24 Facts About Wong Fei-hung

Wong Fei-hung has been portrayed by several stars of Hong Kong and Chinese cinema, including Gordon Liu, Jackie Chan, Kwan Tak-hing, Jet Li, Vincent Zhao, and Sammo Hung.

Wong Fei-hung was born in Luzhou Hamlet, Lingxi Village, Xiqiao Country, Foshan, Nanhai County, which is a present day part of Foshan City, Guangdong Province, during the reign of the Daoguang Emperor in the Qing dynasty.

At the age of five, Wong Fei-hung started learning Hung Ga from his father, Wong Fei-hung Kei-ying.

Wong Fei-hung often accompanied his father on trips from Foshan to Guangzhou, the provincial capital of Guangdong Province, where his father peddled medicine and performed martial arts in the streets.

Wong Fei-hung was very personable like his father, and made many friends in the martial arts and medical worlds, like the 10 Tigers of Guangdong.

Wong Fei-hung was able to enhance his father's teachings to formulate a style that included much of what is seen in Southern Chinese Styles today.

In 1863, Wong Fei-hung started a martial arts school in Shuijiao in Saikwan, which is the present-day location of Liwan District, Guangzhou City.

Wong Fei-hung's students were mainly metal labourers and street vendors.

In 1886, Wong Fei-hung opened his family's medical clinic, Po Chi Lam, in Ren'an, which is the present-day part of Xiaobei Road, Yuexiu District, Guangzhou City.

In legend, around the 1860s or 1870s, Wong Fei-hung was recruited by Liu Yongfu, the commander of the Black Flag Army, to be the medical officer and martial arts instructor for the regular soldiers and the local militia in Guangzhou.

Wong Fei-hung followed the Black Flag Army to fight the Imperial Japanese Army during the Japanese invasion of Taiwan in 1895.

In 1919, when the Chin Woo Athletic Association opened a branch in Canton, Wong Fei-hung was invited to perform at the opening ceremony.

Wong Fei-hung was so affected by this incident that he stopped teaching his other sons martial arts.

Wong Fei-hung died from illness on 17 April 1925 in Chengxi Fangbian Hospital, which is the present day location of the Guangzhou First People's Hospital at Panfu Road in Guangzhou's Yuexiu District.

Wong Fei-hung was buried at the foot of Baiyun Mountain.

Wong Fei-hung systematised the predominant style of Hung Ga and choreographed its version of the Tiger Crane Paired Form Fist, which incorporates his Ten Special Fist techniques.

Wong Fei-hung named the techniques of his skills when he performed them.

Wong Fei-hung was adept at using weapons, such as the staff and southern tiger fork.

One tale, possibly fictional, recounts how Wong Fei-hung defeated a group of 30 gangsters on the docks of Guangzhou with a staff.

Wong Fei-hung is sometimes incorrectly identified as one of the "Ten Tigers of Canton".

Wong Fei-hung is sometimes referred to as the "Tiger after the Ten Tigers".

Some time after she died of illness, Wong Fei-hung remarried again in 1902.

In 2005, another alleged photo of Wong Fei-hung once taken by one of his students Kwong Kei-tim was discovered by the museum staff in Hong Kong.

Over 100 films and television series featuring Wong Fei-hung have been produced since 1949, mostly in Hong Kong.