"Lee’s mother agreed to give him the money for the kung fu lessons. He then hunted down Cheung’s instructor. However, Cheung did not believe that Lee would be a serious student. Lee persisted, and with some reluctance on an autumn day in 1953, Cheung took Bruce Lee to the Restaurant Workers’ Union Hall, where classes were held, and introduced him to the Grandmaster of Wing Chun kung fu, Professor Yip Man."
“Yip Man was very pleased to meet him because Bruce was a celebrity,” continues Cheung. “And Yip Man always had an appreciation for talent. So I left him there, and Bruce began taking lessons straight away." - Blitz Martial Arts
William Cheung was also a close friend and senior and training partner to Bruce Lee in the Wing Chun system. He was responsible for personally introducing Bruce Lee to Wing Chun in 1953 - Wiki
A boyhood friend of Bruce's, Cheung was responsible for getting Bruce started at Yip Man's school and was one of Bruce's primary instructors (Yip Man rarely touched hands with beginners, leaving the bulk of his instruction to his senior students). In addition, Bruce looked upon Cheung as the man to beat, and considered Cheung to be the "ultimate fighter." - Inside Kung Fu
William Cheuk Hing Cheung was the sole inheritor of the Traditional Wing Chun Kung Fu system, and was the person responsible for introducing Bruce Lee to Wing Chun Kung Fu. - Everything Wing Chun
And of course it should be mentioned that William Cheung had a legendary relationship with Bruce Lee - as the man who not only first introduced Bruce to Grandmaster Yip Man - but who also helped to train Bruce quite a bit in the aspect of wing chun (along with Wong Shun Leung) that emphasizes attacking the opponent’s center of mass as the major fighting strategy. - WingChunPedia
(If that is not enough to back up my facts then feel free to find some evidence proving otherwise)
On that note, i think this is the last answer i'll give as it is less "Yahoo answers" and more "Yahoo popularity contest". Enjoy your time getting the wrong facts guys. ;)
There are a lot of possible reasons, most of which were already listed here.
Remember that back in the 50's-60's there were a lot of gangs, most of which were from certain martial arts schools. Asians at the time were also generally more racist even towards each other so Bruce not being entirely Chinese but partially white would be picked on.
Why did he choose Wing Chun? Some say he was introduced by someone (I've heard William Cheung as well), and some say he searched out Ip Man after hearing stories of him.
In those days, you learn to fight to survive. Gangs could always come out of nowhere and cause unreasonable trouble, claiming you did this and that and trying to take "revenge" on you, etc... Wing Chun had the reputation of being a brutal street defense art. Put the two together and it sounds good. Of course, all other schools of martial arts will always boast about their strengths and try to get you to join.
You may want to look up Hawkin's Cheung (Not to be confused with William Cheung). He has an article somewhere describing his days with Bruce as a peer and main training partner.
Bruce Lee came to Wing Chun by default. In the 1940s and 50s, in Hong Kong racism was prevalent. Bruce Lee was 1/4 Caucasian on his mother's side, which explains why he looked noticeably different from most Chinese people. This also explains his childrens' unique look. Anyway, most Cantonese instructors in Hong Kong refused to accept students who were not entirely racially Chinese, but Wing Chun instructor Yip Man was different. He accepted Bruce Lee, who was known as Lee Jun Fan in Hong Kong.
Bruce Lee was repeatedly targeted for bullying and harassment because he was not entirely Asian, and this prompted him to want to fight back. Under Yip Man's tutelage, Bruce Lee became such a good fighter that he kept putting his tormentors in the hospital. Lee's father knew that his son may soon go to prison, so he arranged for Lee to live in the States, the country of his birth, to distance Lee from the local Cantonese teenagers who kept provoking him to fight them.
I heard about the rival gang members story, and I also know Lee studied students like William Cheung more than others because he was interested in the fighting application more than forms, and he thought William Cheung was the best fighter.
But to say that William Cheung was the only one who learned the truth while everyone else learned garbage is nonsense. I mean, Yip Man also taught his sons. Do you think he gave THEM watered-down crap?
Hong Kong is one of the epicenters for Wing Chun, they have some of the best teachers Living there.
He was gang street fighting all the time (kids type) and his parents decided that he needed to learn martial arts...His father taught him a bit of T'ai chi ch'uan and then he went to Yip Man's school that had a good reputation to learn Wing Chun. He was a kid...around 13 years old...He trained for a couple of years and then he moved, this is why he stopped.
cause he lived in HK and at that times Yip man had been famous shifu there, you knew when he arrived in US he realized to increase his style then he found jeet kune do
Why not?
Why did he choose this art to study originally? What attracted him to it?
Most people want to know why he stopped training in wing chun, I want to know why he started training in wing chun?
Does anyone know the answer?
