Laughter comes from the front door of the Francis Fong Martial Arts Academy, swung open to ventilate the warm balmy air of an Atlanta summer evening. On the outskirts of this Southern metropolis is a busy martial arts academy headed by a jovial and quick-witted instructor from Hong Kong. As if offering its students a choice, the academy sits comfortably next to a firearms' practice facility. Three or four weekends of the year, for the Southeastern Martial Arts Conference, this location greets martial arts teachers and students from all over

Francis Fong giving instructions at a recent wing chun evaluation test.

A walk through the doors puts one in the middle of a ten-by-ten lobby surrounded by wall-to-wall photos of celebrities and honored martial arts legends, awards, and plaques with words of respect for the man inside leading class. On the side wall of the large training hall is a simple altar typical of any Chinese martial arts school, a statuette of General Kwan and an antique iron incense burner. Opposite the altar stand original teak wood practice dummies brought many years ago from Hong Kong with a few made of American hardwood as well.

At the far end of the training hall is a contemporary elevated boxing ring in red, white and blue. In this mixture of cultures and equipment, students also of all backgrounds, ages and races, as well as a few women, are intently listening to the instructor, Sifu Francis Fong, standing five and a half feet tall, with a warm smile and slight but strong build.

"Don't try too hard. Relax. Feel your partner's energy and work with him."

What follows is hardly a scene of students "not trying hard." Everyone breaks up with partners and moves into full exertion exercises: hitting pads, sweating hard, throwing complicated combinations of full-contact kicks, and then a hand trapping drill your average passerby would find difficult to decipher. What then does he mean by "don't try too hard?"

"Look here." The instructor continues on to the next drill. "So someone kicks you here." His assistant throws a level roundhouse kick. What follows defies imagination as Francis Fong traps the kick with his body, flips into--not away from--his opponent, rolls forward onto him, and ends with a choke to the neck.

"Wing Chun is all about sensitivity. You don't go against your partner. Follow him. He's giving you energy this way. Well, you go with that. Try it."

The students, baffled and dripping with sweat, begin the exercise--what seemed easy to watch is as hard as the floor they are landing on. Some have success. All are intent on the challenge of the exercise.

The next day at the academy, his students are lined up to practice grappling. An hour later, some stay as new students come in to study the next class, Filipino martial arts. A visitor soon realizes that this dynamic school is quietly and creatively building a new kind of training and practice of the martial arts. Styles that traditionally have been taught as exclusive systems (Wing Chun, Kali, Jujitsu) here blend and flow. The wave created by the converging waters is powerful.

A Traditional Background
Francis Fong, born in Hong Kong, began his martial arts training when he was very young. Attracted by the promise of competition he first joined a Tae Kwon Do school. Around this time he also tried Judo and Wushu. Three years into his martial arts training, his school friends introduced him to Wing Chun Kung Fu. He was selected into a closed-door school lead by Sifu Jiu Wun, an instructor with a high reputation who had immigrated to Hong Kong from Southern

By contrast, Francis Fong's current teaching philosophy provides a balanced mix of traditional and contemporary training methodology. Addressing this contrast, Francis Fong describes his early study as "old-fashioned training." "Jiu Wun was traditional....We were like a close family." There was no sparring practice in the school. He continues, "Wing Chun cannot really fight like that. Its technique is decided in the street. The opponent in the ring is not the same as an opponent in the street. We did A LOT of sticky hands."

To understand the history of the system, I later was introduced to Sifu Jason Lau, Francis Fong's Wing Chun brother. Sifu Lau also lives and teaches close to Atlanta and is the man responsible for first introducing Francis Fong to Wing Chun. Jason Lau described his teacher's

Ring testing for Wing Chun students at the Francis Fong Martial Arts Academy incorporates focus padwork for traditional wing chun gates blocking with simultaneous counter (lin sil da), battle punches (lin wan choy), and proper hip and body connection of these basic techniques. Then the techniques are put to the test in a ring fighting environment.

Later Francis Fong elaborates, "Jiu Wun's style and background were different. His level was very high already. Everyone has their own favorite stuff. His style was different but the system was the same. The system should be passed down. Style should be your own. There is no style of martial arts--that's just a way of labeling. It is really about yourself. Your own style represents yourself. Then you represent a system."

Cross Training
A true leader in the martial arts of the 90's, Francis Fong actively encourages training in other systems. He explores and studies many martial arts himself. What helped direct his move into exploring other systems was an event which happened after he had already opened his first Wing Chun school in Atlanta. In 1981, asked by film coordinator Bobby Bass to help choreograph the fight scenes for the movie, Sharkey's Machine, he met up with Sifu Dan Inosanto (Bruce Lee's well-known student and predecessor) Dan Inosanto had been flown in from Los Angeles to work on the movie. "Sifu Dan

Low kicks are thrown into the mix of a wing chun test at the Francis Fong Academy. "Students learn to show their endurance, attitude and adaptability," explains instructor Steve Grantham.

Francis Fong says of him, "I respect him not only as a martial artist and teacher but also for his attitude and philosophy." Dan Inosanto later introduced Francis Fong to Master Ajarn Chai (the first native Thai instructor to offer Thai boxing in America). These associations sealed his move into exploring his material by mastering other systems.

Crossing borders was a trait which had started early in his life. At twenty-two, Francis Fong came to the U.S. from Hong Kong in search of new opportunities. He first went to college in Canada and then to Connecticut for work. On the weekends and summers he would go down to New York City to train with his Wing Chun brother, Jason Lau, who a few years earlier had come to New York. Jason Lau had by then established a school in Brooklyn.

"I trained wherever I could. I did some Muay Thai. I went to martial art schools and made friends to work out with me. We also had people coming to Jason's school to challenge us all the time."

Then in 1975 Francis Fong came down to Atlanta to see a college friend. After visiting the

Wing chun students learn to deal with low kicks while testing their traditional hand techniques.

Now at his academy Francis Fong offers four autonomous programs: Wing Chun, Thai Boxing, Grappling, and Filipino Martial Arts. This gives his students many choices and also offers students who reach an advanced level in an art, the opportunity to grow and expand their training within the Academy. Putting his own understanding of martial combat into a constant evolutionary process, Fong is always changing, to which the students at his academy can attest. They recount how he put on a white belt and gi top to mix it up with the other students at a recent Machado Jiu-jitsu seminar at the Academy. They also say that Francis Fong, though proficient in many other martial art

Francis Fong's students practicing elbow positioning, developed in chi and trapping, in their groundwork.

"Now in the nineties, everyone is cross training. We don't have to be bound by the traditional attitude of "this system is better than that system." People are understanding more that it's all about the individual ...what you can make work. Wing Chun is my base system. But knowing the other arts has helped me expand my Wing Chun," he said. Currently Francis Fong is a full instructor in Filipino Martial Arts and Jun Fan Gung Fu through Dan Inosanto. He is also the Southeast representative for Arjarn Chai's Thai Boxing Association.

Perhaps this explains his ability to satisfy the wide variety of stylists who attend his world-wide seminars. Describing his breadth and accessibility, Sifu Dwight Woods (Jun Fan Gung Fu, Muay Thai, Silat, Kali, Savate), of Miami Florida states, "Francis Fong can make you understand your own martial art by showing you his own. He can communicate to martial artists of any discipline."

New Generation Martial Arts
In the spring of '98, at a Wing Chun / JKD seminar in New York City, Sifu Fong tries to help the attendees relax with some philosophy. "It's important to be friends. Have fun. We are the new generation of martial artists. Martial arts has a lot of politics. Wing Chun is the worst. We're lucky now. Twenty years ago you could only study one system. Now everyone is sharing. You can explore and experiment for yourself. If you train like this," he says butting his fists against each other, "then you will not improve. You are fighting with your partner and not helping each other. Training like this," he says, opening his fists into facing palms moving up together, "then you help each other. You will learn to work with your partner." Attendees later attribute the comment to helping them relax and better enjoy the seminar.

"What you get out of Wing Chun you can use as tool. Instead of burying yourself in the system, it helps you develop yourself...not to be the best Wing Chun guy. It's to be the best of who you are," Fong notes.

Sil Lum Tao
During the seminar, I notice that though he teaches applications to the first form in Wing Chun, he does not go through technique after technique; rather, he teaches mostly energy applications and body mechanics. These will be tools that seminar participants can take to their own movement style and study of other systems and likely the reason that makes his instruction so satisfying to students inside and outside of the Wing Chun system.

Francis Fong translates the title, Sil Lum Tao as "a little bit of imagination." His instruction mostly focuses on the mind's understanding of the body's direction of energy and its native powers. This is not only energizing but also activates synapses closer to instinct training rather than of memory retention. This method shares learning principles with the internal arts of China, such as hsing-I and I-chuan, where cultivation of the mind's direction is considered the greatest achievement.

Turning the Keys
Francis Fong elaborated on how he felt Wing Chun contributed technically to his training in the other arts he knew. "Boxing can gain centerline sensitivity, positioning and combination economy [from Wing Chun]. The Wing Chun leverage training and relaxed sensitivity always helps on the ground. You also can bring to the ground the Wing Chun relaxation and intuition of position. Wing Chun can help you increase your economy of motion, centerline and sensitivity when you use weapons in the Filipino martial arts. Body mechanics, position sensitivity...as long as you train the principles, traditional training should help you advance and evolve."

"Master yourself. Then master your system."

Ancient Art With Modern Vision:
In a world where the skills of the majority of martial artists do not have to be tested in the street everyday, that very change has also affected the way the art is evolved and passed to newer generations. To respond to this change, Fong has found in his research of different systems some keys to keeping his art a 'live' art and also helping it evolve. On this subject he spoke about some of the merits he found in the system of Thai and modern Boxing.

"Ring fighting is its own art. It's set up in a certain way that you have to learn how to use it. It's a specific game. You're under pressure. It drains your energy more. You have to use more energy. Also you cannot run out and leave. It forces you to take care of business right away. I took this from Muay Thai. It's good for Wing Chun students to feel it. I use it for testing endurance, conditioning, spirit and psychology. You have to fight. You have no choice. It helps you gain confidence and understanding. The ring has its own special strategy," Fong notes.

"I like boxing and JKD. When Bruce Lee introduced it, he saw the future. It's important for Wing Chun people to use this philosophy. Try to experiment. Understand the art. If you can get more, try it. Be creative. It helps you understand timing, focus, footwork. Look at Thai Boxing--Muay Thai makes a better fighter because you can really hit. Get the feeling of explosive energy (which you cannot do to a friendly partner without equipment). It's like music--to train and improve you need the instrument."

Rather than being caught by a tradition, Francis Fong stands on the shoulders of tradition to look into our own world today, giving his students a vantage point that will inform them in their everyday lives, inspired by analyzed tradition and made relevant to what they themselves see.

Walking into Francis Fong's home, you're greeted by a magnificent jade Buddha head under a spotlight in the foyer of his Atlanta home. Later in my interview I am surprised when he mentions that he's Catholic.

"That's why my name is Francis."

"Sifu, why then do you have a Buddha in your hallway??? Oh, some of my students gave that to me."

I heard in this comment many things: the roots of his traditional training, his dedication to family and creating it across obvious boundaries. I found myself imagining his teacher Jiu Wun going to Hong Kong and joining forces with his training cousin Yip Man no matter what his differences of opinion might be. And then my thoughts went to Francis Fong's students, who offered their American concept of a traditional Asian treasure to their teacher in exchange for which he has given them, his own gifts--or more aptly, secrets to understanding the gifts of their own imagination.