Augustine Fong – Wing Chun Weapons Part 6

Originally from southern China, Augustine Fong was born on the island of Macao. He’s been fascinated with Kung Fu and other Chinese martial arts since he was a kid. He got the good fortune to start learning a traditional kind of gung fu in 1960. Ho Kam Ming, a respected figure in the Wing Chun community, served as his mentor and instructor. At the time, the form was first taught to the Macao area by Master Ho, a top disciple of the late grand master Yip Man. Irrevocably, Augustine Fong joined his ranks of first-year pupils. In 1964, the student body at master Ho’s school had ballooned. The school had become so well-known that it received a formal challenge from a well-known gung-fu school in Hong Kong. To issue a challenge back then was to issue a death sentence. In this situation, the difficult school had also earned a respectable reputation. It was believed that they had competed in and won over a hundred such tournaments, which had resulted in their defeat of some of Hong Kong’s most prestigious educational institutions. Master Ho chose to accept the written challenge and choose Fong to fight. Fong was the hardest warrior and most talented disciple of master Ho. The challenger showed up on the scheduled date, along with his teacher and ten classmates. The challenger’s sifu acted as referee as a show of respect. Every participant was required to stay inside the designated combat area for all three rounds of the event. Fong easily defeated his opponent. He was quite aggressive in the second round, forcing the opponent into a mok jeong (wooden dummy). Fong maintained his lead in the final round by pursuing his opponent and hitting him against a wall. The challenger was knocked unconscious with a well-timed strike that sent him reeling against the wall. His sifu and si dai grabbed him up and escorted him out without a word. Fong’s win vindicated Master Ho’s academy. Because of this meeting, Fong gained widespread notoriety in Hong Kong and Macao. The title of “Golden Ribbon Boxer” (Gum-Pai Da-Sau) for Wing Chun is still used to refer to him in Macao. After this happened, word got out about how great the school was, and plenty of additional kids enrolled. Fong was invited to aid master Ho with his classes because of the growing number of pupils. For the young Fong, this was a tremendous honor. But he decided not to tell his loved ones the wonderful news. When he was young, his mother was a tough disciplinarian. She did not have a very positive view of the arts. She believed that being proficient in gung fu would lead to difficulty rather than help. To save his mother any anxiety, Fong chose early on to conceal his talent. Indeed, he did! Thirteen years of dedicated Wing Chun training went unnoticed by his mother. Sifu Fong started learning from the Chinese herbalist sifu Wong Bing Gong about this time. Sifu Wong was renowned for his skill as a healer, which he acquired via training with a monk. His expertise was put to good use during WWII, when he helped many soldiers return to health. Breaks, bruises, strains, and sprains may all be treated with the “Dit Da” massage techniques that Fong learned from his Sifu Wong. Aside from the martial arts, Sifu Wong instructed him in the preparation of herbs and their medicinal remedies. Augustine Fong fled political unrest in Macao for Kowloon, Hong Kong, in 1967. There, Fong spent two years training and instructing at a Wing Chun academy founded by his master Ho. Then, sifu Fong followed his father’s lead and came to the United States in 1969. After relocating from China to Nogales, Arizona, and eventually settling in Tucson, sifu Fong began spreading the Wing Chun system and training its practitioners. He moved to Tucson in order to take a job instructing locals in self-defense. Since the program was so successful, he decided to start his own school in 1973 at the urging of his students and colleagues. The first Wing Chun dojo open to the general public in the Southwest! Master Fong, who has been training in Wing Chun for over 37 years, is now widely regarded as one of the world’s foremost experts on the martial art by the Ho KamMing Wing Chun Association of Hong Kong. The southern Lion Dance is his specialty, and he is also an expert with a wide range of other martial arts weapons, including the Lok Dim Bun Quan (Six and a Half Point Long Staff) and the Bat Jaam Do (Butterfly Knives). The latter is what Master Fong picked up from Hong Kong’s Hung Sing Choi Lee Fut Kuen’s Master Chan Gin Man. As a result of his expertise, students have traveled from all over the United States and even Mexico to train with Master Fong. Master Fong brought Master Ho, his Wing Chun instructor, to the United States in 1989 at his expense. When I was in town, the Fong Wing Chun Gung-Fu Federation hosted a seminar on the art. Master Fong was named the chief judge for the American Wing Chun Federation in 1990. This position required him to establish guidelines for the Wing Chun Sticky Hands competition hosted by the United States National Chinese Martial Arts Competitions. Master Fong has traveled all over Arizona (USA) and Sonara (Mexico) giving martial arts demonstrations and performing lion dances to promote the Wing Chun system, and he has also organized a number of very successful martial arts exhibitions in Arizona. In addition to being featured in “Black Belt” and “Inside Kung-Fu” magazines and a number of local newspapers, he has also been featured on a number of local television and radio shows. He had also conducted numerous seminars for audiences across the country. Master Fong documented the whole Wing Chun Gung-fu system in eight books. To spread the Wing Chun System, he collaborated with The Panther Production Company to create eight volumes of video cassettes. The Martial Arts Society has recognized the Fong’s Wing Chun Gung-Fu Academy of Tucson as one of the best Wing Chun Gung-Fu schools in the country for their many years of dedication to the art. Tucson, Arizona is home to Master Fong’s Wing Chun Academy and the administrative hub of “Fong’s Wing Chun Gung-Fu Federation,” both of which he founded. This organization maintains a strict adherence to the original Wing Chun Gung-fu tenets, and it now includes schools from all over the United States and Canada. Learn the proper use of the Wing Chun Bok Jam Do staff and the Butterfly Swords, as well as the necessary forms for using them. (about 58 minutes)