Sifu Sum Nung was the founder of Sum Nung Wing Chun, also known as Guangzhou Wing Chun, and is our Si Gung (grand-father/teacher).

Sum Nung was born in Peru, in 1926, the son of a Chinese businessman and local Peruvian mother. As a small child he travelled to China to visit his grandparents and was cut off from his family in Peru during the Second World War.

Left destitute during wartime, he found work in a dim-sum restaurant. With work he was able to support himself but he was regularly beaten up by other children, most likely on account of being half Peruvian. In an effort to defend himself Sum Nung tried to learn Kung Fu by watching then copying martial arts street performers. He mostly only succeeded in injuring himself.

Noticing Sum Nung’s regular injuries, the dim-sum chef of the restaurant, Cheung Bo, offered to teach him Wing Chun. At the age of 12 Sum Nung became Cheng Bo’s student and proved himself to be a most dedicated student.

Very quickly, and at a young age, Sum Nung earned a reputation as a ferocious fighter by defeating anyone who opposed him. However, Cheung Bo, himself a highly respected Wing Chun Master, had bigger plans for Sum Nung. In his late teens, Cheng Bo introduced Sum Nung to the legendary Wing Chun master of the age, Yuen Kay San. Sum Nung became the disciple of Yuen Kay San.

During the 1940s Sum Nung moved to Guangzhou and began earning a living teaching Wing Chun to the local Metal Workers Union. Unions regularly engaged in turf wars with each other over control of territory. As the teacher of the union members, it was also Sum Nung’s job to lead them in the fighting, which he did, unarmed. Fearing for Sum Nung’s longevity under such conditions, Yuen Kay San eventually managed to convince Sum Nung to take up another profession. Sum Nung studied traditional Chinese medicine and eventually became famous as a doctor.

Through the years Sum Nung occasionally took on carefully selected disciples. Thought he taught numerous people, Sum Nung only had a handful of disciples to whom he passed on the art of Wing Chun.

Sum Nung Wing Chun is characterized by an enormous emphasis on foundation training. 

This approach to Wing Chun proceeds through slow, gruelling and meticulous training that builds explosive speed, formidable power but also enormous sensitivity and ability to handle force.

While a slower, and more arduous journey to Wing Chun, for those who have the dedication, patience and mental toughness, Sum Nung Wing Chun is a devastatingly effective system of Kung Fu.