YIP MAN 

When Yip Man was thirteen years old he started learning Wing Chun. Because of his sifu's old age , Yip Man learned most of his lessons from his second sihing Chung-sok. After three years Chan Wah-shun died, but one of his dying wishes was to ask Ng to continue with Yip's training.

According to one story, one day one of his classmates challenged him to try his martial arts skill with an older man. The man who Yip Man competed against beat him with a few strikes. It turned out that the old man was his sibak Leung Bik (����), son of his sigung. After that encounter, Yip Man continued to learn from Leung Bik. At age 24, Yip Man returned to Foshan, and his Wing Chun skills had improved tremendously while he had been away. His fellow students believed he learned a different kind of martial art and treated him as a traitor to Wing Chun.

During the Japanese occupation of China, Yip Man refused several invitations to train the Japanese troops. Instead, he returned to Hong Kong and opened a martial arts school. When he initially began the school, business was poor because his students typically stayed for only a couple of months before leaving. He moved his school to Hoi Tan Street (�C�d�X) and then to Lee Tat Street (���B�X) in Yau Mi tai. By that time some of his students were trained to a sufficiently high enough skill level that they were able to start their own schools.

Some of Yip Man's students and descendants compared their skills with other martial artists in combat. Their victory over other martial artists helped to bolster Yip Man's reputation as a teacher.

In 1967, Yip Man and some of his students established the Hong Kong Ving Tsun Athletic Association (���`�r�t��铈��).

Bruce Lee, Yip Man's most famous pupil, studied under him from 1954 to 1957. When Yip Man retired, many of his students were themselves teaching Wing Chun, including Wong Shun Leung.

In 1972, Yip Man suffered from throat cancer and subsequently died on December 2 of that year. As a fitting obituary for the man, within the three decades of his career in Hong Kong, he established a training system for Wing Chun that eventually spread across the world.

WONG SHUN LEUNG 

Wong started training with Yip Man in 1954 at the age of 19. He had single-handedly beaten one of the senior students, then went head to head with another. Wong was then challenged by the intrigued Yip Man and found himself completely controlled by him. Already at this age had a reputation as a fighter, and Yip Man was at first worried that he would bring trouble for Wing Chun. Wong Shun Leung's prowess as a "Beimo"  fighter helped secure for Wing Chun its reputation "Beimo" were semi-organised bare-knuckle challenge fights between youths in Hong Kong. Wong, who stood only 5'6" tall, participated in perhaps over 100 of these challenge fights and was never beaten.  Wong Shun Leung earned the name Gong Sau Wong (�u�艤), King of Talking Hands. Once asked if he was the best fighter in the world, he replied, "No, only the second best." When asked who was the best, he said, "I don't know, I haven't met him."

Wong Shun Leung stayed with Yip Man many years longer than most of Yip Man's other famous students. While with Yip Man, Wong helped Yip Man teach, not formally opening his own school until late 1960's. He taught Wing Chun at his kwoon until his untimely death from a stroke. His students included, notably, Jeet Kune Do founder and Bruce Lee & Gary Lam of Los Angeles, California.

SIFU GARY LAM

Sifu Gary Lam trained with Wong Shun Leung for 15 years and served as the instructor at Wong's school for an additional 6 years.

As Wong Shun Leung's top student, Sifu Lam put his Wing Chun skills to test by entering tournaments and destroying the competition. His excellent fighting skills made him the undefeated champion of the Hong Kong full Contact Tournament in 1978-1979. His trophies and titles are too numerous to mention.

In recognition of his Wing Chun skills and character., his Wing Chun peers in Hong Kong elected him as the President of the Hong Kong Wing Chun Society in 1991.  In 2006, the Ving Tsun Athletic Association named Sifu Gary Lam "Sifu of the Year'.

ERNIE BARRIOS