Lau Bun Stories

[hskwarrior]

I would love to hear what Chan Tai San had to say about Lau Bun. No matter what i love to hear about him, so you guys could also be contributing to this thread as well.

[diego]

As i've said, Professor Lau Bun was THE chinatown godfather, not only packed with his gung fu, from what i understand the man also used to carry around a 6 shooter revolver. Again, the man would never display his gung fu unless he planned on killing you with it.

anyways, Lau Bun and his students had more than one encounter with the legendary bruce lee. In fact, i only recently came to learn (there's a well known person here who was an eye witness when i learned this) Lau Bun school was majorly involved in not allowing Bruce Lee to teach the Gwai Lo.

Even more surprising to hear was the late Bing Chan (my sifu's first sifu) was the one who wrote up the declaration to bruce lee telling him why he shouldn't be teaching Gwai Lo and if it doesn't stop a match was to be set up in which Wong Jack Man ended up fighting him.

I recall my elders telling me that before bruce lee came to know lau bun one of lau buns students kicked the ass of bruce lee's student. bruce came over to the hung sing kwoon yelling and screaming, and Lau Bun came out of his office and asked what the problem was. The moment bruce layed his eyes on lau bun he just put his head down and walked away.

The next two stories have to do with chasing off bruces students. The fisst is my Si-bak Ah Foon and his classmates were practicing gung fu when the green Hornet (bruce Lee's student) came into lau bun's hung sing kwoon starting trouble. Ah foon was the first to get to him but he ended up fighting the green hornet up the stairs and out into the streets kicking that arse.

next, my sifu recalls during chinese new years in 1967 bruce lee's students were all pumped up and came down the stairs in Bing Chan's Lup Mo studio when Kenneth also fought him up the stairs and out into the street beating the heck out of him. Kenneth was a serious bad ass.

My sifu once told me a story that bruce lee rented out the Sun Sing movie theater to promote his style. while on stage he was bragging about how fast his hands were and asked for some audience participation to see if anyone could block his punches. So Kenneth's classmates finally convinced him to go up on stage. Bruce introduced himself and demo'd what he was going to do by actually throwing a couple of punches and kenneth blocked those. Then bruce lee charged and kenneth used our downward windmill blocks and blocked every single punch bruce threw. the crowd must have been ecstatic and i can't imagine kenneth's classmates and what they were thinking. anyways, they went back to bing chan and told him what happened, and bing chan asked one question....."did you hit him back?" Kenneth said NO. From what i hear is that bing chan got hella ****ed about kenneth waisting his time by just blocking, he should have laid into bruce.

I would like to state now, that these stories are in NO WAY intended to insult or offend any of Bruce Lee's descendants and followers. The man was very good for his time, but let's remember, he was still a man.


peace.

why did bruce and his students act up in some one else's territory?...were they high or bruce was used to chinatown being growing up in hong kong?...read in that "Unsettled Matters" e-book bruce was on roids...
trying to find links on old chinese gangsters.

[WanderingMonk]

just one note, I was told a lot of bjj black belts are called "professors" as well. so, there is some circulation of this usage for ma.

[hskwarrior]

V,

you really should explore the martial arts world a little more. the term "Profesor" is widely used and to name drop a few are Professor Wally Jay, Professor Rick Alemany, Professor Ralph Castro, Professor Lau Bun.....Need i go on?


its really an injustice to the world when you hold on to a simple word that represents a level of achievement and clutch it to your bussom (?) and say no one could ever use this title outside of academics.

Its a pretty petty argument. not to mention one YOU or anyone else in the world could ever win. thats not a dis, that's reality. like it or not. listen or change the channel. you get what i mean.

no hard feelings.

[hskwarrior]

v,

embrace the word. it exists, and can scientifically be proven it exists.

come to the light.........walk to the light..........you want to be in the light.......there's love in the light.


hsk

[hskwarrior]

v,

you said the title of professor can actually cheapen the reputation of great masters?

that confuses me. why would you say that?

[brothernumber9]

I think he meant in instance(s) of self agrandizment or promotion. When someone more or less names themselves "Professor", in contrast to someone like Lau Bun who was given the name by his peers and/or students. You (Sifu McCarthy) are the de facto historian of your lineage on these boards so you would know, but I'm willing to bet that the late Sifu Lau Bun never called himself "Professor".

On the flip side many or even most people here have probably come accross a crop of people who promote themselves "GrandMaser" or "GreatGrandmaster", or "Great GrandPubaShortyMoneyGripZipTightJeans" especially after "creating" their own version of Jeet Kune Do, or just flat out BS.

[cerebus]

Hello hskwarrior. I'm enjoying all the Lau Bun stories (I love martial arts history), but I'm confused about something you said. You refer to Bruce Lee's "student" the "green hornet". Are you referring to Van Williams, the actor who played the Green Hornet in the TV series (in which BL co-starred as Kato)? That wouldn't make any sense. Williams wasn't a student of Lee. He also wasn't a fighter or martial artist, he was an actor. Could you provide any clarification on this? Thanks in advance.

[hskwarrior]

that was according to my sifu, who was there, and he said at the time van williamas did learn gung fu from bruce.

im just recallilng the stories.

[CFT]

how could any one ever dispute something so trivial as a title in the first place?

hskwarrior, I think you're being contradictory here. You can't ask someone to respect the title and then say it is a trivial matter at the same time.

In my opinion, the English terms like grandmaster are an inadequate translation of the Chinese terms.

sifu = master/teacher (OK)
si-gung = grandmaster (not OK), grand-master (OK, IMO!)
tai si-gung = great grandmaster (not OK), great grand-master (OK, IMO!)

jung si (zhong si) = Grandmaster

The first 3 indicate lineal (family) relationships, whereas the 4th is a term of respect accorded you by your peers.

Both "sifu" and "jung si" can be used by the general public with reference to the person, but to call someone "si-gung" or "tai si-gung" when there is no relationship make no sense. That subtlety is lost in the crude English translations grandmaster and great grandmaster respectively.

I get what you're trying to say, but I think "Grandmaster" is a better term than professor because there is less confusion with academic titles. Grandmaster is the "top of the tree" in the chess world (I think).

Anyway, keep up the good work promoting CLF. I like to hear stories of the "old" masters. Life must have been very different for a Chinese person in the USA back then.

[5thBrother]

sorry i didnt actually read most of ur post CFT...

BUT...

"Professor" seems to be a term come into popul;ar use via hawaii and America.. then much later eurpoe prolly copy america...

1. use the terms of ur art.. ie. chinese martial arts sifu, sigung, tai sigung etc...

the whole english terminology to me is a waste of time.....

2. who cares... call the teacher "great super supreme with extra cheese grand grand master" ... its "TERM" thing"....... worst case its an 1 upmanship thing... its better to use the chinese terms or if an okinawan arts master okinawan terms or if and indoensian arts master the indo terms.... best case it just shows english speakers tryingto sho respect...

lets forget termin0ology,,,


and get back to the stories

professor
associate professer
director

who cares its "just a name" the skill is in the hands

"professor" william chow - "hawaiin kenpo" appears to not be a well educated in academic sense... but he had the "martial arts" i guess westernes are using terms they can relate too.. and for them "professor" means some one HIGHLY skilled and knowledgeable and achieved in there art etc...

back to da stoires...

of which..


there is a Yang Taiji Quan Sifu.. i cant recall his name... Kuo.. ???? (maybe)

was said to have been a body gaird.. and carry darts and whip chain...

any connection???

or stories

if stories can start another thread on him

having done many years of security including high risk securoty.. i LOVE hearing stories of masters that actually applied theire martial arts in reality and such...

"does it work?" ... "well im alive" :P

thanks all

[hskwarrior]

Like 5thbrother Said,

[hskwarrior]

Like 5thbrother Said,

[hskwarrior]

cft,

are you practicing foshan wing chun still?

if so our gung fu styles come from the same place.


are you yuen kay say wing chun?

[CFT]

hskwarrior,

I would say nothing surpasses the "Grandmaster" title in the same way that nothing surpasses the "professor" title. So what happens to great great grandmaster, etc.?

At some point you don't need to note the relative generations, you want a title to reflect someone's standing that would be valid no matter what time period you look in. So for example, Chan Heung is a grandmaster (and founder) and so is Lau Bun. Chan Heung is not such a good example since he is CLF founder, and I am unfamiliar with CLF history. But you can probably pick out a few exceptional individuals in CLF history and say these people really stand out as fighters, teachers, both, etc. All worthy "professors" or "Grandmasters" in their own right.

In Cantonese, we would say "yut doi jung si" - a teacher in a generation. This is the "jung si" that I translate as "Grandmaster".

Yep still practice Foshan Wing Chun, though I'm really what you would call a hobbyist (but hey remember the story of the turtle and hare!). Not Yuen Kay San lineage, but via one of Yip Man's Foshan students: Lun Gai --> Derek Frearson --> David George (both UK based).