Biography of Sigung Wong Kiew Kit

[Jonny Say]

Great first installment, can't wait for more!

[Nick Jones]

Dear Robin Sisook,

I really enjoyed reading that account, I'm looking forward to more!

Thank you for sharing, Best wishes to you.

Thank you to Sigung for sharing our wonderful arts with us.

[Jeffrey Segal]

Thank you, Robin
Thank you, Sifu!!!

[LeeWeiJoo]

I am looking forward to the upcoming installments as well

Thank you very much for enlightening us on our school's history!

With Shaolin Salute,
Lee Wei Joo

[Dave]

Inspiring stuff indeed, can't wait for the other 11 instalments .

[Daniel]

Thank you Robin,

I´m eager for more!!!

[Josh]

Oh my goodness, what a fantastic thread!!! I was away from the forum for a while and thought I'd read all the threads I missed....except in the miscellaneous discussions section! Thank you, Robin Sihing, for dishing out all these goodies; thank you Jeroen for bringing this thread back to the top, and most of all, thank you, Sifu! Great stories and great insights into traditional kungfu culture that I didn't know before (like the flowers on the altar). I really hope this books gets published. I'm sure it'll be like the Complete Book of Shaolin when I first got it....it didn't find a place on my bookshelf for several years because I always kept it out! Looking forward to more!

Josh

[Paulo Gouveia]

Thank you, Robin
Waiting for more,

Paulo Gouveia

[Jimbeaux]

Great!

I thought you were only going to post the first chapter. This is really very nice to read.

Thank you Robin and Sigung!

With a Shaolin salute and 100 kow tows,
Jim Peterson

[Jim Redfern]

Truly fascinating Thanks for posting

Jim

[Robin]

Lion Dance Heritage

Hi There,

Its great to see your enjoying it so much!

Where did the Lion Dance heritage in our school begin? Where does the ‘Tiger Crane Set' we cherish come from? Who did Si-Gung Lai Chin Wah train under?


Read on my friends!!


A Tradition of Great Masters

When he was small, my master was a weakling, and was frequently bullied by bigger boys. Once he was badly beaten up by a group of hooligans for no better reasons than that he was smaller in size. So Sifu Lai made up his mind to learn Kungfu seriously and be strong.

He first learned from Sifu Ng Yew Loong, a very reputed Kungfu master of that time. Later he learned from Sifu Chui Khuen, who was popularly known as Red Nose, because of the color of his nose. By this time Sifu Lai was already quite proficient in Kungfu; so while he learned from Sifu Chui, he also helped him to teach his students.

About this time Sifu Lai met a lion-dance master from Hong Kong called Leong Yip. From him, Sifu Lai learned the techniques and skills of lion-dance that later made him a very accomplished lion-dance artist. My master was particularly noted for his skillful performance of the Laughing Buddha, whose function in the lion-dance is to tease and lead the lion, and cause laughter, by his clumsy antics. I am very proud that of all his students, I am his only disciple whom he formally taught the Laughing Buddha techniques.

My master also learned from Sifu Loo Chan Wai, a master well known for his Hoong-Ka Kungfu. It was from Sifu Loo Chan Wai that my master learned the famous Tiger-Crane Kungfu Set, a highly esteemed set of Shaolin Kungfu which I value greatly.







1st Picture below is an old photograph taken about 40 years ago showing Uncle Righteousness and Sifu Wong performing the Lion Dance with Uncle Righteousness at the head and Sifu Wong at the tail respectively.

2nd and 3rd Pictures shows Sifu drumming in ‘Zen Mode’ on the Lion Dance course at the U.K. Summer Camp. Sifu pushed the participants of the course to the limit and was very strict, possibly giving participants a taste of what it was like to train with a Sifu as strict as Si-Gung Lai Chin Wah.

[Andy]

Thanks for these wonderful stories

[Erica]

Yes, many, many thanks!

I can't wait for the book. :-)

Smiling from the heart,
Erica

[Paulo Gouveia]

Please continue,
Thanks again

Paulo Gouveia

[Robin]

Uncle Righteousness

Hi Guys

Time to find out the reason for Si Gung's title of Uncle Righteousness!

Enjoy, theres is more on the way soon.

Best

Robin

Sense of Righteousness

The most outstanding feature of my master, Sifu Lai Chin Wah, was his remarkable sense of righteous¬ness. In his younger days he always championed the poor common folks, especially petty hawkers, and frequently fought gangsters and street-fighters in defence of the weak and the wronged. His righteousness and chivalry won for him an enviable nick-name, "Old Righteousness".

The Chinese, particularly the Cantonese, are fond of adding words to their expressions, sometimes for emphasis, and sometimes merely for sound effects. Besides "Chye" and "Ah" that they often fix to their children's names, the Cantonese frequently round up their phrases with sound-words like "very beautiful ah", "already eaten lah", and "don't want loh".

One interesting prefix is the word "old", which has no connotation of age or time here, but is nor¬mally used as an endearing term. For example, a close friend whose surname is Lam, is sometimes referred to as "Old Lam” although he may be only twenty; and one who is third in the family can be called "Old Three", though he may be the youngest in the household. "Old" is "lou" in Cantonese pronun¬ciation, and "lao" in Mandarin. Lao Tzu, the ancient philosopher of Taoism, is not his real name; his real name is Li Er. Literally "Lao Tzu" means "Old Boy", figuratively it means "Master", and colloquially it can mean "father", just as we say "my old man" in English. Such is the complexity and beauty of the Chinese language.

"Old Righteousness" was therefore the endearing nick-name many people used to call my master, Sifu Lai, in his young days. When he was older, they addressed him by a even more respectable title, "Uncle Righteous¬ness". In Cantonese, "righteousness" is pronounced as "ye", which is exactly the same pronunciation for "two" . Hence, when people called my master "Ye Sok", which means "Uncle Right¬eousness", some mistakenly think that it means "Second Uncle". This was more so, since Sifu Lai was also the second in the family.








Below is a picture of the Great Taoist Master Lao Tzu, or ‘Old Boy’, riding his famous Ox.