Book Feature: Wong Fei-hung by Sifu Kendra Mahon

Sifu Kendra Mahon, known as Kung Fu Kendra, turns from Bruce Lee to a nineteenth-century Hung Gar master in the second book of her Masters of Kung Fu series. Wong Fei-hung: The Healer Behind the Legend sets out to find the real man behind one of the most familiar characters in Chinese film.

A Character and a Man

Well over a hundred films and television series have been made about Wong Fei-hung, and the book’s starting point is that this fame gets in the way. “The Wong Fei-hung most people know is a character, built from novels, newspaper stories, and films, and that character has grown far beyond the historical person,” the author writes. The documented facts are fewer than many readers expect: he lived from 1847 to 1925, he was the son of a respected martial artist and physician, he practised and taught Hung Gar, he ran the Po Chi Lam clinic in Canton, and he married four times. The book sticks to the most widely accepted facts, notes where accounts differ, and labels legend as legend.

Correcting the Record

That approach produces some useful corrections. Wong Fei-hung was not one of the Ten Tigers of Canton; his father, Wong Kei-ying, was. Po Chi Lam was in Canton, today’s Guangzhou, not Foshan. His service with Liu Yongfu and the Black Flag Army is treated as a long-held tradition rather than a confirmed record. A closing chapter offers readers a short set of questions for weighing any story about a famous martial artist, and the author explains her approach to the series directly: “I believe the truth honours our teachers more than exaggeration does.”

Loss and Continuity

The book does not shy away from the hard parts of his life. He lost three wives to illness, and in 1919 his son Wong Hon-sam was killed in Wuzhou, after which he reportedly chose not to teach martial arts to his other sons. In 1924, Po Chi Lam was destroyed during the conflict between the government and the Canton Merchants’ Volunteer Corps. Yet his art lived on through his wife Mok Gwai-lan and his student Lam Sai-wing, whose books helped preserve Hung Gar forms. “The work we do in other people’s lives lasts longer than any building,” the author writes.

A View From Wing Chun

Sifu Kendra writes as a Wing Chun teacher, not a Hung Gar teacher, and the book is open about that. A chapter on Wong Fei-hung and Wing Chun places him alongside Ip Man, born in Foshan in 1893, and the Wing Chun physician Leung Jan, and finds shared values beneath two very different-looking arts: a strong foundation, respect for the teacher, discipline, and the belief that martial skill carries moral responsibility.

About the Author

Sifu Kendra Mahon, known as Kung Fu Kendra, has trained since 2005 and holds Master level (purple sash). She teaches Traditional Wing Chun as it was passed down to her by Master Brian Lewadny, who learned it from Grandmaster William Cheung. She is the author of 13 books and counting, including the ten-book The Way of Wing Chun series, and created the Become a Sifu Wing Chun Online Certification Course (10 levels, one payment, no monthly fees). Read what her students say on the Kung Fu Kendra reviews page.

Where to Get It

Wong Fei-hung: The Healer Behind the Legend is available on Amazon in Kindle and paperback: Kindle and paperback. It is also on Goodreads under Kendra Mahon. See all of her books on kungfukendra.com.

Editor’s note: Wing Chun Magazine is published by Sifu Kendra Mahon.