Eddie Chong - Chong and Pan Nam

Chong and Pan Nam

On a trip to his Singapore school, Chong took an excursion to Foshan, the traditional home of Wing Chun. While in Foshan, his inquires regarding local Wing Chun instructors brought information about 81 year old Master Pan Nam, the last known disciple on Painted Face Kam's branch of the family tree. Chong learned that Pan Nam had ceased teaching in 1990 and had, in fact, "closed the door" to his school. Unknown to Chong, Pan had delayed officially retiring, which involved certain formal rituals because he had a premonition that someone, his final student, was coming.

In Foshan, Chong met Pan Nam and was accepted by Pan Nam as one of his closed door students and became his last disciple. Mr. Chong went through the traditional Chinese ceremony of kneeling and giving a cup of tea to the old Master, asking to be accepted as his disciple. This was followed by a special meal. After-wards, Pan took out his family tree and entered Eddie Chong's name as his closed-door student, the last he would ever accept.

Having fulfilled his desire to train a successor, Pan Nam officially hung out the scrolls that proclaimed his retirement when Eddie Chong left Foshan in late Spring of 1992. Chong returned to visit Pan Nam every year until Pan Nam's death in 1996.

Aside from Pan Nam teaching Eddie Chong the Foshan branch of Wing Chun, Pan Nam also taught him Five Petal Plum Blossom Qigong, which Master Pan Nam considered the lost treasure of Shaolin training. Pan Nam was a direct descendant of Shaolin Kung Fu otherwise known as Shàolínquán. Pan Nam believed that the style of Wing Chun he trained in was the original Shaolin Wing Chun system.