RIP Sifu Ted Wong, 1937-2010

Sifu Ted Wong passed away on November 24, 2010. He died of stage 4 melanoma cancer (internal melanoma) which was diagnosed in October 2010. Our thoughts and prayers to the Wong family.

Sifu Wong was the last private student of Bruce Lee and was considered by many to be Bruce Lee's protege. Sifu Wong was there to witness & learn the last stages of Jeet Kune Do (JKD) before Bruce Lee's death in 1973.

For the last 10 years I have been learning JKD with a group that teaches and follows Sifu Wong's lineage of JKD. I had the privilege of being instructed by Sifu Wong in both public and private seminars. Sifu Wong was always gracious with his time, was very humble when sharing his knowledge of JKD and always encouraged our group to not only be good JKD practitioners but to be good people above all else.

Since his passing, I've noticed a lot of videos have started popping up on YouTube regarding Sifu Wong. The following video isn't new (it was uploaded over 2 years ago), but I consider it to be one of the best:



Rest in peace, Sifu Wong, and thank you. I'm sure you're training with Sigong Bruce once again. We'll do our best to continue training what Bruce taught you and keep JKD alive for future generations.

JKD: Perspective from Ted Wong

Since I've fessed up to being a big Bruce Lee fan, Jeet Kune Do (JKD) is something I've dabbled in here and there.

Here's an interesting clip about JKD by Ted Wong, Bruce Lee's last student (and considered by some to be Bruce's protege). Enjoy!

Bruce Lee is My Homeboy!!!

One of the tidbits that I have left off the blog is that I am a BIG Bruce Lee fan. I have been ever since I saw my first Bruce Lee movie as a kid. If my memory serves me, it was "Fist of Fury" (also known as "The Chinese Connection") and was the first movie of a double feature. The funny thing is that the Bruce Lee movie wasn't the Chinese movie my parents had wanted to see; but since we got there early, we decided to go in and watch it.

This was during the mid-1970's and there were no consequential Asian characters on American TV. Imagine an impressionable young boy watching for the very first time a character that looked like him (by that, I mean, also Chinese) being portrayed as a heroic, fierce and brave figure with amazing fighting skills. To this day, whenever I watch a Bruce Lee movie (and trust me when I tell you that I have all his movies on DVD, fully remastered), I experience those exact same feelings. Granted, I'm critical of the acting & dialogue and realize that these movies will never make the "100 Best Movies of All Times List", but Bruce Lee will always be a part of me. Bruce Lee is my homeboy!

Here's a short clip of my favorite Bruce Lee fight scene from "Way of the Dragon". Enjoy!



PS - If you ever ask me, "Do you know kung fu?", my response will be, "Yes, I know Jeet Kune Do."