[abiraghi]

This is the first time I tell this story in public. As I wrote when joining this forum (this is a link), I have never been involved in the pro kung fu world and don't know most of the people that present themselves as "Sifu Chan's students". But after the birth of the Internet, seraching about Chan Hon Chung made me find some interesting things and a some disinformation. I spent at least one monthe every year in Hong Kong for one and an half decade, from 1977 to mid Eighties in Hon Chung Gymn, then (after the sale of the building and Sifu's sickness) in my si-hing Cheung Yee Keung's Gymn, for some years after Sifu's death.

I hope that my story can help keeping alive the memory of a great master, Chan Hon Chung, and of an outstanding group of people, his students, a real family, a solar system kept together by mutual love and respect, spinning around a human sun: master Chan.

Ther are some pictures here (this is a link) from the thousands I have, I will keep adding more pictures to the page while telling the story. Hope people who read will enjoy them.

Dear friends, thank you for the welcome in the thread "Paolo Cangelosi - Chan Hon Chung?". As requested by somebody in public and private messages, I am glad to tell the story of my 14 years experience with master Chan Hon Chung and his students (among whom I still have some of my best friends, in spite of the distance between Italy and Hong Kong).

I dropped in Hong Chung Gymn by pure chance. In the 70's I practised traditional karate, but was kind of bored. I was pretty good (3rd dan, fighter) but I didn't see in karate any interest but the sport. My girl friend (the woman with me on the picture with Sifu Chan) had a Chinese classmate, Benjamin. I told her to ask him if he knew kung fu and the reply was "yes, I am the student of he greatest master of Hong Kong" and of course I decided to meet him. At the time I didn't know anything about Chinese kung fu and Hung style, there were no sources of information in Europe, but he introduced me to the story of Hung style and started teaching me the basic positions, then the Mui Fah Kuen.
It was 1975 and I learned whatever he knew, that was not much (in fact the good one in his family was the older brother, Fung Kyu, champion of South East Asia in the early 70's), but he opened my eyes on a fascinating world, so in spring 1977 I decided that I had to visit this great master.
At the time I was a student, the money were low, so I worked in a flower shop until the end of July to raise the money for the cheapest flight (Thai Intl. via Roma, Bahrein, Bangkok) and the cheapest "hotel" (the Chung King Mansion, a cheapo and dirty place in Tsim Sha Tsui). My girl friend and a friend of mine came with me, with the program of visiting Hong Kong and south of China while I was "wasting time with kung fu" (their words).
A minute after dropping the luggages in my not really clean room, I was out of the Mansion on bus 6A with Benjamin (no Mass Transit underground at the time) directed to the to Mong Kok Road - Nathan Road crossroads stop, just a few meters from 729 of Nathan Road, the address of the Hon Chung Gymnasium.[/url]

[Asmo]

Abiraghi, a warm welcome from me also. You'll find a friendly atmosphere here cross-lineage. Interesting story so far, looking forward to read more.
_________________
Pain is weakness leaving the body.
Don't mind me, whatever I think I know today might be entirely different tomorrow!

[PM]

great, looking forward to read next part
_________________
Pavel Macek

Lam Ga Hung Kyun 林家洪拳

www.lghk.org

[crazedjustice888]

HOLA!! Wonderful story so far. I love to read about people that just go out and do it because its the hearts desire. I hope one day I can do something like that..can't wait to read the next part.
_________________
Martial Arts + Tokusatsu = Godditude

[abiraghi]

Learning the Hung style is never easy, specially if you are Italian, don't know anything of kung fu but a few moves, neither you know about Chinese culture, enter a temple of knoledge and tradition. To make it more difficult, Benjamin (still don't know why, 30 years later) introduced me as "a karate expert who wants to see Chinese kung fu" (I didn't realise it immediately, I was told a month later by the other students).
The first day (a sunday) was quit awful: sifu Chan welcomed me with a smile, put me in front of the wall with feet together, knees slightly bent, and show me to kick at low level, one leg after the other one, slowly. Then went away. Around me I heard people practising Hung Gar, kicking the bag, punching the dummy, moving the weapons, and I had to stay in front of the wall doing the kick. One hour later (August, 40 degrees, the back of the aircond system pushing hot air in the gymn) I was wet as after a shower. Sifu appeared from the door giving access to his office, came to me, looked for a while, smiled, put two fingers on my waist and pushed me down a little, showing me to go on, but slower. One more hour later I was ready to collapse when he appeared again, put me in Ji-ng Ma, show me to slap the front knee with the opposite hand and then start rotating the arm backwards, After a few minutes, change the position with a 180 degrees waist turn and again with the other arm. This took one hour to be completed, then sifu came, told me to stop, showed me the toilet where I could kind of wash the sweat away and push me out to the tea house, where I was introduced to the first cup of Po-Lei tea of my life (I never quit, Chinese tea is a basic part of my day). Master Chan was never allowed to be alone at the tea house, at least three students followed him to open the doors, order the tea (he drank Sau-Mei tea, but the students told me it was a tea for old men and always gave me Po-Lei), choose the food. I remember perfectly that first meal with Cheung Yee Keung, Seto Wing (to become my best Chinese friend and one of my best friends), Hui Wing, "Kerry" Kong Puy Way, and Lee Yun Fook ("Fook Chai"), whom I eventually nicknamend "Mr. Lion" for his great lion dance (I see on the web that that nick is still alive, I am glad) and the youg June Lau (today Fook Chai's wife).
This crowd of senior students made me understand that I could be accepted.
I cam back to the Chung King Mansion with sore legs, I crushed on the bed without even taking off the clothes, tired as I was, but I put the alarm at 6 am.

[Frank Bolte]

we want more..more...more...

thanks for sharing this amazing story.

[abiraghi]

The next morning, raising from the bed was a torture. The legs hurt, I had no energy, I was still under jet-lag, the adrenaline of the first day was gone, I only felt the fatigue. But I forced myself to the bathroom (where a huge, red cockroach was walking on my toothbrush, they appeared wherever the air cond wasn't on) and got out on the Nathan Road at 6.30, through the hall of Chunng King Mansion, in an heavy smell of curry (it was an Indian building, Ilearned that morning, with a basement labyrint of stores and small companies, a town under the ground level) to reach the bus stop.
Getting the bus (1, 1A, 6 or 6A were OK, all of them went north on the Nathan Road to Mong Kok) was the first kung fu esperience, with millions of chinese men and women pushing to get on, pressing themselves like anchovies in a can, with bags of every kind of stuff, included live chickens and goats. Fortunately, I realized that in spite of the recent shower, they felt my western smell (in those years western people were not common in Hong Kong outside Tsim Sha Tsui and Victoria) and retreat a little finding it disgusting, so after a while I had some vital space around me.
The temperature was around 38 degrees, raising minute after minute, and humidity was always above 90%. My legs were so weak and my pressure was below a reasonable "low", I saw lights in my eyes and was always on the risk of collapsing.
When I reached the place, getting out of the red two floors bus was a joy, butI nearly didn't recognize it: the metal rolling door was closed (http://www.biraghi.org/pub/hungkuen/07027.jpg) and nobody was around. But eventually I found it.
I entered the door, walk straight to Sifu's office door and see him reading at his table, behind a glass door, he was the only human being in the place. I raised my hand to greet him and turn right to the gymn, took off the shirt, went in front of the wall and started kicking and spinning the arms as master Chan told me the previous day.
It was the right thing to do, because 15 minutes later sifu Chan opened the door that connected his office with the gymn, took my arm, pulled me in the center of the room right behind Kwan Gong image and told me "Tah Mui Fah Kuen" (he knew what Benjamin had taught me in Italy, I learned that in the Chinese gymnasium galaxy the Master knows everything).
I played the form, excited and ashamed (the previous day I had seen many differences from what I had learned from Benjamin and the real thing). Then Sifu Chan came to my side, assumed the opening standing stance and started withe the salute, making me understand that I had to imitate him. Feeling the energy coming from that old man was the very first of a long series of awesome, unbelievable emotions I would have felt in that mystic place, for many years to come.
We worked together on the salute and on the first 3-4 moves of Mui Fah Kuen (to the first tiger) for maybe 45 minutes. In the meanwhile people had started so show in the place. The first was Cheung Yee Keung, who lived there, appearing from the stairs that led upstairs. I later learned that from 5 to 7 he had cleaned the place, trained, taken a shower and now was ready to spend some time before work (he was employed in a jeans shop in Mong Kok road, close to the gymn, seven days a week, from 10 am to 10 pm) withe the students. Other people appeared (the gymn was like a small village, with a lot of people living there and doing different things, Sifu was like the king of that village): the tailors, the travel agency employees, the man who sold pens and ties on the entrance, other people living upstairs and working somewhere else. Hui Wing woke up at 5, too, cleaned Sifu's office and prepared the medicine and the herbal wine used for the massages.
When the first patients started lining in front of his office, sifu Chan pointed at the wooden board and showing me how to punch it, then went back to work. After a zillion punches Cheung si-hing came, smiled, brought me to the toilet, told me to wash my hands, put some Chinese jelly stuff on the blisters of my knuckles. Then he told me (in fact he "made me understand", but he is such a special person that I could understand what he said even if he spoke Cantonese) to wash and dress, that I had had enough.
When I came out from the toilet, still sweating and so tired I could barely stand, he smiled and said "sik fan!". Going out he collected some students, and I discovered that one of them (Lau Kam Fu, "Raynond", the best Buddha in the Lion Dance) spoke a good English. We went to the tea house, where my love story with Cantonese Dim Sum and Po-Lei tea had started the previous day.
Other students joined us and Raymond started asking me questions, so I finally could tell my story, could explain that I was honored to be there, that I didn't want to "see" Chinese Kung Fu but "learn". Raymond translated some basic information of Cheung Keung about warm up, the stances, how to close the fist, the tiger etcetera. I still remember him drawing things withe ball pen on the tablecloth, as every chinese did at the time, with the waiter standing and listening (they were aware that having master Chan's students was an honor). That was one of the long list of surprising Chinese habits I had to encounter in my Chinese experience.
At 9.45 everybody jumped from the chair and disappeared after a quick "hallo!". The bill was already paid. I was alone again, so I didn't find anything else to do then going back to the gymn, taking off the shirt and starting again with my exercises, waiting for my friends coming for lunch. From time to time Sifu poked through the door and showed me some movement, so at the end of the day 1/3 of Mui Fah was completed.
At the end of that first day I had totalized six hours of training (from 7 to 9, then 10 to 12, then 4 pm to 6 pm). After a dinner in a mediocre restaurant in Tsim Sha Tsui I went back to the hotel and crushed again on the bed, while my travel partners went to Temple Street.
But this time I had enough energy for taking off the clothes. My second day at Hon Chung Gymnasyum was over.

[PM]

amazing!
_________________
Pavel Macek

Lam Ga Hung Kyun 林家洪拳

www.lghk.org

[Asmo]

Thats a brilliant story abiraghi, looking forward to the next part
_________________
Pain is weakness leaving the body.
Don't mind me, whatever I think I know today might be entirely different tomorrow!

[APAV]

Awesome story. Can't wait to read more.
_________________
Tyger! Tyger! burning bright
In the forests of the night...

[Frank Bolte]

this is what hung kuen need in book form!

absolutely amazing !

[TenTigers]

Excellent! If you decide to publish this-I hope, It will be required reading for all my students!
_________________
'My Gung-Fu is MY Gung-Fu. It may not be YOUR Gung-Fu"
Gwok Si, Gwok Faht

[abiraghi]

The following morning was better, I was getting accustomed to the pace, the jet lag was disappearing, waking up at 6 am got less and less tough. Instead of taking the bus I decided to walk the distance between Tsim Sha Tsui and Mong Kok on the Nathan Road, crossing Jordan and Argyle streets, enjoying the life of Hong Kong waking up. People was running out of the garages with their trolleys loaded with food. Elegant bank employees and rag ladies shared the same bus stop line, trucks full of dead pigs, octopuses and goats unloaded on the walkway in front door of restaurants and tea houses. Walking was good in the morning, helped me starting my metabolisms, so once I reached the gymn I was in a pretty decent condition. I didn't feel like eating before the first session of training, but at the cross with Jordan I discovered a small corner shop that sold the a dark warm drink made with herbs and roots that helped me starting the body machine. I also stopped in a small food shop at the cross of Nathan Road and Mong Kok Road that sold small bottles of a Chinese mineral water with minerals (it actually tasted kind of salty), that was perfect for replacing what I lost sweating.
At 7 am I was at the gymn, drank a cup of tea from the always present teapot and started training. Kicks, arm spinning, board punching, then started repeating the part of Mui Fah I had been taught. Sifu Chan appeared as soon as I started practising the form and corrected every single position and movement, showing me the meaning of the moves with the few words of English that he knew, but mostly showing himself the correct movements.
I still have the clear feeling of hitting his arms when he introduced me to the subtle pleasures of Sam Sing. I'd have choosen a tree, rather than his steel bones, it was like hitting a column of cement loaded with electricity. But I survived and learned more Mui Fah, I think I reached 2/3 the second day (remember that I just had to fix the mistakes of what I had already learned in Italy). Again, when Sifu left to take care of his patients, a-Keung si-hing appeared with more suggestions and details.
I loved the guy from the first minute. He is the buddhist monk type, always serene, calm, gentle, helpful, generous, but so tough, so powerful and so hard when action time comes. When leaving to his workplace, a-Keung showed me "1 PM" on his watch then pointed at the floor, meaning I had to be there at lunch time. I trained until noon, wash myself and waited sitting down on a chair "reading" a pile of Chinese kung fu magazines (Bruce Lee was still superstar, but Fu Sheng and Chi Kuan Chun were very popular, too). Master Chan was present on several issues, pictured while demonstrating techniques, meeting actors and politicians or Queen Elizabeth herself (an always present picture when an article mentioned him).
Five minutes before 1 pm the guys began to appear: Seto Wing (at the time selling jeans on Women's Street), Hui Wing, Kong Pui Way, Lee Yun Fook, Lau Kam Fu, Stanley Lau, June Lau and others. My friends Ela and Marco joined, too and we got out, in the heat of the Hong Kong summer, walking to Argyle street to the recently opened Dragon & Phenix (!) tea house for a traditional Cantonese weekday meal. That day I had my first cha siu fan and still miss it.
But the surprise was still to come. After lunch, on the way back, the guys made a detour in Mong Kok Road. We reached a small shop that looked like paradise (remember, it was 1977 and Chinese martial arts were only a legend in Europe, at the time we used black Spanish espadrillas to imitate Bruce Lee's Chinese shoes). The shop was maybe 5 by 5 meters, but crummed with weapons, garments, lions, sparring tools, even a wooden dummy! The students started a traditional and noisy Chinese discussion with the owner, who showed different trousers and shoes. Eventually Seto Wing choose a pair of black cotton trousers, a black silk belt (the Hon Chung students introduced the red belt for the uniform two or three years later) and a pair of old style kung fu boots. After another discussion for the price I could pay and grab my bag of treasures.
That was a great moment, because I understood that I had been accepted by the group. Waking up early, doing the exercises without discussions, practising hard, was the universal language of respect that had opened the doors of the temple. In that moment I realized I had been admitted to the Hon Chung Gymnasium Student Union, the supreme kung fu legacy in Hong Kong. I was thrilled. Thinking back to those moments still gives me a great deal of emotion for my great privilege.
My new friends went back to work and I went back to the gymn, drank some tea, put on the new trowsers and boots and started practising. The smile of Sifu Chan poking from the door and looking at my new uniform (of course he already knew that I had been brought to the store. Master Chan knew EVERYTHING that was going on in his reign) is still clear and is one of my dearest memories.
That night I was tired, but not enough for going to bed immediately. I was too excited, so I went out with Ela and Marco, reached Temple Street and had something to eat, then we enjoyed the street shows and the fortune tellers. Feelingat home in Hong Kong was the greatest emotion I have had in my first 24 years of life.

[ironpalm]

Great story. From your writing, I can almost feel what you were feeling. Nice description of HK with the pigs, goats and octopuses and people waiting for the bus. You write well. Can't wait to read more.

[vtml]

Stories like these sometimes makes me wish to move back to Hong Kong and relocate there permanently.
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Hong De Lion Dance Association