[ back to article selection ]

Founder of Chung Wah Martial Arts System
Brings Quan (kung fu) Back to Homeland
Lee Chi Wai becomes professor of martial arts

Sing Tao Daily News (January 21, 2005)

Bringing his “fist” home and once again walking on Chinese soil.

The founder of the Chung Wah Kung Fu International System in Toronto, Master Lee Chi Wai has accepted the appointment of Guest Professor by the Wushu Department of the Wuhan University of Sports. He will be teaching the master's degree candidates, and thus, becomes the first member in the Canadian martial arts world to receive an appointment from a Chinese university.

Lee Chi Wai came to Canada from Hong Kong more than ten years ago. He started his study of Chinese martial arts with his father at a young age, learning the “Lee's Southern Way Fist” – the set of martial repertoire which has been passed down through the generations in his family.

He told the reporter yesterday that he would be going to China in March to take up the appointment of guest professor of the master's degree program in the Wushu Department at the Wuhan University of Sports. Master Lee has participated in martial arts and academic exchanges with the Wuhan University of Sports from as early as the beginning of 2000. In 2003, the Department made a proposal to Master Lee about teaching in China. The letter appointing him as guest professor of the Wushu Department of the University was finalized in 2004 and received approval of the National Committee of Sports in September of the year. This March Master Lee will make his way to China to teach his lifetime's study at the University. He regards this as what he can, as an individual, contribute to Chinese martial arts. To his knowledge, this is the first time a member of the Canadian martial arts world has joined the ranks of professors in a postsecondary institution in China.

As a child, Master Lee Chi Wai studied his family's style (an offshoot of Southern Shaolin). This was followed by many years studying the quintessence of different schools of martial arts. This culminated in the formulation of his theory, the Chung Wah Kung Fu International System in the 90's, the fruit of his life's pursuit. In the course, Master Lee joined the Shaolin Martial Monks as a lay disciple.

According to Master Lee, there are two major themes to the Chung Wah Kung Fu International System – the first is the study of the human body, its structure and the confluence of the internal energies. From this perspective, China's martial arts can be viewed in eight major categories. The second theme is the reparation of the human body, in other words, how martial arts function as a way to health and as a part of medical treatment.

Master Lee said, “I will be teaching four martial arts master's degree courses at the Wuhan University of Sports. These include the relation between the human body and classical martial arts, the injuries that the human body is exposed to in present-day competitive wushu, the future of Chinese martial arts and the growth and development of martial arts overseas. The University already has more than 60 students enrolled in the courses.”

In talking about the development of wushu overseas, Master Lee explained that his own honest assessment is the wushu teams from Toronto are still at the amateur stage. They are not ready to face the professional teams from China. Even though in the 2008 Beijing Olympics Chinese wushu will take the stage as a demonstration sport, this is only in accordance with the IOC's practice of giving the host country the choice of an exhibition sport. As for Chinese wushu becoming a competitive event in the Olympics, Master Lee thought the chances were slim.

“I am not being discouraging,” he said. The fact that traditionally each school of Chinese martial arts sets itself apart from the whole makes it close to impossible to create a unified sport suited to competition purposes.

Secondly, the funding for each Olympic Games is being reduced. Finally, the biggest obstacle to making Chinese martial arts a competitive sport is that modern competitive wushu has lost its cultural distinctiveness.

Beginning from the 1970's, China, in its effort to “streamline” the myriad forms of martial arts and to develop from this a national and international competitive sport, has caused the characteristic traits of each individual school to fall by the wayside. This has resulted in a form of Chinese athletics without any traditional character.

This development of Chinese martial arts has turned it into a performance item. As such, it is no longer in possession of those cultural traits that other sports, such as judo or boxing, have retained through their uncompromising insistence on tradition.

Master Lee feels that as a martial arts practitioner, individual achievement is no longer a priority for him. The teaching assignment as a guest professor in a Chinese university is no big deal. His goal is to be the catalyst for change. He hopes that through working together with others of a similar cast of mind, he will be able to elevate “wushu” into a field of study in which personal integrity and nobility of character will, once again, become an integral part of the study of martial arts.

This, he thinks, will require a shift of focus away from the insistence on the differences between the various schools of martial arts. To provide traditional martial arts with a broader frame of reference is his personal goal.

There are ten well-known Chinese universities which have a martial arts department; these include Beijing University, Shanghai University and Shandong University. In international performances or competitions, the delegates from China are usually members of the postsecondary institutes or other professional institutes.

Aside from teaching at the Wuhan University, Master Lee is also considering accepting an appointment from the Shandong University as still another way in which he could share his ideals with China's martial arts world.

* Master Lee will be teaching at the University for 2-3 week periods, twice a year.