physician (fig. 1). He followed the strict traditional policies of his Chuka predecessors, especially the rule of choosing students with wisdom and great care. Lee required that each candidate who wished to study under him accept certain conditions. The candidate was to kneel before him holding a cup of Chinese tea in one hand and a small red envelope containing money in the other. By this method, Lee tested the candidate’s humility and sincerity. Many refused to kneel before the master, instead issuing pompous challenges of fighting skill. Lee, a man said to have never refused a challenge, obliged. As in China, Lee was never known to have been defeated in Malaysia. Many, after being defeated and thoroughly embarrassed at the hands of Master Lee, had an immediate change of heart and, in the manner Lee required, asked to be accepted as a student. Once accepted as a pupil, Lee inculcated them with three principles:
• Do not create or seek trouble.
• Do not teach people of unproved character what you have learned.
• Always be humble and respectful to others.
Indeed, a breach of any of these principles meant instant expulsion from the art. Master Lee was said to have never given an offender a second chance.
Master Lee passed away in 1961, at the age of seventy-seven. His most prized pupil was Cheong Cheng Leong, the current grandmaster of the art.
Lee Siong Pheow
CHEONG CHENG LEONG
Cheong Cheng Leong began his study of Chuka Shaolin under the tutelage of Master Lee Siong Pheow in 1951, at the impressionable age of ten (eleven, by the Chinese calendar). Master Lee, who was already in his sixties at this time, was famous in the Air Itam quarter of Pulau Pinang, Malaysia. Someone had told Cheong that there was a master in the town who knew a very special type of fist that was strong and could surely kill anybody, regardless of size and fighting ability. Being a young and impressionable boy who liked to fight, Cheong approached the master, determined to learn his art (fig. 2). At that time, Lee taught only Chinese of Cantonese or Hakka status, no Hokkien. Fortunately for the future of the art, Cheong Cheng Leong was a member of the correct social class.
Cheong Cheng Leong
Master Lee was interested in Cheong and his friends because they were so young and impressionable; he believed that he could mold them into respectable and upstanding citizens. When he approached Lee, the master asked Cheong if he was interested in learning Chuka Shaolin to become a better fighter. Cheong answered no, he was not interested in the art for fighting. Master Lee then asked the young Cheong why, if not for fighting, he wished to learn kung-fu. Cheong sat there in silence. Master Lee again asked Cheong if he was sincerely not interested in the art for purposes of fighting. Cheong replied that he was really not interested in such things. With that, Master Lee seemed content and said since Cheong was not interested in fighting, he would accept the boy as a student.
Master Lee still adhered to the ceremony of accepting new pupils, but Cheong was young and forgot all that was expected of him in this regard. He simply stuffed five Malaysian dollars into a red envelope and handed it to the master. At that time, five Malaysian dollars was quite expensive for kung-fu training in Malaysia. After all, one could join any of the other martial arts associations in Penang, like Chin Wu, for only one or two dollars. However, money seemed no object for some, and a few people who could afford it paid Master Lee fifty Malaysian dollars for lessons! These people thought that with the extra money changing hands, they were afforded special attention and training by the master. Cheong, however, is of the opinion that they learned nothing special as a result.
Cheong and his friends used to hang out and fight on the banks of the Air Itam river—nice water, nice fishing, nice fighting. For despite what he had told Master Lee, he actually wanted to learn martial arts to become a better fighter. From day one of his practice, Cheong was already plotting ways in which to use the new techniques in a fight. A few months after beginning his Chuka training, Cheong and some of his Chuka classmates had a fight with a group of boys who were saying derogatory things about the fighting art of Master Lee. Though in their minds they had an acceptable reason to fight, Master Lee scolded Cheong and his classmates and warned that if they fought again, under any circumstance, he would expel them from the school. The art and guidance of Master Lee truly changed Cheong’s character, and he has not fought since.
Master Lee’s Chuka Shaolin classes were held in his backyard, within easy walking distance from Cheong’s home (fig 3). Classes were held seven days a week in the morning, afternoon, and evening, and each session lasted roughly two hours. Cheong was quite studious and incorrigible when it came to training. In the beginning, he trained in all three classes on each day of each week. After three or four years of consistent training, Cheong no longer had to pay the student training fee, for he became Master Lee’s assistant.
Master Lee Siong Pheow died in 1961; he was seventy-seven years old. After the master’s death, his disciples held a formal meeting to discuss the future of Chuka Shaolin. During this meeting one of the disciples nominated Cheong to succeed Lee as the head of the art, since it was Cheong who had learned the most from their late teacher. It was unanimously agreed. From then on, even Cheong’s seniors would come to him for pointers or to learn a new technique or form.
Lee Siong Pheow (seated) with his students.
Prior to Lee’s passing, Cheong had never entertained the thought of teaching kung-fu for a living, and certainly not on a commercial basis. However, in 1964, with the encouragement of many people, Cheong decided to open classes in an effort to keep the art from becoming lost.
In the 1970s, Cheong opened a clothing, souvenir, and gift shop that caters to the many tourists who trek up the long stairway to the great Kwan Yin statue at the Kek Lok Si Temple, located in the Air Itam quarter of Pulau Pinang (fig. 4). After business hours, the shops and stairs empty and students gather to practice the art of Chuka Shaolin on a section of flat stone running parallel to Cheong’s shop (figs. 5, 6).
CHUKA SHAOLIN TODAY
While still obscure, the art of Chuka Shaolin has garnered somewhat of a cult following around the world. This has occurred as a result of some international exposure the art received in the early seventies through the book co-written by Cheong Cheng Leong and the late Donn F. Draeger, titled Phoenix-Eye Fist: A Shaolin Fighting Art of South China, and a number of articles that appeared in such magazines as Inside Kung-Fu, Oriental Fighting Arts, and Martial Arts Legends.
