Martial art founded by Bruce Lee struggles to survive in Hong Kong
Different from Bruce Lee’s movies, Jeet Kune Do, the kung fu founded by this influential martial artist, has three associations that can be approached online today and less than 200 learners since its establishment. It has been developing in a ‘niche manner’ due to...
On a Sunday morning, Francis Chui Yin Kan, chief instructor and president of Jeet Kune Do Hong Kong Instructors Association, steps into a creaking elevator after greeting the security guard of an old industrial building in Tai Kok Tsui. He changed his shoes to clean sportswear before entering the place he rented, a room with many Buddha statues and sandalwood incense. Beginning at 9 am, on the carpet of this room, Chui will teach his weekly class on Jeet Kune Do, a martial arts created by legend Bruce Lee, for two hours.
The location where Chui teaches is rented by him, and there are many religious items inside.
A total of three students come to the class, and all of them have followed Chui sifu, meaning master and instructor in Cantonese, for about ten years.
Chui said that the pandemic almost stopped his teaching of Jeet Kune Do. After the outbreak began, he closed down his boxing hall located in Prince Edward, where he used to teach his weekly class there, and quit his martial arts teaching work at the Young Men's Christian Association, YMCA, a charitable organisation in Hong Kong.
“What is even sadder is that there has never been a ‘golden age’ in the development of Jeet Kune Do in the city,” said Chui, one of the most experienced instructors of this kind of martial arts in Hong Kong.
What is even sadder is that there has never been a ‘golden age’ in the development of Jeet Kune Do in the city,
——Francis Chui Yin Kan, chief instructor of Jeet Kune Do Hong Kong Instructors Association
Currently, there are three students attending Sifu Chui’s weekly Jeet Kune Do. All of them have followed Chui for more than 10 years.
Jeet Kune Do, whose translation is “Way of the Intercepting Fist”, is a simple, direct and effective martial arts expression in live combat. It is a martial art that refuses to set rules when it comes to fighting, believing that battling requires the most faithful expression of oneself.
Bruce Lee's five martial arts films since 1971 have grossed over HK$16 million in Hong Kong and are still being re-watched today. Different from Bruce Lee’s movies, Jeet Kune Do, the kung fu founded by this influential martial artist, has three associations that can be approached online today and less than 200 learners since its establishment. It has been developing in a ‘niche manner’ due to sectarian disputes and lacking support from the government, according to two main Jeet Kune Do associations in Hong Kong.
“People care more about Bruce Lee's movies than his kung fu,” said Chui.
Bruce Lee formally established Jeet Kune Do in 1967 after his three-year reassessment of the effectiveness of the styles and forms of traditional martial arts and new development directions, according to the recording of the Hong Kong Heritage Museum.
From the letter written by Bruce Lee displayed at the Hong Kong Cultural Museum, Hong Kong, the city where Lee received martial arts training and spent most of his pre-adulthood time, is treated as the birthplace of Jeet Kune Do by main associations’ instructors.
The philosophy of Jeet Kune Do can be summarized as “Using no way as way, having no limitation as limitation,” as the official website of the Bruce Lee Foundation shows.
“Its biggest feature is its emphasis on practicality,” said Lewis Luk Tei, the founder and president of Jun Fan Jeet Kune Do Hong Kong, another Jeet Kune Do association of the city. “As the symbol of JKD shows, it is a flowing and dynamic martial art, rather than a static and unchanging one.”
Two arrows on the symbol of Jeet Kune Do indicate that it is spinning, meaning this kind of martial art is dynamic.
Before learning Jeet Kune Do, Luk spent 10 years practicing Wing Chun, a kind of Chinese boxing that Bruce Lee once learned, with Sifu Wong Shun-leung, who is Bruce Lee's senior fellow apprentice before Lee went to the United States to study for his Bachelor’s degree. Luk found that Jeet Kune Do has some skills of Wing Chun, but it is more practical and direct.
For example, one important principle in Jeet Kune Do is “hand moves first”, meaning the fighter should punch first, then use such force to drive his pace and body. Such a sequence is the opposite of traditional Chinese martial arts, which emphasizes “body comes first”.
“The 'hand moves first' fighting principle allows for faster punches, less reaction time for the enemy and more power to the strikes,” Luk said.
Jeet Kune Do also impressed Chui when he gave up practicing judo and Hung Kuen, a martial art that originated in China’s Canton, because it was born entirely for the sake of combat.
Many of the world's martial arts have limited rules, such as taekwondo, which requires no kicks to the genitals, and judo, which requires no direct yanking or biting of the opponent.
“Unlike other martial arts, Jeet Kune Do does not set rules. You must really fight,” said Chui.
In his lessons, Chui often pins students to the ground or clamps their arms and lets them find ways to escape. He reminds them that they can insert their enemy's eyes or bite them in combat and teaches students how to protect their sensitive parts.
“When you are in real danger, you can use any means to survive. To win the fight and stay alive, that is the goal of learning Jeet Kune Do,” said Chui.
Luk explains the basic idea of Jeet Kune Do in an interview with the Hong Kong Heritage Museum. Video from the Hong Kong Heritage Museum
Chui maximizes the restoration of real combat scenes during class, and sometimes even incorporates simulated knives.
Yet, in terms of the specific definition and teaching methods of Jeet Kune Do, there are some differences between the two JKD associations in Hong Kong.
Chui, as a student of Larry Hartsell, who was the student of Bruce Lee in Los Angeles in 1967 and the founder of the Jun Fan Jeet Kune Do Grappling Association
, thinks it is necessary to change the teaching methods according to students’ need, and learn other martial arts to gather strengths from them.
“Changing is necessary,” he said. ”That's what my Sifu has told me and what I believe.”
Chui was instructed by Larry Hartsell in Los Angeles in 2003 and got the highest level of certificate recognised by Hartsell. (Photo Courtesy: Chui Yin Kan)
Another Sifu of Chui is John Ladalski, who was the student of Guro Dan Inosanto, a Filipino-American martial arts instructor. Inosanto is one of the only two people who were recognised as to achieve teacher in Jeet Kune Do under Bruce Lee and is treated as the key figure of Jeet Kune Do Concept.
Jeet Kune Do of this sect emphasizes that this martial art is a concept and idea that can be applied to different martial arts. Students are encouraged to learn various martial arts such as Wing Chun, Judo, and Muay Thai to master more skills so that they can achieve “using no way as way, having no limitation as limitation”.
Chui said his understanding of this sentence is that people can use any method in combat and there is no specific way to fight, yet to achieve this they need to master more ways by practicing different martial arts, without limitations on what to practice.
Therefore, except for the moves left before Bruce Lee’s death, Chui also teaches grappling and Kali, which is a weapon from the Philippines.
Chui teaches Kali as a part of his Jeet Kune Do class.
“Bruce Lee was a person who loves change and innovation. I think if he is still alive, he will continue to improve Jeet Kune Do,” Chui said.
Meanwhile, Luk said that his association will stick to the original Jeet Kune Do left by Bruce Lee. He was influenced by his Sifu, Ted Wong, who was the other person certified by Bruce Lee to teach JKD.
Wong was taught by Bruce Lee one on one privately in the late 1960s when Lee was at the critical stage of Jeet Kune Do development. He appears in the book Bruce Lee's Fighting Method as Bruce Lee's main sparring partner. According to Luk, Sifu Wong participated in Bruce Lee's many innovations in Jeet Kune Do and had a close relationship with Lee as both of them can speak Cantonese, Lee’s native language.
After Bruce Lee’s death, Sifu Wong was regarded as the representative of the Original Jeet Kune Do, whose main idea was "It is not daily increase but daily decrease, hack away the unessential", as Bruce Lee said.
“In the end, Jeet Kune Do was just a punch and a kick,” Luk said.
Luk said Jeet Kune Do was not only simply an abstract concept or a philosophy but also a martial art with its own routines and methods, and that there is no need to learn many other martial arts to master Jeet Kune Do.
“Many people are teaching other martial arts in the name of Jeet Kune Do,” he added.
The debate between the Original Jeet Kune Do and the Conceptual one exists not only in Hong Kong, but also worldwide. On Youtube, supporters of the two factions release videos discussing their understanding and even questioning whether the representatives are qualified to teach.
Though there are differences in the understanding of Jeet Kune Do, for years, the two sects of this martial art in Hong Kong do not conflict.
“We don't agree with their philosophy, but as long as they are qualified to teach Jeet Kune Do, this is a good thing for the development of this martial art,” Luk said.
“In fact, it doesn't matter. It depends on what kind of Jeet Kune Do students like to learn,” Chui said. “We are all developing Jeet Kune Do.”
Yet, as both chose to develop and teach under their own ideas, the divergence of ideas makes it difficult for the two factions to cooperate, according to the two instructors.
While there is no collaboration between Jeet Kune Do associations in the city, both of them do not hype their teaching.
“Different from other martial arts, it's hard for you to see advertisements of Jeet Kune Do in Hong Kong,” said Chui.
He said that the reason is that many Hong Kong martial arts schools were closely linked with the gangs before the handover. To ensure they do not involve with the underworld, Jeet Kune Do martial arts schools did not recruit students publicly.
In Seattle, Oakland, and Los Angeles in the United States, the Jun Fan Gung Fu institutes, which are institutions teaching Jeet Kune Do founded by Bruce Lee, are all under a closed-door training policy. The Jun Fan Jeet Kune Do Hong Kong also followed this tradition at its beginning stage, according to Luk.
In the absence of publicity, Luk and his junior fellow apprentices have taught around 100 students in the past two decades.
He acknowledged that this is not a large number, but he also said that the small size of the intake is a result of their choice as they want to teach each student seriously. “I do believe quality is more important than quantity,” he added.
Chui’s Instructors Association has received over 80 students since founded.
He admitted that the development of Jeet Kune Do is particularly difficult, and the number of students is decreasing in recent years. There are only three students who come to his weekly class regularly now, while the figure was around 35 several years ago.
Before the pandemic, Chui taught one of his two Jeet Kune Do classes at the YMCA of New Territory everyone week.
“The impact of the epidemic is certainly one aspect,” Chui said. “But more importantly, martial arts is becoming less and less important to Hong Kong people.”
Most of his students learn Jeet Kune Do because of their or their parents’ worship of Bruce Lee. Andrew Li Zhuo Wei, a salesman, who started to learn Jeet Kune Do with Sifu Chui 15 years ago and still followed him because he “really learned many useful fighting skills”, was one of them.
Li is a big fan of Bruce Lee’s movies and loves exercising. He studied Jeet Kune Do because he “wants to learn truly practical martial arts”.
As a man who has practiced Choy Li Fut, a traditional Chinese martial art, Wong Wing Ho, a civil servant, turned to learn Jeet Kune Do as he wants to “keep improving his kung fu”.
“I was influenced by Bruce Lee by that time, not only his advanced martial arts philosophy but also his determination to keep challenging himself,” said Wong.
“In the end, Jeet Kune Do was just a punch and a kick,”
—— Luk Tei, the president of Jun Fan Jeet Kune Do Hong Kong
Li and Wong practice grappling under the instruction of Sifu Chui.
However, today, those who really experienced Bruce Lee's era are getting old. Young people only know Bruce Lee's name, but they no longer know how powerful his kung fu is, according to Chui.
Chui recalled the first time he saw Bruce Lee receiving an interview from TVB, a local media in Hong Kong when he exclaimed "How outstanding Bruce Lee is".
“The speed of his punches and kicks is really fast, so fast that you haven't finished blinking your eyes before he completes the movements!” said Chui. “If I were to meet Bruce Lee, I would beg him to teach me Jeet Kune Do and remember his definition carefully.”
In 1984, after following John Ladalski's Jeet Kune Do and Philippine Magic Wand for three years, Chui began to teach this martial art in Hong Kong. He said that he has "the longest teaching experience in Jeet Kune Do in Hong Kong".
After training in Jeet Kune Do, he became more confident and comfortable in facing the difficulties in life and began to explore himself, according to Chui, which is the philosophy advocated by Jeet Kune Do.
In the past 40 years, Chui has witnessed that Bruce Lee was valued by the government as a cultural name card - a statue of this movie star was erected in Tsim Sha Tsui, and many cultural products related to him were born. But Jeet Kune Do, the martial art created by Bruce Lee, is developing more and more slowly.
According to Chui, his association never received funding or other forms of assistance from the Hong Kong government. Chui attributed it to Bruce Lee's untimely death, which led to the lack of an authoritative definition of Jeet Kune Do.
“His death is really a pity, which makes Jeet Kune Do lack representative figures,” Chui said.
Luk, the president of another JKD association in the city, said they only received some subsidy from the government during COVID-19 when the class need to pause or had requirements on class size and mask-wearing.
Since 1999, he has been trying to petition for the establishment of the Bruce Lee Museum. So far, more than 200 celebrities and organisations have supported his initiative. In 2017, he requested the government to approve the listing of Jeet Kune Do as an intangible cultural heritage programme in Hong Kong. However, these two requests have not yet been ratified by the government.
“I feel very depressed about the government's response,” Luk said. “The government's support for Jeet Kune Do is still insufficient.”
“The project was proposed by the public during the public consultation period, and due to a lack of detailed information, further research is needed,” as written in a Legislative Council file related to the approval of Jeet Kune Do as the city’s intangible cultural heritage.
As the government provides little support to the development of this martial art, most of the instructors of this martial art are teaching part-time. Sifu Chui just retired from one government office and Sifu Luk works as a lawyer.
“We instructors teach Jeet Kune Do because of our passion,” Luk said. “You cannot earn a living by instructing it only in Hong Kong.”
Due to financial difficulties, Chui has given up his own boxing club, rented a venue, and changed to a small class teaching mode, with the student's class fees just enough to pay the rent. Luk's martial arts gym is his own property, so there will be no rental fee, but he also has to rent out the place to maintain the balance of the organisation's income and expenses.
Looking into the future, Luk tries to promote Jeet Kune Do so that it can develop better. He is planning to publish a book and impart special combat techniques of his Sifu, Ted Wong.
Chui also admitted that Jeet Kune Do is not developing well in Hong Kong today, but he thought that it is difficult to promote this martial art on a large scale because "people have too many entertainment methods and practice martial arts too hard".
"I will let nature take its course, but I still hope that more young people can come to learn Jeet Kune Do," Chui said.
Although the development of Jeet Kune Do is not satisfactory, both Chui and Luk said, Jeet Kune Do will not die out in Hong Kong.
“Hong Kong’s Jeet Kune Do has me, my apprentice and Ted Wong's apprentice,” Chui said. “I can promise you, Jeet Kune Do will not disappear in this city.”