Mok Kwai-lan

Quick Facts

Date of Birth1892

Date of Death11/3/1982

Country of OriginChina

OccupationMerchant, Physician

Also known asMok Kwei-lan, Madam Mok

Biography

Mok Kwai-lan was a Chinese master of the Hung Gar and Mok Gar styles, a dit da healer and the wife of Wong Fei-hung. The year and place of her birth differ among sources. The English Wikipedia gives, without support, 15 October 1892 and Nanhai, the Hong Kong portal HK01 the year 1891 and Gaoyao in Guangdong Province. She died on 3 November 1982 in Hong Kong aged 90.

As a child her uncle secretly taught her Mok Gar and the healing of injuries. According to the blog Chinese Martial Studies she completed her healing training around 1908, according to Wikipedia in 1906. She married Wong Fei-hung in 1911 according to Chinese Martial Studies, while Wikipedia, citing HK01, gives 1915. The union was formally treated as a concubine relationship. From her husband she learned the forms of the Hung style, among them the tiger and crane form and the iron wire form, and also the lion dance.

She moved to Hong Kong in 1936 according to HK01 and Wikipedia, according to Chinese Martial Studies already in the early nineteen-thirties. In 1944–1969 she worked at the Wong Fei-hung National Art Society in Wanchai and then at the Wong Fei-hung Physical Fitness Institute. In 1970 she appeared on television and in the mid nineteen-seventies she gave an interview to the magazine Real Kung Fu. Her successor is Lee Chan-wo, born in 1939.

Early life

The year and place of birth differ among sources. The English Wikipedia gives 15 October 1892 and Nanhai in Guangdong Province, but supports the date with nothing. The Hong Kong portal HK01 gives the year 1891 and Gaoyao, and the blog Chinese Martial Studies the village of Kao-Yao in the nineties of the 19th century. The account of her childhood differs too. According to Chinese Martial Studies she was given as a small child to a childless uncle, who formally adopted her although her parents were alive. According to HK01 she was orphaned and raised by uncles who had a martial arts school in Guangzhou.

Training and teachers

Her uncle secretly taught her the Mok Gar style and the healing of bones and injuries, despite the opposition of her aunt. The author of Chinese Martial Studies regards the name of the uncle as unverified. According to Chinese Martial Studies she completed her healing training around 1908, while the English Wikipedia gives, without a citation, the year 1906. From Wong Fei-hung, according to HK01, which draws on the account of Lee Chan-wo, she learned the forms of the Hung style, among them the double tiger and crane form and the iron wire form, and also the lion dance.

Contribution and innovations

The year of the marriage differs among sources. Chinese Martial Studies gives a marriage proposal in 1909 and the wedding in 1911, the English Wikipedia, referring to an HK01 article from 2017, gives 1915, when Wong was 68 and she was 23. She entered the union as a concubine, because Wong believed that he was fatal to his wives. Wong died in 1925. She moved to Hong Kong in 1936 according to HK01 and Wikipedia, according to Chinese Martial Studies already in the early nineteen-thirties. Wikipedia states that she opened a dit da clinic there and refounded Po Chi Lam, but this claim has no citation. In 1944–1969 she worked at the Wong Fei-hung National Art Society on Gloucester Road in Wanchai and then at the Wong Fei-hung Physical Fitness Institute, which closed around 1980.

Legends and documented facts

A widespread story says that during a lion dance in 1911 she was struck by the shoe of Wong Fei-hung. According to Wikipedia, which cites the interview with Andre Lam, she herself did not mention it and said that Wong was a friend of her uncle and asked for her hand. HK01 presents the story with reservation. The claims about a deadly touch and about lightness thanks to qigong, which were made in the interview, the author of Chinese Martial Studies regards as romanticised myths. The claim that she led the first female lion dance group in the Pearl River Delta he gives only as a supposition.

Legacy

In 1970, aged 78, she appeared in the television programme Huanle jinxiao performing the iron wire form. An interview with her was published in the magazine Real Kung Fu, volume 1, number 7, conducted by Andre Lam. Chinese Martial Studies gives the year 1976, Wikipedia 1975. She died on 3 November 1982 in Hong Kong aged 90, identically according to HK01, Chinese Martial Studies and Wikipedia. She had no children of her own and took care of the children of Wong. Her successor is Lee Chan-wo, born in 1939. According to HK01 he was her adopted son, according to Chinese Martial Studies the husband of her granddaughter.

Associated Martial Arts