Hung Fa Yi HQ News Express

[Ned]

Hi Gary,

I'm doing ok, just trying to do the most with my life in HFYWC. I hear you about sleeping on the floor. I remember back in the day before HFY, camping out on wing chun trips. These days there is too many responsibilities to make that kind of dedication. I wish I knew about HFY or Hung Suen years ago.
I heard about the AZ HFY facebook but finally checked it out. I think there some stats missing. I gave up on the he-man workout cuz it was just making my elbows fly out and made it a struggle to keep my elbows on the nipple line. Its been easier to the centerline discipline since laying off the wieghts and all but I'm still working on the discipline. Like Si Hing Allen says:

You never know when or where a challenge will come from. No matter what the situation, you must always be ready and be prepared to put forth your best effort regardless of the consequences.

Good talking to you.
Ned

[Boxer1408]

During the Chi Sao interaction, as the JKD guy was falling down to the floor, Sifu Garrett Gee grabbed his arm and pulled him back up. That's pretty cool. There was over a hundred people watching. I was behind the crowd trying to get the best view. Everything happened so fast. Sifu Gee's skill is always admirable. This Chi Sao event also reminds me of another inccident that happened in 1997 at the Daly City kwoon. There was this big huge German guy, over 6'6" and weighed 300 lbs. He claimed to have 15 years mixed martial arts experience. He had heard about Sifu Garrett Gee' s name through his friends. He came all the way from Europe to meet Sifu Gee and wanted to know more about HFY Wing Chun. So, he started out to test his skill with one of the students, whose name was Kalman. Because of the advantage of his size, it was easy for him to win the fight. He kicked and injured the student. Back in the old days, the private gong sao matches between schools were quite common, and no such thing as wearing protective gear during the challenge match. Afterward Kalman was injured, Sifu Gee stepped in and said to this German guy. "Now, you're ready to test your skill." Over 30 people were paying attention and watching in silence. Then this German fighter reponded with confidence. "Yes, I'm ready!" and put his guard up both hands in front of him, and extended his lead hand to check on Sifu Gee's hand. Everyone could see that this big guy's arm was at least one foot longer than Sifu Gee's arm. What a scene!!! Just upon contact their hands met. Something I couldn't believe. Sifu Gee's hand was so fast with a strike to this big guy's neck. That's it, one move, end of the story. After the challenge, all this guy could say was that "Sifu Gee's hand is a very dangerous weapon." That's exactly the same thing said about Sifu Gee's skill from another Kung Fu master T. Yim, who also had interacted with Sifu Gee before. I was also a witness at the kung fu gathering party at the Burma Palace restaurant in 1995.

You never know when or where a challenge will come from. No matter what the situation, you must always be ready and be prepared to put forth your best effort regardless of the consequences. The following story took place at Bruce Lee's 60th birthday party at the Holiday Inn hotel in San Francisco. Sifu Garrett Gee, with some of his own Hung Fa Yi students were in attendance (paying respect) along with many other Sifu(s), their students of Wing Chun, and loyal followers of Bruce Lee's own style Jeet Kune Do. During the celebration, some Wing Chun people who recognized Sifu Gee, asked him some questions about Wing Chun. After awhile, it became somewhat of a discussion and a small circle formed around Sifu Gee. Sifu Steve Golden, who was one of the high ranking Jeet Kun Do instructors, overheard Sifu Gee's discussion and wanted to understand more. Being at Bruce Lee's party and in a room full of Jeet Kun Do followers, Sifu Golden felt confident enough to enter Sifu Gee's circle and asked to touch hands. Sifu Golden didn't know who Sifu Gee was at the time. Sifu Golden said besides Jeet Kun Do, he also had some Wing Chun expierience and wanted to chi sau with Sifu Gee. Sifu Gee accepted and eventhough Sifu Golden was very fast and very skilled at Jeet Kune Do, Sifu Gee took him to the floor within a few seconds. As expected, tension ran high as all the Sifu Golden's students, as well as Sifu Gee's students, were watching and paying attention to the interaction. The point of this story is that you must be ready at all times and you must put forth your best effort, as challenges come in many forms and at the most unexpected time. No mater what the consequeces, even if it's just a casual interaction, both Sifu Garrett Gee and Sifu Steve Golden both demonstrated good sportsmanship, true harmony, and showed mutual respect toward one another.--(Allen K.)

[Ned]

How many of you know that GM Gee has been making several trips to Hong Kong in the past few years? It’s been more than 35 years since GM Gee had left Hong Kong to the USA, along with knowledge and skill of HFYWC.


18 Years Old (Dec. 1974) - Garrett Gee in Hong Kong one week before his arrival in San Francisco.

Sifu Gee at 20 years old in the US

Little did anyone in San Francisco or the US know that a young 18 years old was the inheritor of the HFYWC system. As Gary mentioned, three punks had a special experience from that made Sifu famous in China town. Wilson was a Southern Mantis fighter from Hong Kong and didn't think much of Hong Kong Wing Chun.

Originally Posted by mario bava

1975 - 3 months after GM Gee has arrived in San Fran from Hong Kong, he and his friend, Jonny Wong, are walking along Union Street at about 1am. They happen to chance upon 3 guys - 3 'street punks' as it were. Sifu Gee and his friend are 'bumped into' and are insulted using racial slurs. So what happened? Well, Sifu Gee told his friend to get into the car, and he'd join him shortly. What followed happened very quickly. Sifu Gee walked over to the 'punks' who by now were in front of the Metro Theatre, hanging about. Unfortunaltely for them they had made a mistake. Sifu Gee walked straight up to them and hammered the 3 of them - HFY kicks and punches defeated those guys in less than a minute. And Sifu Gee walked back and got into the car...

It is because of this event and Wilson Lee's request to learn from Sifu that Sifu Gee started teaching Kung Fu. Many people in the Bay area recognize Sifu Gee since he was 18 years old as a kung fu master.

In Sifu Gee's last trip to Hong Kong, Sifu Lui Wai Kai (a Sifu of Sum Nung Wing Chun) who is now a student of Sifu Gee, hosted him in a hotel of the famous kung fu actor, Carter Wong. Carter Wong is a famous Hong Kong actor who was in the popular Hollywood movie “Big Trouble in Little China”:


Carter Wong played Thunder in Big Trouble in Little China.

While in Hong Kong Sifu Gee formally trained the Hong Kong Hung Fa Yi Wing Chun branch to participants from five different Wing Chun backgrounds: Sum Nung Wing Chun, Chan Wah Shun Wing Chun, Fang Sui Shing Wing Chun, Yip Man Wing Chun and Chi Shim Weng Chun. All the participants come from different martial arts background. Sifu Lui Wai Kai’s older brother was so excited to share some news with Sifu Gee about his experience in main land China. You see last year, Sifu Gee taught Sifu Wai’s older brother a few techniques. When Sifu Wai’s brother went back to main land China, his Wing Chun brothers didn’t know how to handle his Chi Sau! His Wing Chun brothers are impress with HFY. Other exciting news was the Chi Shim member experiencing HFY Tien Yan De (TYD) and its differences from Chi Shim TYD. Chi Shim TYD is more like animal style TYD which is different from HFY's 6 gate and 4 gate TYD.

[HFY-Secretary]

6-13-2010

Last week GM Garrett Gee returned from Hong Kong, China and Japan. As usual, there were many people in the far east greatly interested in learning Hung Fa Yi wing chun under Sifu Gee. Besides teaching the Hong Kong HFY members, Sifu Gee also went to mainland China. Interacting with Sifu Chu Yiu-Hung, Police Captain Leung Ching (Gu Lu WCK practioner) and Bruce Lee's distant cousins to discuss business and Sifu Gee's future trips to China. Lester Gee (Sifu Gee's brother) is a local businessman in the city of Fatshan, who is also looking forward to Sifu Gee visiting during the next trip. In fact, Sifu Gee's grandfather Chu Chun-Bak used to be the deputy mayor and the police commissioner in Fatshan during the KMT party before Chairman Mao took over China. Definitely there is a lot of family history for Sifu Gee to explore in the city of Fatshan, besides Wing Chun Kung Fu.

[Ned]

Originally Posted by HFY-Secretary

In fact, Sifu Gee's grandfather Chu Chun-Bak used to be the deputy mayor and the police commissioner in Fatshan during the KMT party before Chairman Mao took over China.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yip_Man
In Foshan, Yip Man became a policeman.
He only returned to Foshan after the war, to once again take up the job of a police officer. At the end of 1949, the Chinese Communist party won the Chinese civil war. Yip Man being an officer of the opposing Kuomintang political party, decided to escape to Hong Kong without his family when the Communists had come to Foshan.

http://www.wingchunkwoon.com/history.asp
Yip Man stayed in Fatshan where he was involved with the police and raised a family. In 1948 Yip Man fled to Hong Kong during the People's Movement.

http://www.wingchun.si/yipman.htm
Yip Man was offered the job of police chief of Futshan. He carried out this job diligently using much of his spare time to practice and teach Wing Chun Kuen in his house.

Coincidence in Fatshan? There's a connection in the Wing Chun world that maybe unknown to many. In the same time period Sifu Gee's grandfather was Police Commissioner of Fatshan, Yip Man may have been working for Sifu Gee's grandfather.
Coincidence in Wing Chun? Later in history, Chu Chun-Bak's grandson Sifu Gee, inherits Hung Fa Yi Wing Chun.



GM Yip Man and the little dragon, Bruce Lee.

[mario bava]

Hi Ned and HFY Secretary

More tantalising posts about Sifu Gee - very interesting indeed. Keep them coming, it's a wonderful read for all of us.

Cheerio, Gary

[HFY-Secretary]

四 市 爭 為 朱 熹 「 慶 生 」
　　
(星島日報報道)興修「故里」不差錢，名分之爭停不了。今年正逢南宋理學大師朱熹誕辰八百八十周年，從江西 婺源到福建尤溪、建陽和武夷山市，兩省四地都自稱「朱熹故里」，爭相要為這位古代先賢「做壽」，四地用於「 獻禮」、爭名分的資金共超過四十億元人民幣。
　
福建省三明市的尤溪縣捷足先登，早於去年就向國家郵政局申報「朱熹誕辰八百八十周年紀念郵票」成功，目前正 為「慶生」趕工修建四大旅遊項目。

但武夷山市並不買帳，據武夷山市政府網站公布的數據顯示，其「朱子文化綜合開發項目」也頗為可觀，項目總投 資為三億元。福建建陽縣則不屑與人爭鋒，投資了十多億元另搞兩大「朱熹產業」項目。

江西婺源則 因為擁有一部朱熹宗譜，爭正宗最為底氣十足，相關項目更投資二十五億元以上。

http://www.singtao.com/yesterday/chi/0616eo06.html

( Sing Tao News 2010-06-16 )
This year's Masters of Science in the Southern Song Dynasty Zhu Xi's 880 years. From Jiangxi 江西 to Youxi Fujian 福建尤溪, Jianyang 建陽 and Wuyishan city 武夷山市, province four regions are claiming to be the "birthplace" of Zhu Xi 朱熹. Jumping on the bandwagon to capitalize on this national celebration by throwing a birthday party, Four cities creating a "controversy" with this celebration by spending more than $ 4 billion yuan.

Sanming City, Youxi County in the Fukien Province was the first place to declare to the national post office a stamp representing "Zhu Xi's 880th birthday anniversary". There are four cities competing for recognition in the celebration of Zhu Xi's birthday anniversary to attract tourism.

According to the government website Wuyishan City showed a very considerable investment of $300 million to its "Zhu cultural project". Jianyang County, Fujian Province also in competition has invested over 1 billion towards it's " ZHU XI" project.

Wuyuan City has possession of the authentic lineages of Zhu Xi and has invested over 2.5 billion, justifying their right to the celebration.

As many people are aware, Zhu Xi is a very important historical figure in Chinese culture. His philosophy is the most influential in Chinese history and has been studied for almost 900 hundred years. Grand Master Garrett Gee is a 33rd generation decendant of Zhu Xi.

[HFY-Secretary]

6-29-2010
Written by Allen Kong

Since last week, both HFY Brazil Division Secretary Rudy Ortiz and Sifu Marcelo Capano have been planning the next HFY Wing Chun workshop for Brazil. Meanwhile, everyone eagerly awaits GM Garrett Gee's final approval.

Two weeks ago, Arizona student member Tony Jacobs was at the HFY headquarters for private training. During Tony's stay, knowing that GM Garrett Gee travels quite regularly (to promote the art of HFY), he presented GM Gee with a laptop computer as a small gift. The laptop will enhance GM Gee's ability to keep records and document training materials during his time away from the Kwoon.

As of last week, a martial artist from Hawaii named Richard Yang, started taking private lessons from G.M Gee learning the Wu Tang Fu's Tai Chi. After his first 10 hours of instructions under G.M Gee, he was extremely impressed. Those 10 hours helped Richard Yang excel and enhance his Tai Chi knowledge, as compared to his previous style of Chan Style Tai Chi (which he had been learning for two years). Richard Yang has now decided to become G.M Gee's private student in the Wu Tang system.

Long time Chi Sim Weng Chun practitioner Wong Chuck-Ming (in Hong Kong) recently had a long distance telephone conversation with GM Gee. Wong Chuck-Ming was impressed with GM Gee's knowledge and he was glad to have the opportunity of becoming a student of the HFY branch in Hong Kong. With his knowledge of the Chi Sim Weng Chun history that has not been told to the public, he would like the opportunity in the future to share and contribute (that part of the Chi Sim Weng Chun history) to GM Gee's Kung Fu Tong Project.

[HFY-Secretary]

News from China

July 1, 2010

Gee Sifu,

Thank you for all that you have taught me not only in Wing Chun but in life as well. I truly appreciate and respect your wisdom and your teachings. There are many Wing Chun lineages in China. Your Kung Fu is the best I have come across and I truly love Hung Fa Yi Wing Chun. I am also very honored and appreciative of the time and the help you have given me for my village people. The Chi Gung really helped and was most beneficial to my health and recovery. I will never forget the Chi Gung lessons you gave me during my sickness. Thank you very much. I am looking forword to see you again and I want to be the best student I can be for you so that I can preserve the Hung Fa Yi Wing Chun Kung Fu in China.

Respectfully your student,
Hua Shing

[DavidE]

Hello to all in SF,

Reading through here to catch up on current events, I have a quick question. When did Lester move to Hong Kong? Man I miss you guys up there!!

[HFY-Secretary]

Hello David,

Regarding your question about Lester Gee, no he has not moved to Hong Kong. Lester has two businesses one in Foshan, China and one in America.

On a separate note, Nancy Sung's husband used to be an antique dealer in Foshan, China. Nancy herself was a Chi Gung student under Wang Ming forty-five years ago. Many people are not aware of GM Garrett Gee's interest in antiques. I have a bunch of old information here about GM Gee as an antique and art collector with the art gallery owner Professor Wu Mo.

Bruce Stanberry

[DavidE]

Hello Bruce,
Thanks for the reply. Lester is one heck of a businessman that's for sure.

[mario bava]

Way back in 2005, I entered my local library in Ireland and began browsing through the martial arts section. Our library is very small, so I didn’t expect to find much more than a few books on Karate and maybe, if I was lucky, a small pamphlet about Kung Fu. But that day, I found a book that would introduce me to a genuine Kung Fu Master and a genuine Kung Fu system, and I have never looked back since.

The Master’s name was GM Garrett Gee, and Hung Fa Yi Wing Chun was the name of the system. My eyes were opened as I read each successive page of this book– this was the most exciting information I had ever come across regarding Wing Chun Kung Fu. At that time, I had already studied Wing Chun for over 6 years under a student of GM Chu Shong Tin, and it was fantastic, I loved it. But this book, this Hung Fa Yi, talked of Wing Chun theories, a Wing Chun formula and a history that I had never heard of before.

These theories included ‘Sup Ming Dim’, ‘Tien Yan Dei’, ‘Two Line Defense’, ‘6 Gate Theory’, ‘Time, Space and Energy’ and on and on. I’d never heard of these before in my previous training or in any other Wing Chun families, yet when I read this book, it appeared, at least to me, that these theories were possibly fundamental to Wing Chun actually being Wing Chun. And only Hung Fa Yi and GM Garrett Gee had ever used these terms in public – I had never seen or heard of them before.

The history also grabbed my attention – in my Yip Man Wing Chun, I had been taught that my ancestor was Yim Wing Chun, and Yim Wing Chun was the student of an escaped Monk, named Ng Mui. Hung Fa Yi Wing Chun offered a different history to this – that Yim Wing Chun was a secret code used for the protection of the Shaolin Wing Chun Tong, and not actually a person at all. As I read this history, I was amazed. I thought that this information was new to the public. Little did I know that this information had been taught by GM Gee since 1975!!! This fact I found out only when I went to visit him in America….

Upon arrival in America, meeting Sifu Gee made the reading material REAL. To see the theories and formula in action was mind-blowing, and it was here I finally asked permission to formally learn from Sifu Gee. The Hung Fa Yi approach is truly unique and was one which, for me, was the most exciting form of Wing Chun to learn.
As time went on, I began to get to know some of the Sihings in the HFY association. They would tell me stories on how the history of Yim Wing Chun being a code for protection was actually taught to Wilson Lee in 1975. It amazes me how over 35 years ago this history was already being divulged to HFY students.
I then realised how I had read this history somewhere before – yes, it was in a book by Robert Chu, Rene Ritchie and Y. Wu – ‘Complete Wing Chun’. Yes, this book had a chapter in it, which was compiled from information given by Sifu Gee which explained how the Yim Wing Chun story was actually a code. My God – this was public information for years – and not one other Wing Chun family ever mentioned it AT ALL.
Of course, nowadays there are many Wing Chun groups who mention historical figures and strategies from HFY – but we all know the original source, Hung Fa Yi Wing Chun and Garrett Gee. Indeed, GM Gee has worked tirelessly for over 35 years to protect and pass on HFY history and technique to a new generation of interested practitioners. As a student of HFY and Sifu Gee, it will be my duty to ensure that this contribution to the Wing Chun world is remembered and continued.

Cheerio, Gary

[HFY-Secretary]

In the study of kung fu, the subject of qigong is almost always included. It would be a rare occassion to find a kung fu school that didnt include some form of qigong training in their agenda.

In our own HFY kwoon, under the tutelage of Grandmaster Garrett Gee, we practice jam jong and tin yan dei qigong. This is a standing form of qigong that we use to cultivate internal energy and equilibrium. This is only a partial demonstration of Sifu Gee's qigong knowledge and ability. Sifu Gee's kungfu training began very early in his childhood, being the son of Wutang Pai Grandmaster Peter Kim Ho Chu, who himself was a master of Wutang style kung fu including Fu style, Sun style, Wu style, Yang style taichi, Leung Yi Kuen, Sei Jueng Kuen, Lightning Palm Kuen and Dragon Style Pak Qua. It was with this foundation that Sifu Gee then inherited HFY Wing Chun.

Stateside Sifu Gee had plenty of opportunities to express the wealth of information he possessed. In the summer of 1990, One person who was especially impressed by this was Mr.H.S. Lam. Mr. Lam, who was himself a fengsheui master and was a student of a very reputable qigong master X. After some time discussing qigong with Sifu Gee, Mr Lam could see that he was dealing with someone who had something very special so he arranged for his qigong master X and Sifu Gee to get together for a casual dinner at a small cafe in Sunset San Francisco.

As the evening progressed the accounts of the qigong master X's skill began to unfold. For instance, he would apply his qigong to his students forcing them down and having them roll around on the ground without touching them. Many of his students were kung fu Sifus themselves. Mr. Lam had attested that this was true and that he had witnessed it firsthand. After a time of further discussion and deliberation it came about that a demonstration was in order. So Sifu Gee, the qigong master X and Mr. Lam proceeded outside to the parking lot followed by about 20 onlookers. Sifu Gee and the qigong master X squared off, facing each other about 10 feet apart. Sifu Gee had prepared himself and his adversary launched a qigong attack for a continuous 10 minutes, but the effort was to no avail. With Sifu Gee's own knowledge and skill of qigong as well as spiritual qigong the attack was rendered harmless. Sifu Gee was able to borrow the incoming energy and bounce it off elsewhere, leaving him unaffected and still on his feet. Mr. Lam was "highly impressed" and said that he had witnessed numerous demonstrations of the qigong master X's skill and it had never been stopped until encountered by Sifu Gee.

When Mr. Lam asked the qigong master X, why was it that his attack was ineffective, the answer was that Sifu Gee had a very special knowledge and that he was "no ordinary person."

Billy Lau, a fellow Hung Fa Yi Wing Chun student of ours and a longtime Buddhist spiritual cultivator says of the first time that he met Sifu Gee" when he opened the door of Hung Fa Kwoon and he first saw Sifu Gee, he felt a mountain of energy behind Sifu Gee." Billy Lau, too, could see that Sifu Gee was no ordinary person.

The Hung Gun Boxer Society had many different expressions of "spiritual body" qigong and Sifu Gee as the Byun Jun of HFY Wing Chun is the Protector of the knowledge passed down by Hung Gun Biu through his lineage.

Sifu Gee also reminds us that qigong cannot only bring us great benefit but also causes great harm if not practiced properly. We should use the utmost patience and respect when opening the door to qigong.

Rudy Ortiz
HFY Wing Chun practitioner