Wong Bil Hong
Founder of the Fu Jow Pai (Tiger Claw) style, who combined the temple system Hark Fu Moon with Hung Gar training and renamed it in 1934.
Quick Facts
ChinaBiography
Wong Bil Hong is known as the founder of the Fu Jow Pai style, known as Tiger Claw. His life dates vary between sources: according to one, he lived from 1841 to 1934, while the English Wikipedia and the style's official federation give no year of birth. Another source likewise gives 1934 as the year of his death.
In 1876 he began studying the Hark Fu Moon system (Black Tiger System), which originated at the Hoy Hong temple in Guangdong province during the Qing dynasty. According to one source, he learned it from a monk of that temple and became the second generation of the temple lineage. He also studied under Wong Kei-ying, a Hung Gar master, and under his son Wong Fei-hung.
He combined the traditional Hark Fu Moon with Hung Gar training and in 1934 renamed the system, formally to Fu Jow Pai Hoy Hong Temple. The style's techniques are modeled on the behavior and combat strategy of the South Chinese tiger and include tearing, ripping movements and claw grips.
According to one source, he had only two students. One was his nephew Wong Moon Toy, who began studying Hark Fu Moon in 1927 and to whom Wong Bil Hong entrusted the system's future before his death. Wong Moon Toy left for New York in 1934, where he taught Hung Gar from 1940. The main source on Wong Bil Hong's life is Ng Wai Hong's book The Heritage of FU-JOW PAI Tiger Claw from 1979; in 1971 Ng Wai Hong founded the first open full-contact kung fu tournament in the USA and the Eastern United States Kung-Fu Federation.