李耀齡宗師
GRAND MASTER LI IU LING
The Li Iu Ling Martial Arts Alumni (李耀齡國術同學會) is the fellowship of students and grand-students of the late Choy Lee Fut 4th Generation Grandmaster Li Iu Ling ( 蔡李佛雄勝第四傳李耀齡宗師) formed in his honour. One of the objectives of The Li Iu Ling Martial Arts Alumni, as the official organisation representing those who have trully learnt his martial art, is to preserve the integrity of Grand Master Li Iu Ling’s martial art teachings and to share them with future generations.
Grand Master Li Iu Ling learnt his martial arts from three of the greatest grand masters in China before the Second World War. He was a protégé and godson of Choy Lee Fut Hung Sing (Hero Victory) 3rd Generation Great Grand Master Chan Yiu Chi (蔡李佛雄勝第三傳陳耀墀先師 ), who was the son of Chan Koon Bak and grandson of Chan Heung Gung, Founder of Choy Lee Fut. In addition, Grand Master Li Iu Ling learnt Lohan Mern kung fu from Great Grand Master Sun Yu-feng, famously known as “Broadsword King of Five Provinces” (羅漢門五省刀王孫玉峰大師 ). Grand Master Li’s third mentor was 3rd Generation Great Grand Master Yang Cheng-fu (楊氏太極拳楊澄甫大師 ), grandson of the Founder of Yang Family Tai Chi, Yang Lu-chan.
The Alumni honours our late patriarch for the values of martial morality that he imparted on us and for his sincerity in passing on his knowledge. My Shifu never sought to profit from his standing as a respected grand master nor did he seek fame using the knowledge that his three great mentors had passed on to him. During his lifetime, my Shifu walked with dignity and spoke straight from the heart. In an arena of a thousand grand masters clamouring to be seen and heard, my Shifu was conspicuous by his integrity, grace and elegance despite his aversion to fame. For action speaks louder than words. Shifu’s integrity remained intact until his last breath on 21 December 2007.
It is with much hope and optimism that we share Li Iu Ling’s ideals and kung fu with new generations of students who are genuine in pursuing the true ideals of real kung fu, so that the real lessons in learning kung fu and their meaning and values can be rediscovered and passed on. The Alumni is not an elitist group. Neither does it try to project itself as one. Our mission is simply to follow the principles of learning and practising kung fu as taught by our late teacher. We have no pretentions to being great practitioners. We simply try to improve ourselves to the best of our own abilities. We believe true kung fu can only be learnt and competently achieved by learning and training with honesty, without pretenses, with integrity, not with deception, in deed, not in name.
2009 Commemoration Day in honour of our late Grand Master
Acknowledgement
I would like to acknowledge all my students who as a new generation of students of Li Iu Ling’s kung fu continue to remind me of the purpose of the Alumni and motivate me to raise the banner of Li Iu Ling ever higher. I am motivated and humbled to be their teacher for they have continued to sustain the aspirations of the Alumni over the past few years. We are a small team but each one of them has contributed in many ways to building the Alumni for the future. Indeed, the relaunching of this website would not have been possible if not for the time and effort put in by three of my dear students, Stephen Neal, Christian Allen and Jo Warren. In particular, Stephen, who is the technical brains, and Christian, who is the creative half, have both worked very hard to get this website to this final stage.
I am most grateful to my kung fu brother Victor Wong and our good friend Mr Tommy Kan for giving up their personal time to teach lion dance to my students over the past few years. Without Victor and Tommy, we would not have been able to form a lion dance team. The lion dance team gives The Alumni much needed public profile whenever we perform in public and demonstrates our core traditional martial art values as well as expresses our energy, spirit and the essence of our skills.
Finally, I am delighted to unveil the new official logo of the Li Iu Ling Martial Arts Alumni. This logo is special for two reasons: it is the first time The Alumni has a logo, and this logo was created from ideas provided by the next generation of students. Christian Allen and I spent many hours arriving at the final concept. Considerable thought have gone into its design out of respect for my Shifu. Christian’s creativeness and unswerving dedication were what finally made this logo a reality for he could have given up due to the immense frustration he must have felt everytime I imposed yet further changes on all the artwork he had done.
Christian’s artwork demonstrates his understanding of the essence of Li Iu Ling’s kung fu, at once elegant, spirited and energetic. The central image was fashioned from an old photograph of my Shifu in the 1970′s executing a Choy Lee Fut sinking hand technique. The faint dragon scales in the gold background alludes to Shifu’s Chinese star sign – the Dragon – as well his adopted name”Li Wen-lung” given to him by his Lohan mentor Great Grand Master Sun Yu-feng. The gold background alludes to his Choy Lee Fut moniker “The Golden Disciple” (of Great Grand Master Chan Yiu Chi). The fluid curving pattern and dark-light contrast suggest the central soft-hard philosophy of Li Iu Ling’s kung fu as well as mirroring the yin-yang symbol of Tai Chi Quan, which Shifu learnt from The Great Yang Cheng-fu.
The grand students of Grand Master Li Iu Ling at 2012 Chinese New Year lion dance performance
I thank my students and my kung fu brothers for their encouragement, and active participation and support without which there would be no Li Iu Ling Martial Arts Alumni. This website is their joint dedication to our Shifu and Shigung.
Alan Yee
President, Li Iu Ling Martial Arts Alumni
1 December 2010 (edited 1 March 2012)