VZ: You said , you fought in honorable way,
in official sports competition, not on the street. What do you mean by that.
WY: Exactly what I said. When you fight in
a competition you have no bad emotions toward your opponent , it is a simple
comparison of the skill and determination. If you win , you win with honor ,
respecting your art , your teacher and your opponent.
Fighting on the street is for two reasons ,
either you fight to survive or you are the attacker, which is the worst thing
someone can do . I know some people were seeking opportunity to fight on the
street and they are proud on what they did , but not me . I had my share of
fights , Hong Kong is not the safest place on Earth , especially in the days of
my youth but I never talk about it, that is not example I want to set to my
children and to my disciples who I also consider my children . I survive ,
thanks to SCWC, that experience I incorporated in my teaching , but talking ,
or even worse ,bragging , that is not me , not my art , I am trying to set a
positive example to the martial arts community .
VZ: How did you find your Snake Crane Wing
Chun teacher , having in mind that your teacher haven’t taught openly and he
didn’t have a school , in fact Snake Crane Wing Chun was closed to public until
2009?
WY: in 1978, just before I finished my
secondary school, a worker’s wife who lived in my school, knowing I am crazy about
martial arts and always got hurt because I have been practicing too much , gave
me my sifu’s business card and advised me to visit him and learn bone setting. Soon after I went
to visit my sifu and we talked about my martial arts experience and practice .
I remember the way Sifu looked at me , and then he started reading my palm , after
a while he said it would be the best if I follow him and learn SCWC. He told me the rules of SCWC and asked me to think about his offer. After a month consideration, I eventually went
to my sifu in September 1978. Two months
later, in November 1978, we did the discipleship ceremony in his flat.
VZ: How many students you teacher had over
the years ?
WY: Not many, according to my knowledge, in
the late 60’s , there were
Chan Wing Jin and Li Yuen, 70’s,
there were Mr. Yuen Chi Choy, Chan Kwok Keung and 80’s there was Sammy Ho, in 90s Mr. Yeung Chi Cheong
and David Yuen Man Kong. In this century, there were Mr. Mok Wei Keung and Mr.
Lam Kwok Ming , totally 16 disciples .
General speaking, every 10 years, he would accept one or two person as
disciples. He didn’t teach openly and
that’s why he only accepted people as disciples, not students.
VZ: You said , your teacher only accepted
disciples , not students, what was the reason for that?
WY: My teacher is very traditional , he
strictly followed the rules of the style. One of the governing rules was to
keep style away for public. In old times , before public kung fu schools
emerged at end of 19th and beginning of 20th century ,
martial arts teachers had only disciples , not students is modern sense of the
word, disciples not only practiced directly under teacher’s supervision , but
they lived with their teacher , they were considered as a part of the family,
in fact hierarchy and structure of traditional school is just mirrored
hierarchy of traditional Chinese family. All the titles are family related ,
even today we still use these titles like kung fu brother, kung fu uncle, ect.
One more interesting thing , following the
rule of practice form the Ching Dynasty period , when conspiracy was essential
, my teacher taught all his disciples separately , until recently most of us
didn’t even know about one another . In the past we rarely met each other , and
even then , only couple of us at the time , never all at the same place at the
same time .
VZ: What else can you tell us about your
teacher?
WY: Not much actually , my teacher kept his
private life , private, he never talked about himself. But I can tell what kind
of person he is . At the day of my acceptance for his disciple , being still a
student , I didn’t have money for the’ red envelope”, my teacher opened his
wallet ,put some money in it and gave it to me so I can fulfil complete the
ritual and give the envelope to him.
VZ: Can you describe how traditional Bai
See ceremony looked like in old days?
WY: Yes, my sifu choose a specific date
which is believed to be good day for the discipleship ceremony according the
traditional Chinese event calendar (通聖) . He invited one of our
senior Sihings to come as witness. That
day, sifu brought out all the ancestors tablets, actually his grandfather’s and
other ancestor’s wooden tablets on the table, there was also a picture of a
written Chinese character ‘budda佛’. On the table were 3 types
of dishes cooked from domestic animals a chicken, a duck and pork . When everything was set up ,Sifu asked us to
write the red envelop and yellow envelop.
The red envelop is for baisee to sifu, and sifu will keep it and add our
name to the successor chart. The yellow
envelop is for the ancestors only to let them know that, today, we are going to
baisee to sifu and formally get into the SCWC Mun (family). A red pocket is also prepared for sifu.
The ceremony started by Sihing recited the
mun’s rules and ask us to follow. After he
finished, Sihing chopped the chicken head and help to burn the yellow envelop
to the ancestors. Then we kneeled down
and offered a cup of tea with the the red envelop with the lai see to sifu. Sifu
will accept the red envelop and lai see and drink the tea, which means that he
accept us as his disciples. After
completion of the ceremony with Sihing as witness, the ducks, chicken and pig
will be eaten for dinner.
VZ: Today ,you simplified Bai See ceremony
, why?
WY: Ritual is important form tradition’s
point of view , but not the way most people think. Ritual have a purpose to
mark the moment of bonding , moment when person becomes a member of Snake Crane
Wing Chun family (Mun) , that is a true meaning of Bai See ceremony, without
that , not matter what kind of ritual you performing , it is meaningless. I
have changed and simplified things to make it acceptable for people of
different cultural and religious background . This way I still follow SCWC
tradition and also avoid conflict with other traditions . Today SCWC Mun has
disciples from all over the world and they all performed Bai See. Tradition is
kept alive , which is very important for SCWC ,but now we are open to everyone.
VZ: Why and how did you decide to “open the
door” of your style for public ?
WY:
In 2008, my sifu talked to me about his age and the fact he has no son
to succeed the art. His 3 daughters
found no interest in learning SCWC. In
order to preserve the from disappearing in my sifu;s generation, I urged him to
open the arts to public. SCWC was kept
in secret because well know political issues connected to Tai Ping Heavenly
Kingdom period and fire of red boats and Find Jade Halll . Qing dynasty
collapsed over a century, republic of China moved to Taiwan in 1949,the communist
party rule China today. In 1967, the cultural revolution destroyed a lot of the
Chinese traditional kung fu and practitioners were prosecuted and many were
killed. But all these things are long gone ,today, SCWC no more has any
political issues, and should be open to the public. Finally, my sifu decided to allow open
teaching and let the art continue by the appropriate persons. Then he made a public announcement in the
newspaper for 3 days that any SCWC matters are not related to him anymore, because
he got retired. In 2009, 8 Jan, he
assigned me as the president of SCWC Mun and passed the marshall flag to me to
lead the mun people to go to the world.
VZ: How do you see the future of SCWC?
WY: I think the future of SCWC will be
bright , many good WCK practitioners show interest in my art and many schools
are opened recently . We have brunch schools all over the world and many people
are interested to come, learn and bring SCWC to their countries .
Vladimir Zlatic
(Huang Ning)
After several hours of training they went to dinner together and continued discussion about history of the art. 
