Wong Fei-hung


Wong Fei-hung was a Chinese martial artist, physician, and folk hero. He has become the subject of numerous martial arts films and television series. He was considered an expert in the Hung Ga style of Chinese martial arts. As a physician, Wong practised and taught acupuncture, Dit Da and other forms of traditional Chinese medicine in Po Chi Lam, a medical clinic in Guangzhou City, Guangdong Province. A museum dedicated to him was built in his birthplace in Foshan City, Guangdong Province.
Among Wong's students, the more notable ones include Lam Sai-wing, Leung Foon, Dang Fong, and Ling Wan-kai.
Wong is sometimes incorrectly identified as one of the "Ten Tigers of Canton". His father, Wong Kei-ying, was one of the ten but Wong himself was not. Wong is also sometimes referred to as the "Tiger after the Ten Tigers".

Alternative names

Wong's original given name was Sek-cheung or Xixiang before it was changed to Fei-hung. His courtesy name was Dat-wan or Dayun.

Life

Wong was born in Luzhou Hamlet, Lingxi Village, Xiqiao Country, Foshan Town, Nanhai County, which is a present day part of Foshan City, Guangdong Province, during the reign of the Daoguang Emperor in the Qing dynasty. His ancestral home was in Luzhou Hamlet, Lingxi Village, Xiqiao Country, Foshan Town, Nanhai County, Guangzhou Prefecture, Guangdong Province, which is now part of Xiqiao Town, Nanhai District, Foshan City.
At the age of five, Wong started learning Hung Ga from his father, Wong Kei-ying. He often accompanied his father on trips from Foshan to Guangzhou, the provincial capital of Guangdong Province, where his father peddled medicine and performed martial arts in the streets. When he was 13, he encountered Lam Fuk-sing, an apprentice of "Iron Bridge Three" Leung Kwan, in Douchi Street in Foshan Town. Lam taught him how to use the sling and the essential moves of the martial art Iron Wire Fist. Later, he learned the Shadowless Kick from Sung Fai-tong.
In 1863, Wong started a martial arts school in Shuijiao in Xiguan, which is a present day location of Liwan District, Guangzhou City. His students were mainly metal labourers and street vendors. In 1886, Wong opened his family's medical clinic, Po Chi Lam, in Ren'an, which is a present day part of Xiaobei Road, Yuexiu District, Guangzhou City. In legend, around the 1860s or 1870s, Wong was recruited by Liu Yongfu, the commander of the Black Flag Army, to be the medical officer and martial arts instructor for the regular soldiers and the local militia in Guangzhou. He also followed the Black Flag Army to fight the Imperial Japanese Army during the Japanese invasion of Taiwan in 1895.
In 1912, the Republic of China was established following the collapse of the Qing dynasty. During the chaotic early years of the Republican era, many businessmen who operated places of entertainment in Guangzhou decided to hire guards to protect their businesses on-site in case trouble broke out. As Wong was trained in martial arts, he was hired by various businesses to be one of such guards.
In 1919, when the Chin Woo Athletic Association opened a branch in Guangzhou, Wong was invited to perform at the opening ceremony. In the same year, Wong Hon-sam, one of Wong's sons, who was working as a bodyguard in Wuzhou City, Guangxi Province, was murdered by a rival known as "Devil Eye" Leung, who was apparently jealous that Wong Hon-sam was better than him in martial arts. Wong was so affected by this incident that he stopped teaching his other sons martial arts.
Between August and October 1924, Wong's medical clinic, Po Chi Lam, was destroyed when the Nationalist government was suppressing the uprising by the Guangzhou Merchant Volunteers Corps. Wong felt so dejected and saddened by the loss of Po Chi Lam that he fell into depression and became ill. He died from illness on 17 April 1925 in Chengxi Fangbian Hospital, which is the present day location of the Guangzhou First People's Hospital at Panfu Road in Guangzhou's Yuexiu District. He was buried at the foot of Baiyun Mountain.
Wong's fourth wife, Mok Kwai-lan, and his sons, along with his students Lam Sai-wing and Dang Sai-king, moved to Hong Kong and opened martial arts schools there.
Wong's grave location is currently unknown. It is also believed that his grave, along with others within the cemetery were long expunged for future developments.

Fighting style

Wong was a master of Hung Ga. He systematised the predominant style of Hung Ga and choreographed its version of the Tiger Crane Paired Form Fist, which incorporates his Ten Special Fist techniques. Wong is famous for using the Shadowless Kick. He named the techniques of his skills when he performed them.
Wong was adept at using weapons, such as the staff and southern tiger fork. One tale, possibly fictional, recounts how Wong defeated a group of 30 gangsters on the docks of Guangzhou with a staff.

Family

After his first wife died of illness in 1871, Wong was widowed for 25 years. In 1896, he married his second wife and had two sons and two daughters with her. Some time after she died of illness, Wong remarried again in 1902. His third wife bore him two sons before falling victim to a deadly illness. His fourth and final wife stayed with him from 1915 up till his death. The personal names of his first three wives are unknown. He had four known children.
;Spouses
;Sons
;Daughters
At present, there is no information on Wong's two daughters.
;Descendants
Wong had at least three grandsons and six granddaughters. His descendants currently live in Australia, Latin America and Southeast Asia.

Legacy

In 1996, the Wong Fei-hung Lion Dance Martial Arts Museum was built in his hometown in Foshan.
A Wong Fei-hung Memorial Hall was built in 2000 and was officially opened in January 2001 in his honour in Foshan, Chancheng District.

Alleged photos

The first alleged photo as provided by his fourth spouse Mok Kwai-lan to Leung Ting of the Real Kung Fu magazine in 1976. Decades later, it was first exhibited at the Wong Fei-hung Memorial Hall in 2000 and was controversially seen and even promoted by martial artists as a photo of Wong Fei-hong. This was dismissed in 2009 by New Martial Hero's article that the man in the photo was of that of his fourth son, Wong Hon-hei.
In 2005, another alleged photo of Wong Fei-hung once in procession by one of his students Kwong Kei-tim was discovered by the museum staff in Hong Kong. The man in the photo bears a close resemblance to his son, whose photo was the first to be often mistaken for his own father's back then. According to his fourth spouse Mok, who once said that her husband was quite superstitious, who believed that taking self photos would shorten one's lifespan, so Wong had a picture of himself taken by his student Kwong, the only one in his lifetime.

In popular culture

Film and television

Over 100 films and television series featuring Wong have been produced since 1949, mostly in Hong Kong. The Hong Kong actor Kwan Tak-hing starred as Wong in over 70 films between the 1940s and 1980s and earned himself the nickname "Master Wong". Other prominent actors who portrayed Wong on screen include Jet Li in the Once Upon a Time in China film series, and Vincent Zhao in the television series Wong Fei Hung Series.
The Chinese folk song On the General's Orders is popularly associated with Wong Fei-hung because it was used as the theme song in various Wong Fei-hung movies.
The song was the opening theme of the 1978 film Drunken Master, starring Jackie Chan. In the Once Upon a Time in China film series, the song's title was changed to A Man Should Better Himself. It was sung in Cantonese by George Lam and its lyrics were written by James Wong. Jackie Chan sang the song in Mandarin in the second film. The version A Man Should Better Himself is the best known rendition of the song to date.
A rearranged version was rewritten and sung by Dayo Wong as the theme song of Men Don't Cry.

Other appearances