The Path To Hak Fu Mun

My name is Paul Burkinshaw and I started my martial arts career in early 1986 studying a style called Shaolin Fist Kung Fu under Sifu John Holden. I was told some years later that the style had been called Shaolin Tiger Ripping, but John Holden had added some open-hand forms and various other techniques he had learnt over the years to formulate Shaolin Fist in 1982. The Shaolin Tiger Ripping had come to the UK from a Bob Johnson who had studied under a Master Wong in Hong Kong. Bob Johnson had been in Hong Kong for several years while serving in the Military Police.

There was never any more information than that and no one had maintained links with Hong Kong or this Master Wong. Over the years I appreciated that the core of the style was very practical and effective but what we had didn’t have the depth that other Kung Fu styles seem to have. I knew this was down to the limited time that Bob Johnson had studied under this Master Wong. (What can you learn in a few years?) I have since found out that Bob Johnson was more interested in the practical side of street defence, applications and fighting and so had learnt very little of the forms. In 1997 I took over from my Sifu as Chief Instructor. During the mid to late 1990’s I had spent several years training with other Sifus such as Derek Frearson of 7 Star Praying Mantis and Iain Armstrong of Nam Yang’s Tiger and Crane style. Over the years Iain was very helpful in aiding our club to learn several traditional weapons and Lion Dance.

Since 1997 I started to try and find out more information about the previous instructors and facts about the past. The information was always vague and only recent history was revealed. At the start of 2006 the BCCMA (British Council for Chinese Martial Arts, governing body for Chinese Martial Arts in the UK) issued a new ruling stating that clubs that wished to compete in the Traditional forms categories must provide details of the lineages. Iain Armstrong is the director of Traditional Forms within the BCCMA and at this time Iain was at our club conducting a seminar for us on traditional weapons. I spoke to Iain of our history and he informed me that certain aspects we did that were originally from the Tiger Ripping style could possibly not be allowed due to the vague evidence of our lineage.

After this conversation I then went back to the previous instructors to try and find more concrete information. Once again the facts were vague as they informed me that little was ever told them of Master Wong. One of the instructors called Ken Hyland had started his martial arts career in the early 1960’s and he gave me a few useful bits of information to aid my search. The missing link was the name, we had not previously known, Wong Cheung. With the help of one of my students (Robert Buckler, an IT manager and general wizz kid on computers) we scoured the internet with the full name and started to make progress.

From the information we eventually got a lead on a Master Wong Cheung who used to teach a style called Sil Lum Hark Fu Mun (Shaolin Black Tiger) in Hong Kong. Unfortunately he had passed away in 1989, but there were contact details for a person in Hong Kong and another in the U.S.A. Due to the cultural and language difficulties of contacting a person in Hong Kong I decided to email the American president of the Black Tiger Association first. Jerry Davis was very helpful and after several lengthy emails explained that the style of Grandmaster Wong Cheung was a very rare style that was on the verge of possibly dying out. This was due to very few people that knew the style wishing to teach it and, or corruption of the style as my previous teachers had been guilty of. Jerry had spent the last 10 to 15 years trying to get the other people that had been involved with Grandmaster Wong’s style to come together and promote it with little success. Many of these people were either too old, were no longer interested in Kung Fu, had other business commitments now etc, etc.

The only other person who actually taught public classes, was a man called Eric Tsai in Hong Kong. Jerry suggested that I should contact Eric to see what he had to say. I therefore emailed Eric and gave him a brief outline of who I was and where I had come from. Eric emailed back asking for all the details I had regarding this Bob Johnson and stated that there were several of Grandmaster Wong’s students still around from that time he could talk to. The days passed by so very slowly until nearly 10 days later I received an email off Eric. Eric stated that he had spoken to several people and could confirm my story. Eric then welcomed me into the Sil Lum Hark Fu Man (Shaolin Black Tiger Gate Association.)

In April of 2006 my instruction of Hark Fu Mun began and I was sent a video of a form to learn. Once I had managed to learn the moves I was then to video myself performing the routine and send it back for Eric to scrutinise. I found that I learnt this new form fairly easily. I believe this was due to the core of our styles being the same, and so the stances, blocks and hand strikes I was already familiar with. I also found that the sequence of movements were the same, and this therefore aided me to rapidly achieve this form and a video of me performing it was soon on its way back to Eric. He informed me that I had learnt it quick and that the form was OK with only a few small errors. Shortly after this a second video arrived with a basic routine he wished me to learn. Once I had done this I again sent a video of me performing it for his comments. Again not too bad and a third video of a form followed that he wished me to study next. Again once I had managed to learn the moves I should send a video of me performing it for Eric to check.

While this was going, several comments were made on an American forum calling into question our lineage. I replied to these comments and in the mean time Jerry and Eric had also got involved and the situation was soon resolved to everyone’s satisfaction. Jerry and Eric then suggested that we work together on an International website for Sil Lum Hark Fu Mun. The whole purpose of this site was not only to educate people in Black Tiger, but to hopefully unite all past and present in the common promotion of this system.

Eric then sent me an email stating that the form I had learnt had some small errors, but he would correct me when I came to Hong Kong. In the mean time a fourth video arrived and I could learn some of this before my arrival. I had planned to go to Hong Kong from day one but due to our already scheduled Shaolin Temple tour of China in April and then Eric going to Australia in the summer, plus the unbearable heat of the Hong Kong summer Eric had suggested that I came later in the year. Preparations were made and Robert Buckler and I booked our flights for the beginning of November. This date soon came around and although we were looking forward to meeting Eric, we were also nervous about what to expect when we arrived.

Written by Paul Burkinshaw.