Lama (martial Art) - Hop Gar

Hop Gar

Wong Hon-Wing was for a very long time considered Master Wong Yan-Lam's number one student and was his sole official representative. It was Wong Hon-Wing who began using the name Haap Ga Kyuhn based upon his teacher's nickname and the recommendation of Dr. Sun Yat-Sen. As Wong Yan-Lam grew older, he also gave Wong Hon-Wing more and more responsibility for running the schools. Eventually, Wong Yan-Lam announced that he had retired and returned to his native village.

In the period immediately following, Wong Hon-Wing opened several more schools exclusively under his own name and developed quite a reputation among the southern martial arts community. Haap Ga Kyuhn became generally associated with Wong Hon-Wing's own version of the style. However, Wong Yan-Lam's retirement was short lived and soon other students, many of them former students of Wong Hon-Wing, were accepted as disciples. There are numerous stories concerning the reasons for this shift and Wong Hon-Wing's subsequent loss of position. In Hong Kong, it is said there was a dispute over the royalties Wong Han-Wing was supposed to pay his teacher. In Malaysia, it is said that many of Wong Hon-Wing's students had complained to Wong Yan-Lam that their teacher was not passing on his skills. In San Francisco, more than a few teachers from several traditions hold that the old teacher had simply refused to step aside and let his student make a name for himself. There is probably some truth to all these stories. What is important to realize is that for whatever reason other students were accepted by Wong Yan-Lam and taught the advanced skills.

Nhg Yim-Ming (also known in the United States as Harry Ng) also used the Haap Ga name adopted by Wong Hon-Wong and spread the art by teaching it to the Air Force. However, in 1950 Nhg Yim-Ming visited his family in San Francisco and decided to stay. There he taught a number of students including Chin Dai-Wei (David Chin), Jack Hoey and Tony Galvin. Of all the later disciples of Wong Yan-Lam, Nhg Yim-Ming is the most respected and his skills were beyond question. In fact, Nhg Yim-Ming's skills may very well have surpassed those of Wong Hon-Wing.

Lei Ying-Chuen was originally one of Wong Hon-Wing's most senior disciples and helped him administer many of his schools. It was for this very reason that he had direct access to Wong Yan-Lam. Lei Ying-Chuen was the first disciple of Wong Hon-Wing to be accepted as a disciple by Wong Yan-Lam and he opened his own school, using the Haap Ga name, in Si-Gwan, Guangdong almost immediately upon his acceptance. While Lei Ying-Chuen's skills were not in question, many are critical of his fickleness and lack of loyalty.

Wong Lun (AKA Wong Geng Choh) studied Hung Kune with his father for 5 years and then followed a student of Tit Kiu Sam for a further 6 years. He then met Wong Yan Lum and became his disciple. Wong Lun's student Deng Gum To popularized the Hop Gar system throughout southern China and wrote several books.