Choy Li Fut Lineage - Lau Bun - Page 2

But what really made him famous in the Martial Arts was a quarrel with immigration officers in Los Angeles. It happened one day when an officer in a patrol car tried to stop him but Lau Bun refused and resisted the officer who called for back-up. Lau Bun escaped into a building and was pursued inside by immigration officers who arrived. He then fought off the four or five officers and escaped by jumping from the second floor of the building into the streets of Los Angeles. They attempted to pursue him but he was too quick. Upon hearing this information some influential characters of the Chinese community named him Chief Instructor of the Hop Sing Tong's Kung Fu club.

Lau Bun is credited with bringing Choy Li Fut to America. Around 1931, he finally ended up in San Francisco. In order to make money and practice his martial arts, he joined the Hop Sing Tong, serving as a bodyguard and a gambling house bouncer/guard.

Sometime between 1931 and 1939, he established the Wah-Keung Kung Fu Club of Choy Li Fut where he taught private groups and Tong members. This club later became the Hung-Sing Studio of San Francisco in America. By this time Lau Bun was already distinguished for his fighting ability and his school's Lion Dancing proficiency. He was also a famous Dit Da herbalist in San Francisco's Chinatown. He cured thousands injuries for the Chinese community. His school performed kung fu and lion dancing exhibitions to raise funds for the Chinese Hospital in San Francisco each year until his passing.

Lau Bun passed away on September 6, 1967 at the age of 76. His loss caused a void at his studio, so the senior student Jew Leong took over the studio and relocated the Hung Sing Studio to another place in Chinatown of San Francisco and appointed our Grandmaster, the young (then 19 years old) Doc-Fai Wong to be the head instructor for the new Hung Sing Studio in October 1967.

Lau Bun trained his pupils in the traditional way, just as he had learned. Since he didn't have any economic interests he could select his students for their ability to train hard, loyalty and seriousness, in this way he could pass on the system. Lau Bun maintained a strict rule of not teaching Non-Chinese.

Fortunately the circumstances have changed and Grandmaster Wong teaches all persons with the desire to train hard, without any prejudice of race, religious belief, etc. Now Lau Bun's Choy Li Fut is spreading all over the world through the efforts of one of his students; our Grandmaster Doc-Fai Wong.