Ban Chung Zheng Dan Kam Cho Ga Wing Chun
 

During the Qing dynasty the performers/rebels from the Opera Red Junks (Ban Chung) retired and returned home. Yik Kam was one such person. He had been a performer playing the Zheng Dan (Male playing female lead role) in the “King Fa Wei Gun” opera association onboard the Junk “Jik Fung Lee”. He was one of the few disciples of Leung Bak Sau. Whilst the Junks were still operating Yik Kam in turn had taken five disciples from among the Opera people, one was named Cho Shun (曹順).

At this time Cho Shun’s family was living in Poon Yee, Guangzhou which was also the home village of Yik Kam. When Yik Kam retired from the Opera troupe Cho Shun invited him to live on the Cho Family estate to teach the Cho family Wing Chun Kung Fu. There he was also affectionately known as “Zheng Dan Kam”,  

Yik Kam’s Kung Fu was of the highest standard but he didn’t want the Cho Family to give up their existing Martial Arts so he helped them modify them using the principles from Ban Chun Wing Chun which was also known to the older generation as “Ban Chung Siu Lam”.

Cho Sun had a son called Cho Dak Sing (曹德胜). In his early days Cho Dak Sing’s father forbade him to practice martial arts. In the past it was common for the villagers to work the fields during the day and teach martial arts at night. All he could do was watch the training from the sidelines or pretend to be sleeping while his father was practicing in the training hall then he would practice is secret. One day Yik Kam discovered Cho Dak Sing’s talent for martial arts. He quickly accepted him as an “inner circle” disciple and taught him all he knew. Cho Dak Sing trained day and night to master his master’s techniques and eventually learnt all from is master.

Later Cho Dak Sing (1869 – 1937) would move to Guangzhou to open a training hall and became famous especially for his 6.5 pole technique. After some time he returned to his home town to teach. He taught, amongst others,  his son Cho Cheun (曹钜全) (1914-1978) and his nephew Cho Yin On (曹延安) (189?-1993) from a young age and they gained through arduous training mastery of the art. Sadly civil unrest broke out (1966 – 1976) and any form of practice / training in martial arts was prohibited. During this time Cho Chuen got critically ill and passed on in 1978. Till today his teachings are still being passed down with no sign of slowing down from generation to generation in Cho Chuen’s hometown.

It was Master Cho Yin On who brought Ban Chung Wing Chun to the Nanyang region when he migrated to Penang, Malaysia in 1937. He was fondly called Master On. In 1949, he started classes for selected students. In the early 1960s, Master An and his disciples set up a martial arts school at Pan Yu Association in Penang. Eventually the school closed down. However a disciple, Lau Soon Yin (刘顺源), invited Master On to stay in his house and continue to teach students there. By 1970, Lau Soon Yin had learnt all the martial arts from Master On. Due to some reason’s Master Lau moved to Singapore in the 1970’s. There he did not take any students except his nephew, Ku Choi Wah (古财华), who is now the present day inheritor of our precious art. To this day both Grand Master Lau and Master Ku have settled in Singapore. Since the year 2000 Master Ku has taught numerous selected students and from them has taken only a hand full of “inner circle” disciples.

It is only now in 2009 that Master Ku has decided to “open the doors” of this precious art to the public and allowed his disciples to teach on his behalf.