Stephen Chan

The Middle Way Of Gung Fu

- Kleber Battaglia

Grandmaster Chan Tak Kwong, otherwise known as Sifu Stephen Chan, was born in Hong Kong but only started learning Wing Chun after moving to England, where he felt out of place amidst British athletics. This led him to start teaching Wing Chun in London, before returning to Hong Kong to pursue roles (often as the villain) in action films.

Over forty years later, he is keeping the Gung Fu tradition alive in his native land. A self-proclaimed “neo-traditionalist”, Sifu Chan combines modernity with tradition, using new techniques from street fighting and other martial arts, alongside original teachings from his lineage under Grandmaster Chow Tze Chuen, one of Ip Man’s students renowned as the “King of Kicks”.

How and when did you start your Wing Chun journey?

In the 1960s, my parents sent me from Hong Kong to boarding school in England, where I had a comparatively smaller and weaker physique. I could not fully participate in many of the sports activities in school and knew I needed to become stronger, so I wrote to my parents and asked them to find me a Gung Fu practitioner, so I could improve my physique during the holidays. I was recommended to try Wing Chun because it was easy to learn and fit my body type well, and I was lucky to start training at age 16 under Grandmaster Chow Tze Chuen, a closed-door student and long-term private sparring partner of Ip Man. At the time, I studied in England and could only go back to learn three times a year during holidays. However, I made the most of those four-anda-half months of holidays and progressed quickly through the forms and techniques.