Wing Choon Malaysia 1918

Grandmaster Yip Fook Choy (1943–2019) Grandmaster Yip Fook Choy (叶福财) began learning Wing Choon at the age of 8 under the tutelage of his grandfather, the renowned Yip Kin. In the late 1950s, as he matured in the art, he began assisting his grandfather in teaching. Each day after school, his grandfather subjected him to rigorous kung fu training before allowing him any personal time. This intense, decade-long mentorship under Yip Kin laid an exceptionally strong foundation in Wing Choon for young Fook Choy. His dedication and skill later earned him recognition as one of the "Kuala Lumpur Ten Tigers" — the top ten martial artists of that turbulent era — where he was notably the youngest among them. Following the passing of Yip Kin, Grandmaster Yip Fook Choy assumed leadership of the school and dedicated his life to spreading the Wing Choon art. Over the decades, through unwavering commitment, he successfully nurtured a new generation of martial artists, including three of his...

Grandmaster Yip Kin  (葉堅, 1883–1968) Grandmaster Yip Kin was born in 1883 during the Qing Dynasty. He first resided in Au Wu Hamlet and later relocated to the neighboring Wang Hong Tau village in Pak Wan San (白云山). Over the years, he trained under four distinguished martial arts masters: 1.  Soh Kai Ming – Wing Choon system 2. Yip Hap Seng – Yin Yang Ba Gua Staff (阴阳八卦棍) 3. Cho Fei Hoong – Mastery of five traditional weapons, including the flying sabre (飞铊) 4. Yik Kam – Specialist in ancient Chinese opera weaponry Seven years after the fall of the Qing Dynasty, Yip Kin migrated to British Malaya in 1918, at the age of 35. He settled permanently in Kuala Lumpur, where he quickly gained a reputation for his martial prowess. One widely remembered incident involved him fending off a group of 30 gangsters using only a classical wooden bench (黄头凳) during a scuffle at a food stall near the mines where he worked. His fearlessness and skill made him a local legend. In 1926, at the age...

The history of Wing Choon Kuen (詠春拳) began with Ng Mui Shi Tai (五枚师太), a legendary nun of the Southern Shaolin Temple (南少林), who created a revolutionary new martial art system. Designed to be practical and efficient, this system had no formal name in its early days and was secretly adopted by rebellion groups in the Fan Qing Fu Ming (反清复明) movement—those who opposed the Qing Dynasty and sought to restore the Ming. As Ng Mui traveled across China spreading her art, she eventually arrived in Guangdong province, where she met her most gifted disciple, Yim Sei (严四). Under her tutelage, Yim Sei became a formidable martial artist and a key figure in the resistance against the Qing. Yim Sei’s daughter, Yim Wing Choon (严詠春), later learned the art and refined it further. She introduced a balance between hard (阳刚) and soft (阴柔) energies, emphasizing fluidity, agility, and the concept of “borrowing force to counter force” (借力打力). In recognition of her contributions, the system was eventually nam...