Chong and Bak Mei
While training in Foshan with Pan Nam, Chong also met an aquantance of Pan Nam's, a Bak Mei (White Eyebrow) kung fu master. The Bak Mei master sought Pan Nam's expertise in Five Petal Qigong as a method of healing his internal organs damaged as a result of extremely vicious and deadly altercations with other masters. The name of this Bak Mei master is Li Yang Jian, the current head of the Foshan branch of Bak Mei. Li sought the advice of a local physician due to his suffering from chronic hematuria (blood in one's urine). The physician informed the Bak Mei master that he did not have long to live.
Li Yang Jian heard of Pan Nam and the healing ability of Pan Nam's Five Petal Qigong. In almost fifty years of teaching Shaolin Wing Chun, Pan Nam taught fewer than a dozen students Qigong. Li appealed to Pan Nam to save his life. Pan Nam told him that he must abstain from all alcoholic drinks, sexual intercourse and smoking during his Qigong training. Pan Nam required that Li must meet him every morning just before dawn for one hundred days straight. Li was cured after sixty days of Qigong training and vowed to follow Pan Nam wherever he went to protect him with his life.
When Eddie Chong saw Li's Bak Mei, he felt Li's style of Bak Mei complemented his Wing Chun and could take his Wing Chun to new heights of technicality and aggressiveness. Chong asked Master Li if he would teach him Bak Mei. Li decided to take Chong under his tutelage due to Pan Nam accepting Eddie Chong as his disciple and trained him intensely from 1990-1996.
Bak Mei is characterized by its emphasis on powerful close range hand strikes. Within Bak Mei can be found the four principles of Fou (Float), Chum (Sink), Tun (Swallow), and Tou (Spit) common in the Southern Chinese martial arts. Unique to Bak Mei is its classification of the following six powers: biu (thrusting), chum (sinking), tan (springing), fa (neutralizing), tung, and chuk. Bak Mei emphasizes the movements of the Tiger, but Bak Mei also uses the other four animal styles associated with the Henan Shaolin Temple as well such as the Tiger, the Crane, the Leopard, the Snake and the Dragon. Together they are known as the Five Animals. One other animal style used in Bak Mei is called the Phoenix.
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