Meeting Our Hak Fu Mun Family
Following several months of practise and long distance discussions Sifu Paul Burkinshaw and I arranged to travel to Hong Kong to meet Eric Tsai and other members of Master Wong Cheung’s Black Tiger Association. It was certainly a daunting prospect, travelling to the other side of the world to train with people we had never met!
We prepared well for the trip constantly practising the new forms we had been shown and reading up on as much as we could. Things were made a little easier as this was not my Sifu’s first trip to Hong Kong; it was just a pity he did not know then what he knew now!
On the 7th of November we arrived in Hong Kong. Following the 12 hour flight we arrived early morning and so made our way to a hotel and grabbed a few hours sleep before meeting with Eric Tsai that evening. Both Sifu Paul and myself had only ever saw Eric Tsai in grainy videos sent over from Hong Kong in the previous months, when we actually met with Eric I was surprised how friendly his manner was. I suppose I was expecting a typical image of a mean and moody Kung Fu Master, which couldn’t have been further from the truth. Eric immediately treated us with the trust, warmth, respect and kindness in a way that reminded me of reunited relatives meeting at an Airport arrival lounge. As soon as we met, Eric began taking us on a journey across the Hong Kong underground train service to an area called Mong Kok so that we could visit Si Jo Wong Cheung’s gymnasium in Bute Street.
Personally I expected the Gym to be nothing more than the remaining shell of a building. To my surprise the Gym and home of Si Jo Wong Cheung had been kept in the same state, as it was when he passed away in 1989. The walls were littered with old certificates dating back to the early seventies. Some of them were official licences from the authorities others were from other styles recognising Si Jo Wong Cheung for his contributions to the Hong Kong martial arts industry. I also noticed many old weapons and even a pair of dusty old boxing gloves still hung on the wall.
As we were shown around the Gym Eric Tsai told us all about the history of Si Jo Wong Cheung. Eric told us how the Gym had been kept funded and taken care of by many of Master Wong Cheung’s students. He explained how there was an association of Si Jo Wong’s students specifically setup for the task. Unfortunately many of these students were now in their seventies themselves and so had retired from actual training.
We spent a few hours that evening practising forms in the Gym so we could demonstrate to Eric what we had learnt of Black Tiger so far so that he could check for any errors before moving on to other forms throughout the week.
During our ten day stay we spent time at both the Mong Kok gym and at an open air park in the North Point area. Eric Tsai began by teaching a particularly large form to us both, the form was called ‘Tie Sin Sam Gin’ and is common in the Hung Gar style. Personally I tried to keep up with both Eric and my Sifu, Paul Burkinshaw but it seemed hopeless to me, they were both so quick I was struggling to keep up after only 50 or so moves. I quickly resigned myself to the fact that I was not going to be able to keep up with my Sifu so I did what I could and made sure that I captured my Sifu performing the new forms on video so that at least I could fill in any blanks when we returned to England.
During our stay in Hong Kong we spent the daylight ours practising what we had been taught and also Sifu (who had visited before) took me around the various sites and sounds of Hong Kong. We ventured to the top of Victoria Peak, which allowed us to take in amazing views of the harbour, we took numerous ferry trips to nearby islands including the Po Lin temple at Lan Tau island.
Both my Sifu and I are fans of martial arts movies including the Bruce Lee classic ‘Enter the Dragon’, we had watched the film in hour hotel room and so decided to ask Eric where the boat scenes in the film had been staged. Eric pointed us in the direction of Aberdeen Bay, so we travelled to this site and took a fantastic boat trip around the bay whilst we jokingly hummed the theme tune to the film!
Eric Tsai runs the only class currently teaching Si Jo Wong Cheung’s Black Tiger system to the public. So on the Sunday we went to this class with Eric and took part in a training session. For me it was one of the highlights of the trip, it was amazing to me that although we’d only been learning from Eric for around 8 months we slotted into the class with ease. We seemed to be accepted by the fellow students and it was great fun to practise with all of those present.
The class began with all of the students running through a basic routine, which comprised of stance, striking and kicking drills. The basic routine not only allowed us to warm up and stretch but also focused the students on the basics of the system (such as low stances). Once the initial exercises were completed Eric selected a couple of his students to demonstrate some Black Tiger forms. I was most impressed by the standard of the forms with my favourite being the ‘drunken’ form example. Once we had applauded the Hong Kong students it was time for my Sifu and I to demonstrate our own forms. Sifu Paul Burkinshaw completed a form called ‘Tie Mauh Nau Fu’ or ‘Dance of the angry tiger’ which, with all of its tiger clawing techniques went down very well with the local Hong Kong students. I demonstrated a form called ‘Lin Wan Kune’ or ‘The Continuous and returning fist’, which again seemed to impress the local contingent.
Following on from the forms demonstration Eric Tsai started to teach us a form using a piece of apparatus called a ‘Rattan Ring’. This wooden ring was used as a training method for conditioning the forearms and developing fluidity in movement. At first the Rattan Ring seemed cumbersome and difficult to manage, however, after some practise it became much easier, although it did leave the forearms a little sore! Once Sifu Paul Burkinshaw had been taught the entire form by Eric, he then practiced it several times before capturing it on film so that we had a good reference point.
During our stay we were also shown a dummy form called the ‘Dan Chong’ or ‘single dummy’, this form was performed against a single upright pole. Due to the mild weather we were able to practise this form in a local park well into the night. Personally I have always struggled remembering the moves for the traditional ‘Wing Chun’ wooden dummy. Luckily Sifu Paul Burkinshaw seemed to pick up this form very easily. With only two days practise Sifu had completed the hundreds of moves in the form and seemed to be remembering them well. I was very surprised to see the variety of movements within this dummy form as in the past I had only witnessed the more common wooden armed dummy. The single dummy form demonstrated a variety of kicks, strikes and even a section where the practitioner dropped to the ground for some floor work involving sweeps and low kicks.
Whilst we were training with Eric Tsai he showed us some of the training tools that Si Jo Wong Cheung’s system used. One of these devices was called a ‘spring wheel’, which was basically an iron bar with a round concrete weight attached to one end. The device was used to condition the arms by rolling the bar down each arm before ‘bouncing’ it back to the top of the arm. Another training tool shown was called the ‘stone lock’, which was basically a large, heavy brick with a handle emerging from the top. This handle could roll so that the user could swing the arm out and use the forearm to bounce the concrete back towards the floor. Both Sifu and myself struggled with this apparatus, we could see the aim but we could tell it would take us a lot of practise to make perfect.
Throughout the trip my Sifu managed to learn and remember a total of four new forms none of which could really be described as short forms. By the time it came to making the long journey back to England I was quite saddened to have to leave our new found family and by the look on my Sifu’s face he felt the same. Eric Tsai assured us that this was now only the beginning at that there would be many opportunities to train together again in the future.
Sil Lum Hark Fu Mun – The Future
Since those early days of finding out about our association’s origins a tremendous amount has developed. Sifu Paul Burkinshaw’s association is now representing Si Jo Wong Cheung’s Black Tiger in the UK. Between Jerry Davis in Texas, Eric Tsai in Hong Kong and Paul Burkinshaw in the UK they have set up an International website to represent the system (www.black-tiger-association.org) which attempts to document the histories and development of the system for the foreseeable future and to re-establish contact with other students of Si Jo Wong Cheung around the world.
My Sifu, Paul Burkinshaw has once again travelled to Hong Kong to train with Eric Tsai and the Hong Kong Black Tiger Association learning many new weapons and forms. Hopefully our next adventures will be to travel to practitioners in the United States and perhaps invite some students over to the UK from abroad. In conclusion investigating our associations origins has been a hugely worthwhile experience and although politics can be a big issue, personally, I am glad that our particular journey only involved meeting like minded individuals with no egos involved. We seem to have genuinely broadened our own particular kung fu family and in my opinion that can only be a good thing. I strongly believe that all the different martial arts have something to offer and therefore would be unwilling to criticise anyone’s particular system of choice. If this article encourages only a small number of people to investigate their own origins then I would be happy with that outcome.
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