Who brought kung fu to Britain?

In 1961 a teacher from Hong Kong, Jeremy Yau, brought Lau Gar to Britain, and the British story of kung fu began. Every UK body tells its own beginning, so the dates in this chapter are each body's own. ^{100,102,103,115,118,119}

1961: Lau Gar

Grandmaster Jeremy Yau, Yau Kam Wah, brought Lau Gar from Hong Kong to Britain in 1961, according to the British Kung Fu Association, and set up the BKFA in 1973. ¹⁰⁰ His grandfather, Yau Luk Sau, had learned Lau Gar from several masters and was based in Kowloon; Jeremy Yau became lineage holder after his death in the early 1960s. ¹⁰⁰

The BKFA calls itself the "custodian of Lau Gar kung fu and kickboxing", with its home in the West Midlands, and in October 2026 its club map showed 49 clubs. ^100,140 Its grades are eight sashes from white to black: the first after about 12 weeks, and 1st degree black sash after four to five years on average, graded before a national panel. ¹⁰⁰ In 2015 Master John Russell was appointed lineage holder; the association still calls Grandmaster Yau the head of the style. ¹⁰⁰ Senior instructors called Guardians were first appointed in 2000. ¹⁰⁰

1973: a body for every style

The BCCMA, the British Council for Chinese Martial Arts, was set up in 1973 under the Sports Council's guidelines. ⁸⁰ Today the UK sports councils recognise it as the governing body for all Chinese martial arts, and Sport Wales lists kung fu disciplines including Lau Gar and Wing Chun under it. ⁸⁷

Wing Chun in London

Samuel Kwok, born in Hong Kong in 1948, trained under Lee Sing in London from 1973, then privately under Ip Chun from 1978. In 1981 he was appointed chairman and senior overseas representative of the Ip Chun Martial Art Association, and he brought Ip Chun and Ip Ching to teach in the UK in 1991 and 1995. ¹⁰³

James Sinclair, who began Wing Chun in the early 1970s and trained with Ip Chun from 1981, founded the UK Wing Chun Kung Fu Association in October 1985. It describes itself as "simply a group of clubs" and says there is no governing body for Wing Chun in the UK or anywhere else. ¹⁰² Other lines followed: the Wing Chun Federation, founded in 1990 by Alan Gibson, who studied with Ip Man's son Ip Chun, and guided in Hong Kong by Cliff Au-Yeung of Wong Shun-leung's line, and the Kamon Martial Arts Federation, founded in 1992 by Kevin Chan. ^104,106

Liverpool, and the song of 1974

Master Jimmy Chan, Chan Wai, who lived from 1940 to 1989, taught Hung Gar and Northern Shaolin at the England Ching Wu Athletic Association in the early 1970s; the Jing Wu movement, also written Chin Woo, had set up branches in overseas Chinese communities. In the mid 1970s he founded Liverpool Hung Gar Kung Fu. Its line runs through his uncle Law Keung and Fung Hok Biu to Wong Fei-hung, and its lion dance has been part of Liverpool's Chinese New Year for over 40 years. ^1,18,112

Kung fu was everywhere in the 1970s. In 1974 "Kung Fu Fighting" by the Jamaican British singer Carl Douglas reached number one in Britain. ¹⁶

Fujian White Crane Kung Fu and Wutan both say they have taught in the UK since 1977. ^115,118

A Shaolin monk in north London

Every new student there starts in a three month Preparation class built on stamina, flexibility and five classic stances, and the school began entering students in BCCMA sanshou competitions in 2003. ¹¹⁹

Today

Among the UK kung fu clubs in EveryDojo's directory, Wing Chun is the name seen most often, then Lau Gar and Shaolin, and three clubs in four are independent of any association. ^141,142 The UK Wing Chun Kung Fu Association writes of "thousands" of breakaway schools and no body able to regulate them. ¹⁰² So the first questions at any club are which style, which line and which association.