I dunno if this is old, but I stumbled across this:
http://www.fortunecity.com/lavendar/...nwaimanbio.htm
Chan Wai Man`s Biography
Real name Chan Wai Man
Also Known As Chen Hui-min
Birthplace Hong Kong
Birthdate
Trivia
Chan Wai Man lives in a three-storey, Sai Kung, Hong Kong, home. It's like the whole household is involved in fighting. Tyson, Chan's dog, is a champion from the illegal dogfights popular in the New Territories, so too are his pet bear and his specially trained chickens. His son and daughter both train in martial arts under one of Chan Wai Man's students, and the man himself is still more than capable of unleashing a fist or foot of fury. It would be easy to pass judgement on a man who has his pets fight for sport, on someone whose background includes streetfights, gangfights, boxing and kickboxing matches and, of course, choreographed martial arts movie action. However, for those of you willing to encounter a real fighter, Chan's the man.
The veteran of films like Dragon Lord and Project A, Part Two is the combatant that Bruce Lee may have wanted to have been. If Chan Wai Man died tomorrow, there would be none of the disputes over whether he was a `real' fighter that have marred The Little Dragon's memory. Unbeaten in the ring or on the street, Chan, a good friend of Lee's, is living proof that, sometimes, crime does pay. I went to visit the unrepentant folk hero at his home, and survived to file the following report. Chan Wai Man talks like he trains and fights: at full bore. When he warms to his theme, his face reddens, his neck muscles tense and he turns to one side to emit a stream of Cantonese expletives. He's a very trim fifty-year-old, still happy to go toe-to-toe with any man, and to doff his shirt to reveal his lean, mean and tattooed torso. Here's what this raging dragon had to say about his fighter's life...
Bey Logan: First of all, could you tell us a Little about your background, where you grew up and where you began your martial arts training?
Chan Wai Man: I'm of Hakka stock, so my family comes from the New Territories. When I was very young, around ten years old, I started learning Northern Shaolin kung fu under my first Sifu, Yau Han Gung-Si. Later, I started to study Tam Ka Sam Gin. It looks like karate (he demonstrates a few Goju Ryu style movements). Very slow, but big power! Then, I moved on to western boxing.
Bey Logan: You fought !n the ring, didn't you, as both a boxer and a kickboxer?
Chan Wai Man: Yes. In 1972, I was the South-East Asian kung fu fighting champion. I fought for that title in Singapore. I also fought boxing matches against westerners, fighters who were stationed with the British army here in Hong Kong. I was never an international boxing champion, just the Hong Kong champion. I like boxing very much, though. I think that, if I'd been born overseas, I would have pursued that as a career.
Bey Logan: You were one of the first of the kung fu heroes to have a physique like a western boxer, a very lean look. What kind of training regimen did you follow?
Chan Wai Man: I had the same attitude as Bruce Lee. In the old days, you could learn traditional kung fu, and you had to train many years before you could fight well. With boxing, or kickboxing, you could train hard for only one year, and already be effective I had worked as a bodyguard before, and you couldn't use kung fu to fight. It wasn't like a kung fu challenge match! When you fought, it was like what we call a 'dar-gow', a dogfight. Anything goes! For this reason, I stopped learning kung fu and shifted to the boxing style. Bruce Lee was the same. He started focusing on western style conditioning, like running, skipping, weights, bagwork.
Bey Logan: When you faught in the ring, what did you consider to be your most effective technique?
Chan Wai Man: For my weight, I could punch hard. At that time, I used to enter these empty hand kung fu fighting tournaments and, compared to me, the fighters couldn't hit hard, so I used to knock them out. Later, the standard of those kind of matches improved. Now we have quite a few good ring fighters in Hong Kong. I had about sixteen bouts. All but two ended in knock-outs. Many of them, I could knock out with my jab!
Bey Logan: That's unusual. Which of the western boxers did you admire?
Chan Wai Man: Ali. Not just for his skills, but because he was a real star He wasn't that powerful, but he was very light, very fast. Now, I like Tyson. He looks like a tiger! However, Tyson cannot fight for a long time. He lacks stamina. If the fight goes to the eleventh or twelfth round, he starts to look tired. In the early rounds, he's very powerful, very dangerous. Ali was very smart, though. He'd had very clever tactics. Of all the fighters, I like to watch Muhammad Ali the best.
Bey Logan: We've talked about your punching. What were your favourite kicking techniques?
Chan Wai Man: I looked at the kicking techniques from all styles, Taekwondo, Thai boxing, kung fu. The Korean kicks look very beautiful. However, I have to say that the best kicking I saw was by Bruce Lee. Fast, but very powerful! Some people were faster, but they lacked power Only Bruce had this, so, of course, I tried to follow his kicking style.
Bey Logan: I believe the person who started off your film career was Victor Lam, who works with Samo Hung now...
Chan Wai Man: Yes! He was my boss a long time ago, when I made this film called The Killer from Denmark. Victor saw me fighting in Taiwan on television, knocking down my opponent. He told a mutual friend of mine that he wanted to meet me. I asked this friend what he wanted. "To make a movie," he replied. "I don't know anything about making movies!", I replied. He said: "No need! It's a fighting film! No need to act, just fight." That was in the early Seventies.
Bey Logan: That was when Bruce Lee was at his peak. What was your attitude towards him at that time?
Chan Wai Man: He was already on the scene when I started making films. It was because of him that producers wanted to find real fighters to make kung fu films. Bruce Lee was my good friend, long before he made films, when we were both still at school. We went to different schools, but we knew each other well.
Bey Logan: Later, when you were both working In films, did you train together?
Chan Wai Man: We didn't train, as such, but I'd often visit him at his apartment in Waterloo Road and later at his house in Kowloon Tong. I'd see all his training equipment! We'd compare theories on fighting. Bruce was the most popular kung fu actor. I was already the best-known fighter in Hong Kong, and I was getting into a lot of street-fights at that time. Back then, if you worked in kung fu movies and you went out into Tsim Sha Tsui East at night, these lan jai (young punks) would say things like: "Hey, you! Can you really fight or is it fake?", and so you had to fight or lose face! Bruce was always fascinated by this, by real fighting. He would always ask me what technique worked, what didn't. We used to joke about it. He used to call me 'The Streetfighter' and I used to call him `The Academic'!
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