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Wong Fei-hung

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Controversial Photo of Wong Fei Hung.

Wong Fei Hung (simplified Chinese: 黄飞鸿; traditional Chinese: 黃飛鴻; pinyin: Huáng Fēihóng; Cantonese Yale: Wòhng Fēihùhng) (July 9, 1847–March 25, 1924) was a healer, martial artist and revolutionary who became a Chinese folk hero often described as the "Chinese Robin Hood".

As a healer and medical doctor, he practiced and taught acupuncture and other forms of traditional Chinese medicine at his 'Po Chi Lam' (寶芝林) clinic in Foshan, where he was known for his compassion and policy of treating any patient.

A museum dedicated to Wong has been built in Foshan.

Amongst Wong's most famous disciples were Lam Sai Wing, Leung Foon, and Ling Wan Gai. He was also associated with Chi Su Hua, aka the Beggar So.

Life

Early years

Legend has it that Wong Fei Hung was born in Foshan on the ninth day in the seventh month of Daoguan twenty-seventh year (1847). When Wong was five, he began his study of martial arts under his father Wong Kei-Ying. As his family was poor, he always followed his father to Foshan and Guangzhou to do martial arts shows and sell medicines.

Wong began showing great potential. When he turned thirteen years old, he was giving a martial arts show at Douzhixiang, Foshan. There Wong Fei Hung met Lam Fuk-Sing, the first apprentice of Tit Kiu Saam, who taught him the "tour de force" of Iron Wire Fist and Sling, which helped him become a master of Hung Gar.

When he was sixteen, Wong set up a martial arts school at Shuijiao, Diqipu, Xiguan, Guangdong, and then opened a medicine shop named 'Po Chi Lam' at Renan Street. By his early 20s, he was fast making his mark as a highly-respected physician and a martial arts alumnus.

Later years

As a famous martial arts master, he had many apprentices. He was successfully engaged by Jiming Provincial Commander-in-Chief Wu Quanmei and Liu Yongfu as the military medical officer, martial art general drillmaster, and Guangdong local military general drillmaster. He later followed Liu Youngfu to fight against the Japanese army in Taiwan. His life was full of frustration, and in his later years he experienced the loss of his son and the burning of Po Chi Lam. On lunar year, the twenty-fifth day of the third month in 1924, Wong Fei Hung died of illness in Guangdong Chengxi Fangbian Hospital. His wife and two of his prominent students, Lam Sai-Wing and Tang Sai-King, moved to Hong Kong, where they continued teaching Wong's martial art. Wong became a legendary hero whose real-life story was mixed freely with fictional exploits on the printed page and onscreen.

As a martial artist

Wong was a master of the Chinese martial art Hung Gar. He systematized the predominant style of Hung Gar and choreographed its version of the famous Tiger Crane Paired Form Fist, which incorporates his "Ten Special Fist" techniques. Wong was famous for his skill with the technique known as the "No Shadow Kick".

Wong Fei Hung also became adept at using weapons such as the wooden long staff and the southern tiger fork. Soon after, stories began circulating about his mastery of these weapons. One story recounts how he defeated a 30-man gang on the docks of Canton using the staff.

Wong is sometimes included in the Ten Tigers of Canton (ten of the top martial arts masters in Guangdong towards the end of the Qing Dynasty (1644–1912), a group to which his father Wong Kei Ying belonged).

Portrayal in modern media

Film

There was a Wong Fei Hung film series in Hong Kong from the late 1940s into the 1960s; it consisted of 99 movies. The star, Kwan Tak Hing, gained the nickname "Master Wong" due to his participation in the series. Some sources claim that it is the most prolific movie series ever, and that Wong Fei Hung is the most-portrayed character in movie history. Wong Fei Hung has been played by both Jackie Chan (as a trouble-making youth in Drunken Master and Drunken Master II) and Jet Li (as an adult contending with European influence on China in the Once Upon a Time in China series and in the comic tale Last Hero in China). The character of Wong Fei Hong also appeared as a child (played by actress Tsang Sze-man) in the movie Iron Monkey alongside his father (played by Donnie Yen).

Because it was used as the theme song of the films, the Chinese folk music "On the General's Orders" (將軍令) is now associated with Wong Fei Hung, as is "A Man Should Better Himself" (男兒當自強), arranged by the late Wong Jim to "On the General's Orders".

A short list of films portraying Wong Fei Hung is as follows:

For a more extensive list, see List of Wong Fei Hung films.

Others

The character of Lee Rekka from SNK's Last Blade series is based on Wong Fei Hung.

The lead character of Fei Fong Wong from the Squaresoft video game Xenogears is based off Wong Fei Hung. In the original Japanese version, Fei Fong Wong's name is written in Katakana: ウォン・フェイフォン (Won Feifon), exactly the same as how Wong Fei Hung's name is written in Japanese. Mistranslation got the video game character's name Fong instead of Hung.

In author Will Thomas' third mystery novel, The Limehouse Text, his Victorian detective, Cyrus Barker, trained in Canton under Wong Fei Hung.

Stan Sakai has remarked that he would like to include Wong Fei Hung (or a character based heavily om him) in his long-running anthropomorphic comic series Usagi Yojimbo.

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