Ip Man

Ip Man was born as Ip Kai-man () to Ip Oi-dor () and Ng Shui () as the third of his parents' four children. He grew up in a wealthy family in Foshan (Fatshan), Guangdong (Kwangtung) and received a traditional Chinese education alongside his elder brother Ip Kai-gak (), elder sister Ip Wan-mei (), and younger sister Ip Wan-hum (). Ip started learning Wing Chun from Chan Wah-shun when he was 9 or 13. Chan was 57 at the time, and Ip became Chan's 16th and last student. Due to Chan's age, he was able to train Ip for only three years before suffering a mild stroke in 1909 and retiring to his village. Ip learned most of his skills and techniques from Chan's second-most senior student, Ng Chung-sok (). At the age of 16, with help from his relative, Leung Fut-ting, Ip moved to Hong Kong and attended school at St. Stephen's College, by then a secondary school for wealthy families and foreigners living in Hong Kong. until Leung's death in 1911. Ip returned to Foshan in 1916 when he was 24 and became a police officer there for the Nationalist government. During the Second Sino-Japanese War, Ip Man sided with Kuomintang during the conflict. What Ip Man did during the war remains unclear. It is rumoured that he had joined the Central Bureau of Investigation and Statistics in its academy in Guizhou in 1938, after which he would have returned to Foshan as an undercover intelligence officer. However, the veracity of this has been disputed. It is believed Ip went to live with Kwok Fu during the war and only returned to Foshan at the end of the war. After the war, Ip Man served for a few years as captain of the Foshan police patrols. Ip found some time to train his second son, Ip Ching, during the year 1949. At the end of 1949, after the Chinese Communist Party won the Chinese Civil War, as Ip was a member of the Kuomintang, Ip, his wife and their elder daughter, Ip Nga-sum, left Foshan for Hong Kong. ==Life in Hong Kong==

Ip, his wife Cheung, and their daughter arrived in Hong Kong through Macau in 1950. His wife and daughter later returned to Foshan to retrieve their identity cards. Due to the closure of borders between China and Hong Kong in 1951, Ip and Cheung were separated for good, with Cheung remaining in Foshan until her death. After having moved to Hong Kong, the 56-year-old Ip Man struggled with unemployment. Ip's only prior experience was as a policeman in Foshan, but he was either unable or refused to join the Hong Kong Police Force. Ip's friends were able to help him get a job at a restaurant, where he would make new associates via the Hong Kong Restaurant Workers' Association. The association also had a club for martial artists, led by Leung Sheung, but Ip Man didn't want others to know that he was a martial artist. Ip is known to have been addicted to opium and, after moving to Hong Kong, he was able to buy it on the black market. Opium was very expensive at the time, so Ip had to earn a steady income to smoke opium while supporting his family in Foshan. Ip began teaching Wing Chun in the early 1950s, to escape poverty and to allegedly feed his opium addiction. His earliest students consisted mainly of "poor and uneducated" members of the Restaurant Workers' Association Initially, Ip Man's teaching business was poor in Hong Kong because Ip's students typically stayed for only a couple of months. He moved his school twice, first, to Castle Peak Road in Sham Shui Po, and then to Lee Tat Street () in Yau Ma Tei by where only a few of his former students follow and continue to train under. One of the notable student was Grandmaster Chow Tze Chueng, the teacher of Sifu Donald mak. By then, some of his students had attained proficiency in Wing Chun and were able to start their own schools. They went on and sparred with other martial artists to compare their skills, and their victories helped to increase Ip's fame. Around 1955, he had a mistress from Shanghai, who was referred to by his students simply as Shanghai Po (). Ip and this mistress had an extramarital son named Ip Siu-wah (). In Foshan, his wife Cheung died of cancer in 1960. Ip never formally introduced his mistress to his other sons, who eventually arrived in Hong Kong to reunite with him in 1962. By the 1960s, Ip Man was becoming more famous in the Hong Kong community. This allowed him to attract wealthier and better-educated people to become his students. In 1967, Ip and some of his students established the Ving Tsun (Wing Chun) also pronounced as "Wing Chun" Athletic Association (). The main purpose of the Ving Tsun Athletic Association was to help Ip tackle his financial difficulties in Hong Kong, which was due to his regular use of opium. One of his former students, Duncan Leung, claimed that Ip used tuition money to support his opium addiction. Ip's mistress died of cancer in 1968, and their son later became a Wing Chun practitioner like his half-brothers. File:Ip Man Wing Chun Association.jpg|The original Ip Man Wing Chun Association in Hong Kong, around 1960 File:The age of 18 Bruce Lee and Ye Wen.jpg|Ip Man and Bruce Lee ==Death and legacy==

, Hong Kong Ip died on 2 December 1972, in his unit at 149 Tung Choi Street in Hong Kong, He was buried at Wo Hop Shek, Hong Kong. Ip's notable students include Bruce Lee, Leung Sherng (梁相), Moy Yat, Chu Shong-tin, Lok Yiu (駱耀), Wong Shun-leung, Jiu Wan (招允), Ho Kam-ming, Victor Kan, Lo Man-kam, William Cheung, Ip Ching, Ip Chun and Leung Ting. In 2000, Ip was inducted into the Martial Arts History Museum Hall of Fame. ==Martial arts==

The Wing Chun lineage according to Ip Man. == Media portrayals ==

In the 1976 film, Bruce Lee: The Man, The Myth, Ip Man's eldest son, Ip Chun, portrayed his father in a minor role as Bruce Lee's Wing Chun Sifu. Ip Man was portrayed by Wang Luoyong in Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story in a 1993 American biographical drama film based on the life of Bruce Lee, who was one of Ip's students. In the 1999 film, What You Gonna Do, Sai Fung? (a.k.a. 1959 某日某), he was portrayed by his son, Ip Chun, again as a special appearance. Yu Chenghui portrayed Ip Man in the 2008 Chinese television series, The Legend of Bruce Lee, which was also based on the life of Bruce Lee. Ip Man, a Hong Kong film starring Donnie Yen as the martial artist, was released in 2008. The film takes a number of liberties with Ip's life, often for dramatic effect. Ip's eldest son, Ip Chun, appears in the film and served as a consultant on the production, which focuses on Ip's life during the 1930s to the 1940s, during the Second Sino-Japanese War. The sequel, Ip Man 2, focused on Ip's beginnings in Hong Kong and his students, including Bruce Lee. Ip Man has taught many other people. Amid a surge of Ip Man–related film projects in production, Donnie Yen told the Chinese media in March 2010 that after Ip Man 2, he would no longer play the Wing Chun master, stating, "I would never ever touch any films related to Ip Man. This will be my final film on the subject. Whenever something becomes a success, everyone would jump on the bandwagon, this is very frightening. Did you know how many Ip Man films are in production? Under such condition, we would not progress, it'd only lead to over-saturation of the subject matter." Another Hong Kong film based on Ip Man's life, called The Legend Is Born – Ip Man, was released in June 2010. Herman Yau directed the film and it starred Dennis To as Ip Man and Seventeen band's Wen Junhui as his younger counterpart. Ip Chun makes a special appearance in the film as Leung Bik. In the 2010 film, Bruce Lee, My Brother, Ip Man was portrayed by Wong Chi-wai. Wong Kar-wai's The Grandmaster stars Tony Leung as Ip Man. The film focuses more on the end of an era in Chinese martial arts history as the Second Sino-Japanese War broke out. It was created in an almost biographical style, highlighting parts of history. In contrast with other Ip Man–related projects, The Grandmaster is a more reflective film, focusing more on the musings and philosophies between martial arts and life, as well as Ip Man's journey through the early 1930s to the early 1950s. The 2013 Chinese television series Ip Man, based on Ip Man's life, was first aired on the television network Shandong TV from late February to mid March 2013. It was directed by Fan Xiaotian and starred Kevin Cheng as the eponymous character and Zhou Jianan as the younger counterpart. The 2013 Hong Kong film, Ip Man: The Final Fight, directed by Herman Yau and starring Anthony Wong as Ip Man, focuses on Ip's later life in Hong Kong. Kevin Cheng from the 2013 television series Ip Man made a guest appearance as young Ip Man. Ip Chun made a cameo appearance in the film. This film also focuses on the loyalty of Ip Man's students towards their master. Despite Yen's statement in March 2010 that he no longer wanted to be involved in future films related to Ip Man, a new film to the same series, Ip Man 3, was released on 24 December 2015, with Yen once again reprising his role as Ip Man. In the 2018 action-comedy film Kung Fu League, Dennis To returned in the role of Ip Man, with three other martial artists, Wong Fei-hung, Huo Yuanjia, and Chen Zhen, whisked through time to teach martial arts to a modern-day comic book artist caught in a love triangle. Later in the movie, he reveals he's actually an imposter, Ip Bit Man. In the 2019 film, Ip Man and Four Kings, he was portrayed by Michael Tong. In this film, he must fight the Four Kings before he can confront a human trafficking ring and avenge the death of one of his students. In the 2019 film, Ip Man: Kung Fu Master, Dennis To reprised the role again as Ip Man, set during his time as a police officer in Guangzhou, before the start of the Chinese Communist Revolution in 1949. Donnie Yen reprised his role as Ip Man for the last time in Ip Man 4, which focused on Ip Man coming to San Francisco to find a school for his son as he himself struggled with cancer. The film was released on 20 December 2019. The 2022 film, Ip Man: The Awakening, sees a young Ip Man (portrayed by Miu Tse) visiting Hong Kong and becoming involved in stopping a human trafficking ring. The upcoming feature-length documentary, Yip Man Legacy, recounts the life events of Grandmaster Yip Man (aka Ip Man), and his disciples Wong Shun Leung and Bruce Lee. == Notes ==