Lok Yiu

Grand master Lok Yiu was born in 1922 in Hongkong. He was one of Yip Man’s first students. In 1950 he started to practice Wing Chun at Yip Man’s school in the Union of Workers in Restaurants. After some weeks of hard training only Leung Seung and Lok Yiu could persist. Yip Man moved to Lok Yiu and lived with him in the next eight years and lived there even after the teachings resumed in the Worker’s Union. During this time Yip Man practiced with his student literally day and night. Very soon Lok Yiu became an assistant instructor at the trainings. In the 1950’s it was Lok Yiu, Leung Seung, and later Wong Seun Leung who popularize Wing Chun. They took part in competitions and also in traditional challenged fights. They managed to beat many representatives of other styles, and the greatest feat was that Lok Yiu and Leung Seung could beat the martial artists who were the representatives of the Choi Lei Fat style. Previously the Choi Lei Fat school was considered to be invincible. After finishing his studies, he opened his own school where he taught his style for over fifty years. His two sons Lok Geng Sang and Lok Geng Gwong, and also his grandson Lok Wu Man mastered his system. In 1992 he accepted his only non-Chinese student, Wilhelm Blech whom in a few years he named his successor (standing by the side of his two sons). In 2006 when he died Wing Chun lost one of its greatest figures.