the Lau Family thread

[FrankBolte]

Hi,I thought I share what I know about the Lau Family since Im also a member...

I wanna start with Lau Jaam,father of LKL and LKW,"first" teacher of Gordon Liu....

This article has been translated by my good friend Tony Ma in hongkong,the original article came from a chinese book called Ling Nam Masters..this book tells stories about the famnous kung fu masters of southern china...the same Author also wrote novels..those novels have been used for the shaolin movies from ChangCheh..the Author is Zhu Yuzhai who was also a student of Lam sai Wing.

This article was published in the philippine martial art magazine "Rapid"

to be continued

[Mark Pollard]

Much appreciated Franky!

[magicpoe]

Excellent FrankyLau. A real history lesson here, not just a movie.

Thank you.

[teako170]

Quality thread Frank...!

Was going through that other thread (CC vs LKL) which made me search for photos of the duo together.

Aside from those Thailand photos I posted a while back, CC always appears with his actors but can't find any pix with him and your sigung.

If you happen to have any you can post (or really any photos from back in the day of your sigung) that would be most appreciated.

Btw, any details on what happened with his first marriage and his son?

[FrankBolte]

Hi Teako,

I have not much knowledge about LKL's first mariage and his son..and I never would dare to ask him about that...

as for pics together with Chang Cheh...I will have to look in my folders...i cant really remember having one though.

Heres an article from 1972

[FrankBolte]

translation follows

[Asmo]

Thanks for the article, and excellent thread, Franky!

[FrankBolte]

this text was also translated by my friend Tony Ma,and its not really edited so there are some gramma mistakes...

Heading:INTERVIEW OF MOVIE STAR AND MA ADVISER LAU KAR LEUNG劉家良

The introductory:

in the last issue was an interview with famous movie MA adviser 韓英傑 Horn Ying Kit.

The writer was seeking the object for the next issue, thinking hard and as arranged,

finally got the chance to interview a hot and popular movie MA adviser and MA movie star -劉家良 Lau kar Leung

LkL is the son of LAU JAAM 劉湛-- the famous deceased Hung Kuen boxer.

And according to the chinese saying 虎父無犬子 Tiger Father No Dog Son=Like father like son,

Sifu LKL did not fail due to his family's transmission, at the first approach he is quite cool, but he is also talkative and bearing his opinions no

matter in chinese martial arts or movie production and he claimed as below his studies:

START STRIKING RICE-BAG AT AGE 7

Sifu LkL hometown at 新會SunWao=New City (hrs trip away from KwangChau),

but his place of birth appeared to be 廣州 KwangChau. He is the 3rd son among the kids

of LJ, and he also has his 5th brother --a well-known move MA adviser called 家榮Ka Wing.

Around a year ago, [shaws Brothers 邵氏(pronouns as SIU SEE]

produced a film [十三太保Sub Sam Tai Bo=13 Teddy Boys]

家榮Ka Wing participated in it as an important role.

Sifu Lau Jaam was a well-known Hung Gar boxer in the Ling Ngam嶺南(Hill South)area.

LJ was the disciple of WONG FEI HUNGv 黃飛鴻

(this is not really true as Lau Jaam was the disciple of Lam Sai Wing and therefor Wong Fei Hung's grand student).

Lau Jaam set his kwun 館 (school/gym) nearby 天成路 (TIN SHING ROAD)

close to 廣州大新路 (Canton New Main Road).

At this time, practising kung-fu was a hot item, Lau Jaam got over 300 students,

and the majority came from 苦力 (coolie= transportation workers)

of the 西堤 West Bank, and waiters from 長堤旅店 (LONG BEACH MOTEL), even those action guys from the 洪船 (HUNG BOAT) the drama group, e.g.

[五虎軍 ng Ku Kun =FIVE TIGERS ARMY].

Sifu LKL said he was born 1 year before the [七七事件] (July 7 II world war)

confrontation, that's why he didn't know much about his father's legendaries.

When he grew up getting to having memory, the war ended and he was in

primary school together with kids of 陳斗 (CHAN DOU), namely:

陳大偉 CHAN TAI WAI

陳細偉 CHAN SAI WAI

陳素珍 CHAN SO GIN

陳素蘭 CHAN SO LAN

They all attended[蘇聲SO SING小學=primary school]

located at 濠畔街 (HO PUN STREET=River Side Street).

As regard to LKL's kung-fu, he commenced at the age of 7......

It seems that Lau Jaam's main Kwoon is at the 天成路(TIN SHING ROAD),but actually he got 2 more

sub-kwoons. The main kwun is equipped best and biggest space for training.

LKL 劉家良was physically weak in his childhood, quiet in character and not active,

not fond of MA, but LJ forced him to train.

LKL same as the other students, the first lesson is the Stance Practise.

Firtly starting from 10 minutes stance, then getting to longer and so if okay passed

that body not shaking after to more than half an hour stance.Then followed by striking

the [米包]RICE BAG. Basically people practise kung-fu first should strike

[沙包=sand bag], but LJ劉湛 used [米包]RICE BAG instead sand.

AS sifu LJ believed sand particles are too hard for beginners,

it's easy for them to hurt the bone, tendon and the muscle.

Rice pack is looser and better for substituting sand.

The fist on rice-bag developes hand power strength with Softness.

This enables practitioner train strong power comprising soft power.

Rice bag training[打米包] and followed by sand-bag trainig[打沙包] is the special style

of LJ's teaching in the LAU KWooN.

But it's not easy to be promoted to sand-bag trainig from rice-bag, as LJ thought that the

student should strike the rice-bag sharp and precisely that the rice inside are

broken all and turn to rice sand. If so that proves the student is powerful enough to proceed to the sand-bag.

This really need skill. After striking the sand-bag, promoted to strike[打三星樁].

=DA Sam Sing Jong =Strike 3 stars poles.

What's [打三星樁]?? It's 3 poles of average length, 1 being hang from the ceiling, and the

other 2 planted in the ground and all poles are[響樁 ](Heng Jong=sound pole).

These so called Heng Jong=sound pole, doesn't mean the poles are hollow,

but they are fixed at the lower end of the pole with a brass bell,

quite thick, as big as a guy's fist. Practicioner standing in front of the poles,

extend his left and right forearms, then 拍掌 (clap palm)these poles as hard

as he could substain as to shake the bell ring.

When the bell rings, it indicates the practicioner is adequately powerful and can move to fist set training.

Sifu LKL said he started striking rice-bag at age 7,[打三星]

and at age of 12, as the city was not stable his father

LAU JAAM劉湛 removed his kwun from Canton to Hongkong. Re-located the gym

at [百步梯]BARK PO TAI(Hundred stars case) in the[上環]SHEUNG WAN(Western District)

adjacent to [中央戲院]CHUNG YAN CINEMA(Central Cinema).

LKL he himself also continued practising hard in HKG.

During sifu LJ's stay in HKG, he participated very often in the Cantonese MA

movie like the [黃飛鴻]WONG FEI HUNG movie series. LJ acted as his sifu Lam Sai Wing as he knew best his sifu's character.

As to sifu LKL indebted in movie production, it was when he was 16.

To everyone's surprise, the one recommended LKL to movie was not his father LJ,

( LJ died in the year 1960 of illness)

but the Cantonese drama movie star-劉桂康 LAU KWAI HONG.

The first movie LKL appeared in was called [關東小俠]kwan tung siu hop (KwanTung Junior hero)

in which :-

the director was顧文宗 (KOO MAN CHUNG)

Actor羽佳(YU KAI)

Actress羅艷卿(LAW YIM HING)

and LKL was only a hired fighter. That all happened 16 years ago!!!(the article is from 1972 so 1958)

Since then, LKL started the MA movie career. As he was young and

energetic, solid figure, soon gained the appreciation of the movie producer.

Whenever any MA movie started, no case was without him.

Writer asked sifu LKL what was his remueration in his first movie.

LKL strightly answered without hestitation:[We count on daily basis. salary was 20 HK dollars only]

At that time, not too many MA movie were in production, and the biggest one

were the 黃飛鴻集=WONG FEI HUNG movies of 關德興 KWAN TAK HING.

LKL recalled and said:[even關德興 KWAN TAK HING he himself cannot forsee the series

could be so popular and attractive to the audience.

He planned to produce part 1,2,3, and 4 only, and that's all.

Consequently he did go to Singapore after finishing these 4 movies--

--黃飛鴻集=WONG FEI HUNG Series]

But the movie-fans kept asking when the further series would be coming out.

Lau Jaam 劉湛 noticed the 黃飛鴻集=WONG FEI HUNG SERIES was a business, so he himself

gathered the fund as capital and produced a movie called

[黃飛鴻初試無影腳](WFH黃飛鴻 first contact with the 無影腳=No shadow kick),

taking celebrity [白玉堂]PAK YOKE TONG as the role of WFH黃飛鴻.

This movie was not big as Kwan's series,yet Lau Jaam did earn a lot.

At that time, sifu[陸鏡榮]LUK GANG WING of the [白鶴派]PAK HOK PAI(white crane lineage)

did believe 黃飛鴻集=WONG FEI HUNG SERIES is still acceptable in the market, possible

continue the production, so reported to 關德興 KWAN TAK HING in Singapore,

and invited him back to Hongkong re-instate his job and soon KWAN prepared the

movie[黃飛鴻花地搶炮]黃飛鴻WFH (花地==flower market) Robbed 炮=the shrine.

From this movie onwards, 黃飛鴻集=WONG FEI HUNG SERIES became a long-life series.

LKL with the aim of movie[黃飛鴻花地搶炮] joined the [黃家班]WONG'S FAMILY CLUB,

Within 6 years, in one continuation, all together 64 movies were produced.

In the year 1961, 關德興 KWANTAK Hing went to the USA...

[FrankBolte]

another,almost sensational found we made with a book by Lau Jaam,this book features the highest fist set of hung kuen...even LKLdidnt know about this book..it has Lau Jaam showing all the movements..although these are drawings they must have been made from real photos..this book was published in Malaysia and we think that Lau Jaam maybe had a student that did the pics andmade the book....

heres the cover and a poster made of the drawings

[Gaijin84]

very cool!!

[Asmo]

That's great!!