Hi Eric,
Well, if you like wine, fishing or hunting Canada isn’t that bad a place to visit. 
Seriously, “New Martial Hero” is one of the many magazines I collected back in the 70s and 80s. There are others; see links.
Understood, thanks for sharing.
My prized collection, however, are the in-house magazines published by the hundreds of schools/clubs found all over Singapore & Malaysia in the last 30+ years.
Wow, that must be quite a collection!
Sadly, only a fraction of these clubs are left today.
That’s inevidable. We can’t expect to ride on the tail coat of pop culture (ie Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan, Jet Li, etc) to keep Kung Fu going. This is something I believe that older generation takes for granted.
This kind of in-house magazines is packed with info like history, lineages and principles of the myriad of styles taught in this region.
You know you reminded me of those that Hong Kong Lung Ying association did a long time ago. They were indeed of high quality.
I talked about this in WuLin; when Chinese left the mainland, they resettled all over the world. Robert, are you Canadian born?
I was born in New Terreritories, HK. We live in the same town where the late Chow Fook was. My parents (of landlord and military backgrounds) both came from China.
The majority calls SE Asia home (apart from Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macao). Go to any part of SE Asia like Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines Malaysia and Singapore and you are very likely to bump into sizeable Chinese population.
I remember during late 70s and early 80s. Sifu Chow Fook used to travelled to Brunei (sp?) and areas near there.
Singapore is interesting in this aspect in that the Chinese are the majority race. 70% of the population. We got Chinese from all over mainland here. And along with this, a kaleidoscope of CKF got replanted here.
This is great because this help preserves some of the traditional arts IMHO.
Many Kung Fu school started out in what we call “Clans Association”. So you got the Fukien Association, Kong Chow, Fuzhou and Fuching Association, Horpor Kek Association etc etc…
Actually, the China town in Vancouver, BC, Canada in the early 80s has the same kind of set up. I used to do Lion Dances for the associations during New Year and such celebrations.
Many Sifu also moved on to start their own schools. Unfortunately back in the 60s & 70s, the triads were very active and many of these gangs recruited “fighting hands” from CKF schools.
Hong Kong used to be the same. The CLF in our town was quite large and used to have “associations” with the triads (or so I was told). Then there was the Wing Chun Kwoon which is kind of expensive. I remember that was a Yong Chun Kwoon, on my route home too but I never dared to check it out. This why it took awhile for my mom to choice Sifu Chow Fook’s Kwoon for me. He’s the Ho Ho Sin Sang (very good person).
One of the most notorious was a gang known as “18 Koon Tong” – really blood-thirsty. When these guys fight, they take limbs and lives; anything goes.
“18 Koon Tong” was somewhat related to the Shaolin group in Singapore back in the 70s.
Familiar with “Pai Si” ceremony? Triads’ initiation ceremonies share common rituals and ideas.
Not sure how many of you do this; recite your “pai” poem to identify yourself? A leftover practice from the Ching era I supposed. The Tongs do the same.
Well, there usually are 2 Bai Si in HK (Lung Yi at least). First time as a student, you just bring offering, burn inscents, pour tea, etc. You are just generally accepted as a student and learn the general curriculum. Make sure you paid your tuition on time. lol… Then when you learn up to Lung Ying Mor Kiu (about a good 3 years or so) which is the signature form then you will Bai Si properly and becomes a disciple, which includes taking the oath, bowing and pouring tea to Sifu, host a banquet in Sifu’s honor, etc. Then you become the indoor disciple and learn the inner “secrets” of the style. The process is not cheap.
And they got one that is almost Shaolin that starts with “I arrive here on a Red Junk………” recited in Fukinese.
That’s interesting. Thanks for the info.
All these gangs and CKF alliances created much social problems and the government stepped in to regulate MA activities.
Every school, teacher and member need to be screened and approved. A special “Martial Arts Control Unit” was created within the CID (Criminal Investigation Branch – we take after the British) to look after this operation.
I remember MACU officers visiting and stopping training to spot check and some of them could be real high-handed
HK has a similar system. But it’s more just for licensing and montoring activities purposes. GM Chiu had a lot of students from police force, fireman, as well as “known” triads members. But we all get along fine if you know what I mean. 
All this could have contributed to the waning of enthusiasm in CKF – I am not sure.
That’s part of the problem but I think not keeping CKF relevant in people’s live and making it viable as a lifestyle is a bigger problem these days.
Personally I think everything went downhill for TCMAs in Singapore when the “Singapore National Pugilistic Federation” got converted into “National WuShu Association”.
Well, don’t even get me started on the Wushu BS.:rolleyes:
“Singapore National Pugilistic Federation” organized the first ever regional traditional Kung Fu competition in 1969 – “1st South East Asia Pugilistic Tournament” with participants from all over this region including Hong Kong & Taiwan.
That event saw the who’s who of Chinese Martial Forest.
Yeah, those were the days, those were the days. .. well, it’s up to this generation now so…
Warm regards
Robert
especially the old manuscripts one because I believe that would provide clues to a lot of the question such as evolution of hand to hand combat in southern China since late Ming to early Qing dynasty.
BTW, you know that 6 and 28 are both perfect numbers right?