Wong Fei-hung (Huang Fei-hong) was a healer, martial artist and revolutionary
who became a Chinese folk hero often described as the Chinese Robin Hood. As a
healer and medical doctor, he practiced and taught acupuncture and other forms
of traditional Chinese medicine at his Po Chi Lam
clinic in Foshan, where he was known for his compassion and policy of treating
any patient. A museum dedicated to Wong has been built in Foshan.
Early Years
 Legend has it that Wong Fei-hung was born in Foshan on the ninth day in the
seventh month of Daoguan twenty-seventh year (1847). When Wong was five, he
began his study of martial arts under his father Wong Kei-ying. As his family
was poor, he always followed his father to Foshan and Guangzhou to do martial arts shows and sell medicines.
Wong began showing great potential. When he turned thirteen years old, he was
giving a martial arts show at Douzhixiang, Foshan. There Wong Fei-hung met Lam
Fuk-sing, the first apprentice of Tit Kiu Saam, who taught him the tour de
force of Iron Wire Fist and Sling, which helped him become a master of Hung Gar.
When he was sixteen, Wong set up a martial arts school at Shuijiao, Diqipu,
Xiguan, Guangdong, and then opened a medicine shop named Po Chi Lam at Renan
Street. By his early 20s, he was fast making his mark as a highly-respected
physician and a martial arts alumnus.
Later Years
As a famous martial arts master, he had many apprentices. He was successfully
engaged by Jiming Provincial Commander-in-Chief Wu Quan-mei and Liu Yong-fu as
the military medical officer, martial art general drillmaster, and Guangdong
local military general drillmaster. He later followed Liu Yong-fu to fight against the Japanese army in Taiwan. His life
was full of frustration, and in his later years he experienced the loss of his son and the burning of Po Chi Lam. On lunar year, the twenty-fifth
day of the third month in 1924, Wong Fei-hung died of illness in Guangdong Chengxi Fangbian Hospital. His wife and two of his prominent students
moved to Hong Kong, where they continued teaching Wong's martial art. Wong became a legendary hero whose real-life story was mixed freely
with fictional exploits on the printed page and onscreen.
As a Martial Art Master
Wong was a master of the Chinese martial art Hung Gar. He systematized the
predominant style of Hung Gar and choreographed its version of the famous
Tiger Crane Paired Form Fist, which incorporates his Ten Special Fist
techniques. Wong was famous for his skill with the technique known as the Shadowless Kick.
Wong Fei-hung also became adept at using weapons such as the wooden long staff
and the southern tiger fork. Soon after, stories began circulating about his mastery of these weapons. One story recounts how
he defeated a 30-man gang on the docks of Canton using the staff.
Wong is sometimes included in the Ten Tigers of Canton (ten of the top martial
arts masters in Guangdong towards the end of the Qing Dynasty 1644-1912, a group to which his father Wong Kei-ying belonged).
Portrayal in Modern Media
There was a Wong Fei-hung movie series in Hong Kong from the late 1940s into
the 1960s; it consisted of roughly 80 movies. The star,
Kwan Tak-hing, gained the nickname
Master Wong due to his participation in the series. Some sources claim that it
is the most prolific movie series ever, and that Wong Fei-hung is the
most-portrayed character in movie history. Wong Fei-hung has been played by
both Jackie Chan (as a
trouble-making youth in Drunken Master and Drunken Master II) and Jet Li (as
an adult contending with European influence on China in the Once Upon a Time
in China series). The character of Wong Fei-hung also appeared as a child
(played by actress Tsang Sze-man) in the movie Iron Monkey alongside his
father (played by Donnie Yen).
Because it was used as the theme song of the films, the Chinese folk music On
the General's Orders is now associated with Wong Fei-hung, as is A Man Should
Better Himself, arranged by the late James Wong Jim to On the General's
Orders.
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