Interviewer: Thank you for agreeing to this interview, Sifu.
Sifu Zopa: My pleasure.
Interviewer: Sifu, I’ve heard it claimed by two Hong Kong Wing Chun teachers that they were the first to teach Wing Chun in Australia, Bill Cheung with his Traditional Wing Chun variant of Hong Kong Wing Chun and Jim Fung, a student of Tsui Sheung Tin. What is correct?
Sifu Zopa: (Laughs) Neither! Yes, I’ve heard these stories. Both came after the genuinely first Wing Chun sifu to teach Wing Chun in a gwoon publicly in Australia. It was in the early 1960s. This was Choi Siu Kong or Greg Choi. I know! Because I was there! I learnt from Sifu Choi. Neither Jim Fung nor Bill Cheung were the first. They were both unheard of then. It seems a number of martial artists who have been training awhile like to forget exactly how long they trained or who was first. In karate (which as you know I also studied, I have to chuckle at this), there are some instructors who began training as beginners when I was already a black belt (that took at least five years of very hard training to attain in those days). Yet they claim to have been training longer than me! My friends, fellow students taught some of these people! Another chap now retired began karate a little before me but he too seems to have extended the beginning date back a few years. (Laughs) Is there some sort of prize for being the first? Or, having trained longer? Regardless of skill? Because in some cases these “old guys” (about my age or even a bit younger) have little skill – and little morality as far as telling the truth goes! Maybe they have Alzheimers, eh? (Laughs uproariously). So, let’s dispel that “marketing myth” of who was the first to openly teach Hong Kong Wing Chun in Australia – it was undeniably sifu Choi. He taught for several years in Dickson Street in Old Chinatown in Sydney in mid to the late 1960s. He later moved into other locations. This predated the advent of both Jim Fung and Bill Cheung. As I say, I can attest to this because I was there!
Interviewer: Thank you sifu for clearing this up.
Sifu Zopa: Well, it’s about as stupid as claiming Yip Man preserved Wing Chun after the PRC came to power by taking it to Hong Kong. The Wing Chun masters on the mainland, including Sum Num, a far superior practitioner to Yip, would be very amused to hear they have been “storied” out of existence. Yip may have preserved the form of Wing Chun which he taught but the Hong Kong devotees of Yip ought acknowledge they are referring only to his Wing Chun - not other forms, of which there were several preserved in the Mainland. There are a lot of foolish and incorrect things claimed in the interests of commercialisation and mass marketing!