On May 06, 2007, Sifu Yung received the 6th degree black belt certificate from Grandmaster Woo and is qualified to teach both internal and external styles of Hung Gar Kung Fu, along with weapons and two-man fighting sets. Recently, with Sigung Woo's help, he founded the first Academy branch out of state: Shaolin Hung Gar Martial Arts Academy, Atlanta. Sifu Yung started his martial arts training in 1974 in Cleveland , Ohio. Having tried various styles, he met Sigung Woo in 1986 in Springfield, Massachusetts, where he helped establish Ping Chiu Kung Fu Academy in 1992 and became the head instructor. Sifu Yung has had extensive experience in teaching martial arts: he taught classes at Springfield College with Sigung Woo and Sensei Jack Robinson; he also helped Kevin Andrews coach the martial arts team at Western New England College. Since moving to Atlanta, Georgia in 2000, Sifu Yung has been actively teaching Hung Gar Kung Fu and lion dance, currently at Hung Gar Kung Fu in Duluth, GA.
Our Sigung, Winchell Woo has 50 years of experience in both Northern and Southern kung fu and is one of the very few traditional teachers around. Known for his broadmindedness and good nature, he is respected in this region for his incomparable martial arts knowledge and matchless abilities. Money cannot buy the skills he teaches today. Many high-ranking martial artists in America today value Sigung Woo's skills, recognizing him as a 10th degree black belt Grandmaster and often honoring him as grandmaster of the year. With an inexhaustible amount of martial arts knowledge that he draws from Hung Gar, he has also developed many other styles that have resulted in many useful innovations in our practice and training methods. From his teachings, we have garnered large amounts of martial arts knowledge and skills to handle real and practical situations.
Born in Canton City, China, Sigung Woo earned a reputation as a skilled fighter while still in junior high school. The son of a US Marine, he was already an American citizen when he moved to Boston, Massachusetts in 1960. In 1967, Sigung Woo received his master certification and in the same year opened the Bamboo Hut Club, the first authentic Kung Fu school in the city of Boston. In the 1970's Sigung Woo was a founder of the New England Kung Fu federation and hosted the first Beijing Wushu team in New England. In 1992, he hosted the Shaolin Monks while they were in Boston on their world tour. While practicing Kung Fu for over 50 years, Sigung Woo was also a partner in several national and international companies engaged in trading commodities, manufacturing.
Lam Jow's student, our Grandmaster, Tan Kwak Wah, himself over 80-years old, lives in Boston, Massachusetts. Well known for his expertise in everything about Hung Gar, he is also highly respected as a great Chinese doctor. A quiet, reserved man, he shuns fame and publicity and prefers to devote himself to the perfection of his art.
Lam Sai Wing had many students; the most prominent of whom was Lum Jow, his own nephew. Lum Jow who was a martial arts prodigy. A brilliant young boy, he could remember a form after only a single glance. At age sixteen, he was already a formidable fighter in his domain. At that young age he received the authority to oversee the gwoon (kung fu school). This was not well received by the martial arts community that sent many older masters to challenge his skills. This fine lad defeated and bested them all. Lum Jow, now over ninety-years old, lives today in Hong Kong.
Lam Sai Wing was legendary for his many martial arts exploits including the famous theater incident. Lured into an opera theater, he was ambushed and attacked by over two hundred sailors. With only a few students with him, he fought single-handedly against the spear- and sword-wielding sailors. Attacked from all sides, Lam Sai Wing fought like a mighty tiger, easily parrying the sharp weapons with a metal chain. Wielding his famous water fist, he broke so many hands and arrms that at the end of the fight, the lucky ones, numbering over eighty, ran to a nearby hospital to treat their broken limbs. One can only imagine what happened to the other, less fortunate sailors.
Our lineage comes from a number of world-acclaimed masters one of whom was Master Wong Fei Hong, a 19th century Hung Gar master who lived in Canton, China. Although there were many masters before him, kung fu enthusiasts should recognize his name as he ranks high in the hierarchy of the Hung Gar tree. His martial arts exploits have been glorified by movies of Jet Li and many others who have dramatized his involvement in the political struggles and upheavals of China during his time. Together with his student lam sai wing, more widely known as Butcher Wing, Wong Fei, a great master.
Kei-Ying learned from Luk Ah-Choi and was renowned enough to be included in the Ten Tigers of Canton, a group of ten of the top Chinese martial arts masters in Guangdong (Canton) towards the end of the Qing Dynasty (1644–1912). He is the father of martial arts master Wong Fei Hung.
Hung Hei-Gun's kung fu brother Luk Ah Choi was the son of a Manchu that was stationed in Gwongdung. After his parents died, Luk Ah Ch Choi was brought up by his uncle. Because his uncle abused him, Luk Ah Choi ran away when he was 12 years old. He met a monk named Lei Baak Fu, a master in the Southern Fa Kuen style (Flower style), and became his student. After 7 years of training, Lei Baak Fu sent him to the southern Siu lum Temple in Fukien Province. There Luk Ah Choi became a student of Abbot Gee Sim Sim Si. After the destruction of the Sil Lum temple, Luk Ah Choi went back to Guangdung, where he devoted himself to martial arts and Chinese medicine. Luk Ah Choy died at the age of 68.
Hei-Gun was originally named Jyu and was a tea merchant. He escaped to the Southern Fujian Shaolin Temple after he had argument with a few upper class Manchurians during the Qing Dynasty when the Manchus were in control. Abbott Gee Sin accepted him into the temple and soon found out how talented and hardworking he was in Southern Shaolin Kung Fu. Gee Sin was impressed by these qualities and soon began to teach Hung the Tiger style that he specialized in. After six years he became number one of the top ten of the laymen followers (they were people who went to the temple to learn only kung fu and not religion). However, afterwards the Qing government destroyed the temple because the temple gave refuge to many rebels who wanted to restore the Ming Dynasty.
Hung escaped and during his wanderings he met Fong Wing Chun (not Yim Wing Chun of the Wing Chun Style) and found out that her father, Fong Sai Yuk (kung fu brother of Hung) was killed by the same person who killed his mentor, Gee Sin. So Fong Wing Chun taught him her crane style to balance out his hard tiger techniques with the evasiveness of her crane techniques. Hung then avenged Gee Sin and Fong Sai Yuk by finally destroying the murderer (Bak Mei according to some sources). Hung and Fong Wing Chun soon fell in love and they were soon married. Hung then opened a martial arts school when the banning of martial arts was lifted in China. He called it Hung Gar Kuen in honor of the First emperor of the last true Chinese (Ming) Dynasty and to protect his disciples from harm from the Manchus because the Shaolin arts were still banned. His style soon was ranked the best of the five major family styles in the Province of Kwangtung. it was also recorded that he died at the age of 182.(probably a myth, there are many similar myths about other famous masters regarding their longevity, like Cheng San Feng)
One of the legendary Five Elders, survivors of the destruction of the Shaolin Temple by the Qing Dynasty (1644–1912). He is linked to many southern Chinese martial arts including the five major family styles of Hung, Lau and Choy gar, Lee gar and Mok gar; Wing Chun, and Hakka Kuen. The stories disagree as to whether Gee Sin was a survivor of the destruction of the original Shaolin Temple in Henan or the Southern Shaolin Temple in Fujian. In what may be an attempt to reconcile this discrepancy, some stories say that, when the Henan temple was destroyed, Gee Sin fled to the Fujian temple, only to have to flee again when the latter was destroyed as well.