Pui Chan: Kung Fu Pioneer – documentary
February 25th, 2013 by Mr. C
(Warrington Hudlin – moderator, Mimi Chan – Director)
Director: Mimi Chan
Stars: Pui Chan, Mimi Chan & family, Wah Lum Temple Sifu’s & students
Genre: Martial Arts documentary
Last Saturday, we were treated with an opportunity to watch a wonderful documentary on martial art legend Pui Chan. The film – Pui Chan: Kung Fu Pioneer was being screened as part of the Fist & Sword programming series at the Musuem of the Moving Image in Astoria, Queens. Despite the rains – loyal fans, family, & practioners alike showed up for the movie. A Lion dance performance and a Q&A with the director would also be on the menu for this festive event! Some of the New York martial arts community were also in attendance at the screening to show support for Pui Chan and Mimi which included Sifu Carl Albright, Sifu Pedro Cepero, Sifu Paul Vizzio, and Sifu Tak Wah Eng.
An accomplished martial artist in her own right, Sifu Mimi Chan directed/produced her 1st movie ever, a documentary on a subject matter really close to her heart – her father, martial art legend of the Wah Lum Temple Northern Praying Mantis system – Grandmaster Pui Chan. Master Chan is basically a living legend of Kung Fu — period. His modest beginnings started in the Guang Dong province in the southern part of China in a village called Shajing. This is where he would begin his journey in martial arts with the Wah Lum Pai system of fighting arts under Sifu Lee Kwan Shan. His rocky journey would continue onto Hong Kong where he immigrated to away from the arms of a turbulent and communist china. His martial studies would continue to progress in HK while he worked as a seamen. Opportunities presented themselves to a teenage Pui Chan while working on a ship in international waters, more specifically in New York City. Chan’s 3rd chapter would start here as he found himself jumping into the waters and ended up swimming to a pier in Newark, NJ! He eventually landed in Chinatown NY where relatives would drive down from Boston to whisk him away to eventually settle down in Boston’s Chinatown! This martial art legend would firmly root himself in Boston all the while gaining much fanfare and respect in the community eventually relocating to Orlando, Florida to create the Wah Lum Temple, a kung fu organization welcoming practioners from all over the world to share knowledge.
Pui Chan’s martial prowess and his liberal attitude to teach chinese martial arts to the non-chinese and to whomever wanted to learn the arts during a time when the community frayed on such practice is what cemented this Grandmaster’s legacy. He seemed to have such a genuine love and passion for chinese kung fu that teaching others about it to keep the culture alive was just an obvious progression.
(Mimi Chan)
(Q&A with Mimi Chan moderated by Warrington Hudlin of the Fist & Sword series at MOMI)
Mimi Chan, the director/daughter of this living legend in Kung Fu is going to be the next generation’s standard bearer of the Wah Lum Praying Mantis system so it would make perfect sense that she would be the one to direct us with the moving images of this documentary in addition to being able to provide great footage and insight to her sifu and father. Mimi was the main narrator of the film as she leads the charge with telling us the tale of her father’s journey starting from his humble background in China in conjunction with Master Chan Pui travelling on location to China, Hong Kong, Boston, & Orlando while explaining to us in his broken canto-english about his unique story. It was asked in the Q&A after the screening to the director with their choice for Mr. Chan to speak english instead of chinese and they truly felt that being in the americas for so long that speaking his chinese-english was part of him. It was pretty funny listening to his canto-english, this coming from a chinese american background myself. We as viewers could tell that with every move, every word he spoke whether in english or cantonese that he was so full of energy, so charismatic, and so full of life! From the start of the film, it was apparent that this movie was more than just a martial arts documentary. Although, Master Pui Chan is universally known and respected because of his skill and dedication with his Wah Lum Tam Tui Northern Praying Mantis Art, this film really exposes a touching tale of an immigrant with high morals living the american dream. To go along with this dream, Pui Chan met the woman of his dreams – his wife Suzy who was raised in Kingston, Jamaica! Talk about a ball of fire between these two! This charming documentary definitely reminded us that martial arts might be the enabler in a person’s life but the real backbone of success, health, & happiness is sustained by having a supportive family. You get the feeling that the director’s objective of the film was to show everyone the legacy of her father but it also seemed to serve as a coming of age story for herself documented by footages of their trips to china to pay respects to Pui Chan’s sifu and parents. Other great video footage included clips from the great HK actor Shek Kin performing a kung fu routine. He was a skilled northern style practitioner and was a very close friend to Mr. Chan. You all might know Shek Kin from playing the role of “Mr. Han” in Enter The Dragon with Bruce Lee. Footages from Master Pui Chan’s performances from his younger years along with some from Mimi were very impressive! Interviews with students, family, and Wah Lum Sifu Bob Rosen help shed some light in Mr. Chan’s earlier years in Boston.
We would definitely recommend for everyone to keep Pui Chan: Kung Fu Pioneer on their to watch radar! Besides the martial influence that this man has had in the kung fu community in the States, he hasn’t forgotten where his roots are from and continues to support organizations such as the Shaolin Temple in China. From the looks of this documentary, the Chan family and the Wah Lum Temple are doing their best to preserve chinese culture and its fighting arts. Mimi Chan must be very proud of her father and her kung fu family. We are glad that she is continuing on the legacy and filming this documentary is proof that she is taking this to another level of awareness. Thank you for sharing the story of your family with the rest of us!
We recorded part of the Q&A with Mimi Chan moderated by Warrington Hudlin which can be viewed above. There was also a Lion Dance performance by the Wah Lum Temple students from Massachussetts before the screening of the movie.
Tags: documentary, kung fu, martial arts, mimi chan, Pui Chan
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