Bio of Yip Man

    The late Grandmaster Yip Man, was without a doubt responsible for the art of Wing Chun Kuen coming into the modern public eye. He also was in a direct line of Wing Chun practitioners dating back nearly 200 years to the art's fabled beginnings at the original Shaolin Temple in Honan Province. Prior to publicly teaching in Hong Kong, Wing Chun Kuen was famous from previous masters such as Leung Jan, but it was a mystery to most people in terms of it's actual form and content, as it was taught to very few. That changed once Yip Man began teaching in Hong Kong until his death. From his students spring the largest amount of Wing Chun practitioners in the modern world. Nowadays, there may be many variations from his original teachings, but he was the undisputed Grandmaster of his time.

    As the rightful patriarch of the Wing Chun style of kung fu, he succeeded in spreading his obscure but dynamic fighting art first throughout the British Crown Colony of Hong Kong and then throughout the world. He had developed a reputation as a superlative fighter. He had stood up to hard stylists and soft stylists, to instructors and students, and even to a foreign devil or two. Yet despite his small five foot, 120 pound frame, never once had he lost. Today, 90 percent of Wing Chun schools in the world can be traced directly to his efforts.

    His teaching has become a cornerstone of the modern martial arts era. The bare-boned efficiency of his fighting techniques, coupled with the knowledge that he was Bruce Lee's instructor, caused millions to regard his art with awed curiosity, Wing Chun means magic to them. Throughout the world, wherever instruction is not readily available, martial artists have at least attempted to imitate the subtleties of the art's sticking and trapping techniques.

    Today Wing Chun is the most influential martial art to emerge from 20th century China.
-As written by William Cheung