William Kwok

Taking The Path Of Yin And Yang

- Kleber Battaglia

SIFU WILLIAM KWOK is the headmaster at Gotham Martial Arts in New York City and has been promoting Practical Wing Chun since 2008. He is Grandmaster Wan Kam Leung’s first closed-door disciple to teach Practical Wing Chun in America.

In 2015, the United States President’s Council on Sports, Fitness & Nutrition recognised Sifu Kwok with the Community Leadership Award. Currently, he is pursuing a Doctor of Education in Curriculum, Teaching, Learning and Leadership at Northeastern University with a particular research focus on the potential effects of martial arts on the greater community.

Nicknamed “Kung Fu Gentleman” by his students, Sifu Kwok strives to understand how balancing and integrating Yin and Yang can create harmony in our lives.

It has been some time since we interviewed you in 2013 and it seems like a lot has happened since then. It would be great to get an update on what you’ve been doing.

Yes, it has been a very eventful six years! I have travelled the world, taught seminars, and met so many great people in and out of the Wing Chun community.

2017 particularly stands out to me. First, I inducted four students as my closed-door disciples. It was great that many Wing Chun Sifus from New York City attended the Bai Si ceremony. It really shows how supportive and active our Wing Chun community here in New York has become. Later that year, I also had the pleasure of participating as a speaker at the Wong Shun Leung Ving Tsun North American event in Los Angeles. It was an honour to share the stage with my extended Kung Fu family from the Wong Shun Leung lineage.