During Grandmaster Leung Ting's 50th birthday celebration we had the
chance to interview many old Sifus and original students of the late Great
Grandmaster Yip Man and were allowed to record the interviews on
video.
Sifu Oliver König questioned Sifu Wang Kiu, one of the first and
most highly educated students of Grandmaster Yip Man. Dai-Sifu Kernspecht
and Sifu Schäfer were eye-witnesses of this interview:
Sifu Wang Kiu:
As much as I love Wing Chun, I despise the
people that have to do with it. Most of the Wing Chun people are jealous of each
other.
If one of them works hard and is successful, then they start to
talk about him in a negative way.
This is what has happend to Master
Leung Ting. He works hard, his wife hardly sees him at home because he is
always away and working. And these people lean back in their chairs, drink
tea and watch his success.
"Oh, Leung Ting is this... Leung Ting is
that..." - That's the way they they talk about him. They themselves
are lazy.
Someone has his well-deserved success and so they become
jealous.
When I left China (in the 60's), he (Leung Ting) was already
with Yip Man in Hong Kong. I didn't meet him personally before my
departure, but I knew about him because he was in the Baptist College
together with Yip Man.
I saw photographs with Yip Man and heard that
Yip Man was teaching again and that he was a student of Leung Sheung. And
one day I was sitting in a restaurant in the Nathan Road, where Yip Man
went every evening after he had given lessons in the Ving Tsun Athletic
Association. And Yip Man told me about his young, ambitious and gifted
studend, named Leung Ting.
Question:
Some people say that Grandmaster Leung Ting was
never instructed by Great Grandmaster Yip Man.
Do you have anything to
say about that?
Sifu Wang Kiu:
That is a lie!
When Grandmaster Yip Man was
teaching Leung Ting, he didn't need to tell everyone by saying:
"Attention! I'm teaching him." He only told the few people that he
could trust and talk to, since the situation was no so easy to understand.
In the world of martial art, there is the rule that you are not allowed to
have two teachers (father=Sifu) within the same style (family).
For
example, if someone's teacher (Si-Fu) is Master Kernspecht, then he cannot
have a second teacher (Si-Fu). You should know that. But Yip Man made an
exception with Leung Ting.
Yip Man told me that while we were drinking
tea. He was still a very young man, this Leung Ting. He (Yip Man) showed
me a magazine with an artical about a (WingTsun) presentation and I
recognized Leung Ting, since I had seen him before in the President Hotel
located in Chim Sha Tsui (a district of Hong Kong).
That is where he used to take his afternoon tea. Leung Ting always had
style. He is not like some common person. No, he drinks tea, and the way
he enjoys it has class. He takes his tea in a restaurant, not in some old
tavern.
That was the first thing I noticed about him. Someone showed
him to me because I didn't know him: "That's Leung Ting". But it
didn't really interest me back then.
I was told that he was learning
Wing Chun, which had nothing to
do with me since I didn't know him personally.
That was, until Yip Man
told me himself. Then I took a closer look at Leung Ting. And I saw a man
with talent.
But I asked: "Si-Fu, isn't it not allowed to have two
teachers for one style?" and continued: "Didn't you tell me that
yourself?" And he answered: "No, but I'm making an exception with
him."
I asked: "Why?" He explained that he was angry with
his first Hong Kong student and Leung Ting's first teacher. The details
are nothing that should become known to others.
Either way, Grandmaster Yip Man gave taught young Leung Ting - and he
taught him well. And then Leung Ting was able to show Leung Sheung things
that he had never seen before. That was Yip Man's way of revenge to Leung
Sheung. You must know that Yip Man was a very good man, but not 100%
straightfoward.
He could not simply clear the fronts. Instead, he gave
lessons to Leung Ting.
And then (after Yip Man's death) there was a
press conference, Leung Sheung was chairman, you know what I'm talking
about (see 'Geschichte des Yip Man Stiles', Wu Shu-Verlag
Kernspecht). At the conference it was announced that Leung Ting was not a
student of Yip Man. Leung Sheung was there, even though he wasen't
supposed to be there and he was feeling quite uncomfortable about it -
that was obvious to everyone.
But he couldn't act as though nothing had
happend. That's why he at least had to admit: "Yes, I did teach him
things." But he can't completly deny that he gave him lessons. He
can't do that. Yip Man went to Leung Ting.
Leung Ting is from an
upper-class family. Leung Ting has money. I didn't know him then, but I
knew that.
And Yip Man goes to him and shows him the wooden dummy
forms, he shows him this and that. No one else was present. Outsiders are
not supposed to see it. And those who wern't there, who didn't see it now
say that Leung Ting never learned from Grandmaster Yip Man. But that's not
correct.
Some people, for example, teach Chi-Gerk, but I never learned Chi-Gerk.
So people ask me why I don't do Chi-Gerk. I say: "No, I can't do
Chi-Gerk, Yip Man never taught me Chi-Gerk" - "But why can your
student do Chi-Gerk? Leung Ting can do Chi-Gerk! I'm shocked!"
And
I say: "Calm down. Look, I don't do Chi-Gerk because Yip Man never
showed it to me. But that doesen't mean that Chi-Gerk does not belong to
Wing Chun. It definitly does
not mean that!"
Yip Man showed Leung Ting Chi-Gerk - but he didn't
show it to me. O.K. - one more question: "Why my other Sihings don't know
Chi-Gerk?" A good question. In Wing Chun you have Chi-Sao. In Wing Chun, everything is based on yin and
yang. If Wing Chun has Chi-Sao,
then why does it not have Chi-Gerk? Why not?
If Chi-Gerk had never
existed or even if Yip Man himself had never heard of Chi-Gerk, and if
Leung Ting invented Chi-Gerk by himself and placed it where it belongs.
That would mean that Leung Ting would have found the missing link in the
system. Then he would deserve the gold medal for "Wing Chun