July 25, 2024
Hong Kong On Hong Kong's Lantau Island, 77-year-old Ngam Bok Yin uses nimble fists and feet to demonstrate the techniques of Hung Gar, a form of Chinese kung fu.
The Australian wears his long white hair tied back and wears traditional Chinese garb, while behind him, dozens of Chinese students copy his moves, learning their martial arts traditions from the foreigner.
For more than 60 years, Gam has studied Hung Ga, a centuries-old martial art from southern China characterized by powerful moves such as bridge moves and tiger claw moves.
His connection to the Hung family dates back to the 1940s in Sydney, Australia, when the Hung family gave him a second chance at life.
Mr Gumm, also known as Graham Player, was born with a disability that confounded his father and uncle, both Western-trained doctors, and was confined to a wheelchair with a plaster cast stretching from his hip to the base of his right leg.
“The Western medical treatment continued like that for many years, until I was 5 years old,” he said.
Surgery was suggested but Mr Gam refused after being warned it could leave him with a limp.
Unexpectedly, a Chinese neighbor came to the boy's aid and asked Gam to imitate the foot movements and simple exercises he had demonstrated.
Gam said she experienced an incredible transformation within just a few days and regained feeling in her legs for the first time.
He continued training and was able to take his first steps by age eight, and walk normally by age twelve.
Kang Bok Yin practices Hung Gar in Hong Kong with his wife, who was also a student. Photo: China Daily
East facing
One day, Gum went to Sydney's Chinatown with a neighbour and was amazed to see so many people practising the same training methods he had learned.
The neighbour told Gam that the martial art was called Hung Ga, a traditional southern Chinese art with hundreds of years of history.
“The Hung family is my destiny. I don't choose the Hung family. The Hung family chooses me,” Gam said.
He continued to study with his neighbor and his teacher until his death after ten years of instruction.
The neighbour never asked for money and before he died he told Gam to “continue this habit and pass it on to others.”
In the 1970s, Gum began his career as a Chinese medicine practitioner in Australia – at a time when Chinese medicine was not well known among Westerners – before becoming a computer engineer and moving to the UK where he set up his own successful IT company.
He later sold the business for a substantial profit and decided to start a new phase in his life.
Ngam moved to Hong Kong to study Hung Gar and became a student under Master Ngam, but during training the Master criticized Ngam's Tiger Claw technique and encouraged Ngam to study the actual movements of the big cat.
Three years later he mastered the technique, but more importantly he realised that various kung fu styles such as Northern Mantis, Fujian White Crane and Fang Snake were based on imitating animal movements: these martial arts not only taught the practitioner physical techniques to control animal aggression, but also aimed to imbue him with the animal's spirit.
As Ngam's skills improved, more and more people, mostly Chinese, asked to learn Hung Ga. Ngam founded the Hung Ga Academy Hong Kong in 1996 and has trained hundreds of students over the decades, from children to adults, Chinese and foreign.
But most people quit soon after starting, usually complaining that martial arts training is painful or boring, Gam said.
Traditional martial arts not only impart skills to practitioners and cultivate qualities such as perseverance, resilience and courage, but can also open a gateway to understanding and passing on ancestral wisdom, Mr Ngam said.
The Hung family is known for their 12 bridge techniques, which include hardness, softness, assertiveness, linearity, division, stability, progression, lifting, flowing, feeding, control and placement. Gam believes these bridges are not just techniques, but also symbolize distinct personality types.
Learning martial arts allows one to move between different personalities and use the right one when needed. Knowing when to be kind and when to be strict and adapting accordingly is Chinese kung fu's philosophical approach to going about life, Ngam said.
Martial arts allow people to inherit the wisdom of the past, cultivate virtue and discover their roots, said Ngam, and despite being a foreigner, he is committed to passing on the knowledge of Hong Ga to future generations.
Chow Ka Tong Long follower Paul Brennan training with Master Ng Shi Kei in Hong Kong. Photo: China Daily
Seeking the Lord
Paul Brennan, an Australian in his sixties, also came to Hong Kong to pursue his martial arts dreams. He is an avid practitioner of Chow Ka Tong Long, a niche southern Chinese martial art that mimics the movements of a praying mantis.
Brennan's tonglong journey began when he enrolled in martial arts classes in the 1970s, after studying Korean taekwondo and Japanese judo.
Unlike the other two martial arts, he said, Tong Lung gave him a deep sense of inner peace. “The feeling was amazing,” Brennan said.
He continued his martial arts training and later learned of a respected Tong Lung master named Yip Shui who lived in Hong Kong and decided to study under him.
At the time, Brennan was living in the Australian mining town of Mount Isa, and worked several jobs for three years until he saved up enough money to move to Hong Kong in late 1991.
However, there was no internet or mobile phones at the time, so finding Master Yip in a strange city was difficult. After two months of visiting and researching martial arts schools, Brennan finally discovered Master Yip's location.
The two arranged to meet, but Brennan feared that his master would not accept him as a student: “I came to Hong Kong only for my master. If he had rejected me, my life would have fallen apart,” he said.
Master Yip, who doesn't speak English, relied on his family to communicate with Brennan, and after hearing her story, he told her he was retiring and no longer taking on new students.
Brennan refused to take no for an answer. He showed his host the sleeping bag he always carried and declared, “If you won't let me in, I'll sleep on your doorstep, and every morning when you go outside, I'll be there saying 'good morning' until you let me in.”
Master Yip laughed and replied, “Okay, you can come.”
Brennan settled in Hong Kong.
He got a job as a bartender in Tsim Sha Tsui, giving him more time to practice his tong long during the day.
Brennan quickly recognized the extraordinary precision inherent in the techniques his teacher taught, but there was a language barrier between the two: “Taking lessons was like a chicken trying to talk to a duck,” Brennan says.
To overcome this obstacle, he wrote down all his doubts, asked his classmates for help, and also tried his best to learn Cantonese.
Life in Hong Kong wasn't easy for Brennan: he earned a small salary but needed to support himself and his family back in Australia.
“I was ready to endure any hardship. I knew I would come back to Australia one day, so I put 100 per cent of my energy into practising Tong Long, cherished every moment I had in Hong Kong and made no excuses,” he said.
Five years later, Brennan left the city for family reasons and returned to Australia.
He founded his own school in his hometown of Brisbane because he found that many of the local martial arts schools were teaching Tong Long incorrectly, and he returns to Hong Kong every year, staying for a few months to further his study of Tong Long.
Brennan is now fluent in Cantonese and knows many classical Chinese names for martial arts techniques.
“In martial arts, language has deep cultural significance with multiple layers of meaning. Each layer of meaning contains insights that can go back thousands of years,” he said.
Brennan added that he has taught thousands of students since he founded the school, but most don't continue training. Concerned that traditional Chinese martial arts may disappear, Brennan has worked hard in recent years to preserve them through writing books, translating materials and recording videos.
“Chinese martial arts are truly jewels, priceless treasures, and it is a great shame that future generations will not be able to experience their beauty,” Brennan said.
Learning martial arts may be painful and difficult. However, enduring such difficulties cultivates calm, understanding, and empathy, and develops a well-balanced character. “Chinese martial arts help people grow,” Brennan said, vowing to continue spreading Chinese traditions.
Ganfugin. Photo: China Daily
Preserved traditions
Wilfred Lam Chin-ting, chairman of the Hong Kong Kin Wu Athletics Association, a martial arts group with a history of nearly 100 years, said he didn't know the exact number, but many foreigners visit Hong Kong every year to learn Chinese martial arts. The COVID-19 pandemic has greatly hindered this trend, but it has been gradually recovering recently.
These foreign enthusiasts are mainly from the United States, Europe, Australia and South Asia. They are attracted to Hong Kong's reputation for preserving the most traditional Chinese martial arts. Hong Kong martial arts practitioners do their best to preserve the most classic procedures, postures, etiquette and cultural characteristics associated with their discipline.
According to Yep Tak-ping, a senior lecturer at the Education University of Hong Kong and president of the Hong Kong Society of History and Culture, the popularity of Hong Kong kung fu films in the last century encouraged many foreigners to visit Hong Kong and take up martial arts training.
After completing their training, many of them returned to their home countries, established their own martial arts schools and became important figures in promoting Chinese martial arts and culture overseas.
These schools have been successful in training generations of students, and although Hong Kong kung fu films are in decline, these students, influenced by their masters, have an understanding of Chinese martial arts style and a deep respect for its Hong Kong origins.
According to Yip, some of them visit Hong Kong to learn kung fu, explore the technique in greater depth and immerse themselves in the rich cultural traditions associated with Chinese martial arts.
Foreigners are attracted to Chinese martial arts not only because of physical ability, but also because of the inherent values that kung fu embodies, Yip said.
Kung fu embodies the chivalry of protecting the weak, respect for nature and humanity that is rooted in Taoist philosophy, and the unity of mind and body, which benefits both physical and mental health.
These values have universal appeal that transcends borders, regional differences and the passage of time, Yip stressed.
To promote Chinese martial arts, it is crucial to recognise modern needs and adapt martial arts values to the current context, Yip said. This can be achieved through initiatives such as incorporating martial arts into values-based education and mind-body wellness programmes.
By adapting Chinese martial arts to modern contexts, its impact can be maximised, allowing more people to benefit from the ancient and timeless wisdom that Chinese martial arts have to offer, Yip added.
