Researching Our Traditional Origins
Traditional (adjective)
“following or belonging to the customs or ways of behaving that have continued in a group of people or society for a long time without changing:”
Sil Lum Kune – An Orphan System?
As a student of Sil Lum Kune I had often discussed with my Sifu where our Kung fu system had originated from. Before I choose Sil Lum Kune as the organisation I would join I had conducted research with the aim of finding a local, traditional Chinese martial arts club. From my research I concluded that Sil Lum Kune was a traditional association with a great many highly competent members so, 7 years ago, I decided to join. I knew that Sil Lum Kune was based on the teachings of Master Bob Johnson, who taught a Tiger style of Kung Fu following many years of study with a Grandmaster in Hong Kong.
Unfortunately Bob Johnson had long since passed away and the two successive masters of the system had not maintained links with the original Hong Kong branch of the system. This state of affairs did not initially concern me, as I knew there were many years of teachings in the local area that I would need to learn. I could not imagine I would get to a stage where I would run out of new things to learn. I did, however, have some sympathy for my Sifu, Paul Burkinshaw.
My Sifu is the head of the National Sil Lum Kune Association and I was confident that I would be continuing to learn from him in the years to come but since my Sifu’s instructor (Master John Holden) had retired I wondered how he would be able to fulfil his unquenchable thirst for higher kung fu knowledge or “The Tao” as he described it to me. I am certainly no expert in Chinese family names but following a brief search on the Internet it was obvious that the name ‘Wong’ was not enough to track down our elders or their successors.
Over the years my Sifu has expanded the Sil Lum Kune Association to include Shaolin weapons, dummy training, wrestling and Lion Dance to name but a few. With the lack of an elder’s teachings my Sifu has been fortunate to forge an excellent relationship with the Nam Yang Pugilistic Association and in particular their head of association in the UK Sifu Iain Armstrong. Through the years Sifu Iain Armstrong and his association have conducted many seminars for the students of Sil Lum Kune. All of these teachings have been gratefully received and have added a large amount of knowledge to Sil Lum Kune.
The instructors and students of Sil Lum Kune have always been very proud of their friendship with the Nam Yang Association in the south of England; however, personally I still felt that my own Sifu was missing out by not knowing of his historic lineage back in Hong Kong. Sifu had also spent approximately 2 years in the mid 1990’s also studying 7 Star Praying Mantis with Derek Frearson in Leicester.
The Breakthrough
In late 2005 our lineage situation was to change in a way none of us at Sil Lum Kune had expected. The British Council of Chinese Martial Arts announced that all traditional clubs would be required to provide information of their individual lineage. Due to this fact Sifu Paul Burkinshaw decided to investigate once more what our retired elders knew of our history. Following several discussions at the homes of past masters in the Midlands, England Sifu Paul was finally told of the actual name of the original master of the style in Hong Kong, it was revealed that the gentleman’s name was Grand Master Wong Cheung and this is who had taught one of our elders (Bob Johnson) fifty years ago.
The total sum of new information was only five letters long ‘C H E U N G’; however, it was the last piece in the jigsaw and all the information we needed to know.
Armed with the complete name of our past Master, within a few days we had tracked down details of Grand Master Wong Cheung’s Black Tiger Association in Hong Kong. The Cantonese name was ‘Sil Lum Hark Fu Mun’ which translates to ‘Shaolin Black Tiger Family/Clan’ this was not the same Shaolin Black Tiger that many readers who study ‘Fu Jaw Pai’ or other styles are familiar with. Grandmaster Wong Cheung’s system was the culmination of teachings throughout his life which although based on the Shaolin Hark Fu Mun style contained many other influences. Other influences included the Hung Gar form (Tie Sin Sam Gin), a rare dummy called ‘The 9 Pin Grinder’ and many other Shaolin animal elements.
Over the next few days and weeks lots of exciting information was collected. Sadly, we also found out that although Grandmaster Wong Cheung had passed away in 1989. Still, there were many very talented students around the world still practising the system. The more we researched the more concrete the facts seemed to be, Bob Johnson had trained under Grand Master Wong Cheung in Mong Kok, Hong Kong in the early 1950’s whilst serving in the military police. He had studied on a one to one basis with Grandmaster Wong Cheung and it seemed that those teachings had concentrated on sparring, self defence, stance, strikes and kicks.
Sifu Paul Burkinshaw began discussions with many So Hark Fu Mun practitioners. The only person teaching the style to the public in Hong Kong was a man by the name of Eric Tsai. Eric Tsai was running the Black Tiger Association in Hong Kong and his friend Jerry Davis (a 2nd generation student of Grand Master Wong Cheung) was working hard to preserve the style from his own base in Texas, America.
Eric Tsai, Jerry Davis and Paul Burkinshaw began discussing at length how they believed the English club had been disconnected from the rest of Grandmaster Wong Cheung’s Black Tiger Association when Bob Johnson had returned to England with the system in the 1950’s. After many discussions and demonstrations on videos posted around the world we found that our stances, strikes, kicks, hand positions, self defence techniques, drills and naming conventions were, for the majority, identical to those being performed by Hark Fu stylists around the world. It was confirmed that some westerners were taught on a one to one basis by Grandmaster Wong Cheung (which is how he taught most of his students) in Mong Kok throughout his later life.
Before long it was obvious beyond reasonable doubt that the core of Sil Lum Kune was in fact ‘Grandmaster Wong Cheung’s Sil Lum Hark Fu Mun’. Over the years Sil Lum Kune had become ‘melded’ with additional elements of other teachings such as Dook Sau and Long Fist styles. Other disciplines of the current system were taught to Sifu Paul Burkinshaw by Sifu Iain Armstrong (such as some of the traditional Shaolin weapons).
Overall it seemed that the core of the style had survived; unfortunately very few of the original forms had been passed down to students in England. Sifu Paul Burkinshaw began a lengthy process of learning forms from Eric Tsai in Hong Hong, he spent hours carefully watching and learning the forms before performing them himself and sending them back for inevitable criticisms. As the months went by Paul then started to teach his senior students these Black Tiger Forms.
In England there are other successful and competent students of Bob Johnson’s who are still training in clubs in Leicestershire although these now teach ‘Fu Jow Pai’ rather than Grandmaster Wong Cheung’s interpretation of ‘Sil Lum Hark Fu Mun’. This article in no way seeks to discredit the many other ‘Black Tiger’ styles in existence who we view as our kung fu brothers. This article simply attempts to document Sil Lum Kune’s journey in finding its own origins.
With sincere thanks to my teacher Sifu Paul Burkinshaw, Eric Tsai in Hong Kong and Jerry Davis in the United States.
Written by Robert Buckler
Student of Sil Lum Hark Fu Mun