Young Yau Kung Moon students prepare to take the stage to perform at the Chinese New Year Flower Market Fair in Chinatown, San Francisco, on Jan. 30, 2022. (Beth LaBerge/KQED)
Lau has been going to see the Lunar New Year parade for years and would watch it on TV when he got older. He watches his children practice with Ow and commends him for his dedication.
“I can tell Sifu [Ow] really likes teaching and working with the community,” said Lau.
Lau said the decision to get his children involved with the Yau Kung Moon School was partly influenced by news of ongoing violent attacks and hate targeting Asian and Asian American people across the United States.
Stop AAPI Hate — a project based out of San Francisco State University that, among other efforts, asks members of Asian American and Pacific Islander communities across the nation to self-report acts of hate and discrimination — found that there were more than 10,000 incidents of anti-Asian hate from March 2020 through September 2021. California ranked first out of 20 states with the largest percentage of hate incident reports at 37.8%.
“My wife has that fear of bad things might happen, and this program is a way to help our kids protect themselves,” said Lau.
Brandon Wong, a 25-year-old from Daly City, is one of Yau Kung Moon School’s senior instructors and has been training and performing since he was in middle school. He’s been working with Sifu Richard Ow for more than 14 years.
“My mother knew one of the instructors and he would see me around town and egged me on to learn,” said Wong. “I decided to give it a try and fell in love with it. I started coming out every Saturday and Sunday to practice. It’s nice to exercise, but learning lion dancing and martial arts helped build my confidence. Learning and practicing with other people from the community was nice.”
When Wong first started practicing, there weren’t as many kids involved, so all the participants (around 20 people) trained together, no matter their skill level. The program has since grown, and classes are now separated by skill level: beginner, intermediate and advanced. Wong has participated in at least 12 parade performances, and he's also a part of the street fair performances held on Sundays in Chinatown. There's a stage set up where students are encouraged to perform their moves with a demonstration of fighting techniques using weapons, hand-to-hand combat and lion dancing.
A Yau Kung Moon lion dance team talks before performing at the Chinese New Year Flower Market Fair in Chinatown, San Francisco, on Jan. 30, 2022. (Beth LaBerge/KQED)
Wong remembers the adrenaline rush he felt the first time he performed in the parade.
“The idea of being on TV as a kid was cool,” said Wong. “Overall, it was a really fun experience. After around three years of performing, my sisters got involved so it became a family thing. My older sister assists with the online classes.”
When the pandemic shut down in-person practice, Ow and his instructors switched to teaching online through Zoom classes.
“We still want to make sure everyone’s comfortable, so we still offer online classes," said Wong. "Online classes make teaching a little more difficult when there’s only one view from a webcam — and correcting stances, posture and techniques is important.”
Wong helps out with performances and in-person practice. With a 1-year-old son at home, Wong says his involvement with the program has shifted slightly but he makes time when Ow needs assistance. He helps teach three days a week at every skill level.
Brandon Wong, 25, a senior instructor at Yau Kung Moon, performs at the Chinese New Year Flower Market Fair in Chinatown, San Francisco, on Jan. 30, 2022. (Beth LaBerge/KQED)
Ow implemented a new system of distinguishing different skill levels by introducing colored sashes to his students modeled after the colors used in the Chinese zodiac. There are 10 levels and colors; beginners wear gray sashes around their waists and work their way up to red sashes, which instructors wear.
“In the old-school way, there wasn’t this type of structured system and there was no way for students to gauge how they were improving,” said Ow. “Now, it’s set up for a student to be able to learn the system and pass it on to future generations.”
'It was captivating to see the costumes and how people were able to move the lion's head in such a way that it looked realistic.'
Rebecca Lee, senior instructor, Yau Kung Moon School
Yau Kung Moon was introduced to the public in China in 1924 by founding Grandmaster Ha Han Hong — but its rich history extends back to the Tang dynasty. Ha was taught by a Shaolin monk and began establishing schools at the monk's request. Prior to that, the style was primarily practiced in secret at southern Shaolin temples and villages, with monks selecting one worthy disciple to teach and pass along to the next generation. Much of the history of Yau Kung Moon was kept alive through word of mouth rather than written texts.
Wong says while everyone comes into practice at different skill levels, it took him about a year of practice before he started performing. His first performance was lion dancing at the Chinatown weekend street fair. Being in sync and practicing with a partner takes time and at least a few years of practice, depending on the complexity of the performance, Wong said.
Rebecca Lee started coming to the Yau Kung Moon school when she was 6 years old. She remembers being excited to see the lion dance performances and people practicing kung fu.
“It was captivating to see the costumes and how people were able to move the lion’s head in such a way that it looked realistic,” said Lee.
Rebecca Lee, 23, a senior instructor, helps students practice martial arts during a beginner class at Yau Kung Moon, a southern Shaolin kung fu studio, in Chinatown, San Francisco, on Jan. 29, 2022. (Beth LaBerge/KQED)
Lee's father brought her to the school one day, and after some convincing, she agreed to join and start learning. Lee is now 23 and has been a senior instructor since 2016. She primarily helps the younger children who need more assistance with their coordination and fundamentals. Lee said she’s glad to see more women getting involved in what’s been seen as a male-dominated activity.
The Yau Kung Moon School has a great reputation among other martial arts schools as being strong competitors and among the community at large for their performances. Ow encourages people who aren’t familiar with the Lunar New Year holiday to participate in festivities and come see the parade.
As for the school, he says the important thing to remember when practicing is to remain humble and open to learning. Ow is planning a Kung Fu Day event on March 19, where he will invite sifus from all over the Bay Area to perform and showcase their styles in an exhibition as a sign of solidarity.
“I don’t consider myself a master,” said Ow. “Even though it’s been 35 years, I still have more to learn. I tell my instructors that as long as you are teaching someone, it doesn’t matter if it’s one person or 10 people. What’s important is keeping the culture, tradition and style alive.”