Recent History
Yip Man was the first Wing Chun master to teach the art openly in "Hong Kong" on a school fee basis. His students and their students therefore make up the majority of the practitioners of Wing Chun today (see his article for the outline of a family tree). Yip Man died in 1972. However, there is also a story that Yip Man gave money to Chan Wah Shun so that he could learn from him. Officially making Chan Wah Shun the first to teach the art openly on a school fee basis. However, Chan Wa Shun was military/ security based who was employed by Yip Man's father.
Bruce Lee came to America to teach the non-Asian Americans. Bruce Lee was a student of Wing Chun.
Recently two movies were made about Yip Man starring Donnie Yen.
Though he never started a school himself, Yuen Kay-San's lineage of Wing Chun was continued by his student Sum Nung and the subsequent generations of students that descend from him.
Donnie Yen has also caused tremendous impact in the martial arts world through his various films. Yen is widely credited by many as the person responsible in popularizing the traditional martial arts style known as Wing Chun. Donnie Yen played the role of Wing Chun Grandmaster in the 2008 movie, Ip Man, which was a huge box office success, re-defining the genre of action films. This has led to a tremendous increase in amounts of people taking up Wing Chun, causing hundreds of new Wing Chun schools to be opened up in Mainland China and other notable parts of Asia. Ip Chun, the eldest son of Ip Man even mentioned that he is grateful to Donnie Yen for making his family art popular and allowing his father's legacy to be remembered.
Read more about this topic: History Of Wing Chun
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