Master Chow Fook, (??)also called Sifu as commonly called in Canton and Hong Kong, being a favored disciple of Grandmaster Lam Yiu kwai as from 1938, is now the 'Big Brother' of the Dragon-Form School. He learned from grandmaster, Cheung Lai Chuen (???), of the White-brow School (???) from age of 15 in Canton. This school has come from the same source with Dragon Form but developed into different skills and special characteristics.
The Dragon-Form Pugilism (???) was founded in Shaolin Monastery at the beginning of the Ching Dynasty (1644-1911). When the Ching army burned down the Shaolin Monastery, a superior master escaped and hid himself in the mountains in southern part of Kwangtung Province of China. There he taught martial art to Grandmaster Lam Yiu Kwai (???), "The Tiger of East River". This famous boxing module is called 'Lung Ying Mor Kiu', which means scraping the arms in Dragon form. It has the characteristic of fast attack with tiger claw and dragon waist. The two Grandmasters together were dubbed "The Two Tigers of the East River" in their times for their unusual prowess and skills.

In 1945, Master Chow Fook had operated sixteen gymnasiums under his own name and management in his province. In 1950, he ran a beauty parlor in Hong Kong and taught Kung Fu there. In 1957, he was invited by his elder brother, a prestigious businessman in Brunei, to travel to Brunei and taught Kung Fu to local Chinese Immigrants. His elder brother ran a large grouped company in Brunei, whose employees and workers were mostly Chinese. A local underworld organization called the Gang of Ten Killers composed of ten cruel and belligerent evil-doers learned of the arrival of a Chinese exponent with terrific kung fu. They decided to take the first move to cause injury to Sifu Chow and preclude him from teaching kung fu in Brunei. So, five villains of the Gang of Ten Killers ambushed Chow. They were all strong and taller than Chow, attacked him from all directions. Chow calmly employed the Arm-Scraping fist Skill to fight back until the five vicious fellows were all knocked down to the ground. Now it so happened that an American engineer in the company was a skilled Western boxer. Surprised by his feat of setting back the five ruffians of the notorious gang alone, the engineer asked for a match. Barely two minutes passed and he was already overcome by Sifu Chow's Dragon fist. He requested Sifu to be his instructor immediately and called upon other natives to learn from Sifu Chow. Thus Chow established a gymnasium, teaching kung fu and training traditional lion-dance there. He stayed for five years and trained many natives and disciples. In 1962, he returned to Hong Kong and continued his barbershop business and established a registered Dragon Fist 'Chow Fook Gymnasium' in New Territories.

Chow Fook had trained a lot of disciples and proved to be well known. In 1971, he led a term to Taiwan to demonstrate White Brow and Dragon Fist. In same year, his female disciple, Miss Choi Ching Ching, won the first honour of Chinese Martial Art Championship of Hong Kong. His other male disciples also won the first winner of Championship in 1973 and 1974. In 1975, Sifu joined the famous exponent of Tai-Chi Chuan, Mr. Luk Shiu Sun on a tour to America and Canada to inspect martial studios run by their disciples there and give guidance to the trainees. Sifu visited Vancouver twice in 1979 and 1982.

In 1983, he returned to Hong Kong again. He retired from his barber business and concentrated in training disciples. He planned to organize the techniques and theories of the two schools with his experience and write a series of Kung Fu manuals. SiFu is the directors and honorable directors of many gymnasiums in Hong Kong and around the world. Master Chow returned to his home village and died there on March 1, 1996, aged 83.

by Tang Cheong Shing
December, 1989
Updated September 1998

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