Ip Man, 1893–1972: The Refugee Who Made Wing Chun a World Art
Ip Man arrived in Hong Kong as a refugee in middle age and began teaching Wing Chun to earn a living. Over the next twenty years he took a little-known southern Chinese system and, through a handful of senior students and one very famous junior one, turned it into one of the most widely taught kung fu styles in the world. He died in Hong Kong on 2 December 1972, aged 79. Bruce Lee, his most famous student, died seven months later.
- Full name
- Ip Man (Yip Man); born Ip Kai-man
- Born
- 1 October 1893, Foshan, Guangdong, China
- Died
- 2 December 1972, Mong Kok, Kowloon, Hong Kong, aged 79, of laryngeal cancer
- Art
- Wing Chun (Ving Tsun)
- Trained under
- Chan Wah-shun and his senior student Ng Chung-sok in Foshan; Leung Bik in Hong Kong
- Taught in Hong Kong
- From about 1950 until his death
- Association
- Ving Tsun Athletic Association, founded by his students in 1967
- Notable students
- Bruce Lee, Wong Shun-leung, William Cheung, Leung Ting, Moy Yat, Lok Yiu, Chu Shong-tin, and his sons Ip Chun and Ip Ching
Foshan
Ip Man was born in Foshan, near Guangzhou, to a wealthy family. He began Wing Chun as a boy under Chan Wah-shun, at nine or thirteen depending on the source, and continued under Chan’s senior student Ng Chung-sok. As a teenager at school in Hong Kong he trained with Leung Bik, until Leung’s death. He returned to Foshan and, from 1916, served as a police officer, teaching Wing Chun informally to colleagues, friends and relatives. For most of his life, martial arts was not his living.
Hong Kong, and teaching for a living
After the Communist victory in 1949, Ip Man, who had links to the Nationalist government, left for Hong Kong. He was in his late fifties and had lost most of his wealth. In the early 1950s he began to teach Wing Chun for money, first to members of the Restaurant Workers’ Association, then from a series of rented spaces in Sham Shui Po, Yau Ma Tei and elsewhere in Kowloon.
His school grew through his senior students. Men such as Wong Shun-leung, a noted street fighter in the challenge matches of the period, gave the style a reputation, and many of his seniors taught classes of their own. A teenage Bruce Lee trained with him from about 1953 to about 1957, much of that time under Wong Shun-leung’s instruction; Lee went on to make Wing Chun, and Ip Man’s name, known around the world.
Ip Man’s later years were not easy. His wife died in 1960, and several of his former students have said he used opium and struggled for money. In 1967 his students founded the Ving Tsun Athletic Association in Hong Kong, partly, by their own account, to give their teacher a stable home and income.
Death
Ip Man died of laryngeal cancer at his home on Tung Choi Street in Mong Kok on 2 December 1972, aged 79. His sons, Ip Chun and Ip Ching, both became Wing Chun teachers in their own right. His senior students founded lineages that now teach on every continent, and a series of feature films about him, beginning with Ip Man in 2008, has made his name more famous than it was in his lifetime.
What a school owner should take from Ip Man
Ip Man’s reach came from developing teachers, not just students. His senior students taught their own classes, founded their own schools and took Wing Chun overseas; his name spread because they carried it. An owner who wants a legacy beyond his own mat has to give his best people the room and the standing to teach.
He also shows the value of a small, clearly defined system. Wing Chun is compact, and that made it easy for students to learn, for seniors to teach and for the art to travel.
And his students’ decision in 1967 is a lesson in its own right. A school that depends on one man’s income is fragile; they built an association that could support their teacher and outlast him.
Quick answers
- Who was Ip Man?
- Ip Man (1893–1972) was a Chinese Wing Chun teacher from Foshan who taught in Hong Kong from about 1950 until his death. His students included Bruce Lee.
- Did Ip Man teach Bruce Lee?
- Yes. Bruce Lee trained in Wing Chun under Ip Man in Hong Kong from about 1953 to about 1957, much of the time under the instruction of Ip Man’s senior student Wong Shun-leung.
- How did Ip Man die?
- He died of laryngeal (throat) cancer at his home in Mong Kok, Hong Kong, on 2 December 1972, aged 79.
- Are the Ip Man films accurate?
- They are dramatizations. The broad outline of his life is accurate, but many of the fights and events in the films are invented.
Sources, and what we could not confirm
Sources: the English Wikipedia biography of Ip Man and the sources it cites, including accounts by his sons and students, for his life, teachers, police career, move to Hong Kong, schools, family, students, the Ving Tsun Athletic Association and his death; and our own profile of Bruce Lee for Lee’s training dates.
Conflicts printed rather than smoothed over. He began training at nine or thirteen, depending on the source. The dates at which he began teaching in Hong Kong and moved between premises differ between accounts. Bruce Lee’s training is dated from 1953 or later by different sources.
Handled with care. His use of opium and his financial difficulties are reported by former students and in published histories; we have stated them as such and gone no further. The films about his life, beginning in 2008, include invented fights and events and are not used as sources here.
Corrections. See our editorial policy. If you trained in Ip Man’s lineage and can add to this record, we want to hear from you.