). That was before my time here however.

[mickey]

Did you know that he worked for a time in NYC as a bouncer?

mickey

[-N-]

What is the likelihood of facing off with someone like Bolo?

Isn't that him waiting offstage for his turn at Eric?


I got ya covered. ;)


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PPzJ4vz89G4


:D

[GeneChing]

Isn't that him waiting offstage for his turn at Eric? That's Harry Mok, who I do know pretty well. :cool:

[GeneChing]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-zUzcbDOxo

Threads:
2019 TCEC (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?71001-2019-Tiger-Claw-Elite-Championships-amp-KUNG-FU-TAI-CHI-DAY-May-18-19-San-Jose-CA)
Eric Lee (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?68631-Eric-Lee)