Wu Ta K'uei, Wu Ta Chi, Wu Ta Hsin: Taking Wu Style Abroad

The contest held at the Sin Wah Amusement Park poolside in Macau on 17 January 1954 changed more than the Wu family’s reputation. Afterwards, letters of invitation poured in from overseas Chinese associations across Southeast Asia, and Grand Master Wu Kung Yi dispatched his family accordingly: his eldest son Wu Ta K’uei (1923–1972) held Kowloon, while his second son Wu Ta Chi and nephew Wu Ta Hsin (1933–2005) went south to Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, and Manila. The third generation had run the art from two centres, Shanghai and Hong Kong; the fourth generation carried Wu Style Tai Chi Chuan to Southeast Asia, North America, and the Far East. It was globalization conducted family-style — brothers and cousins each holding a region, carrying the teaching of Wu Chien Chuan forward and handing the network to the fifth generation under Eddie Wu Kwong Yu.

Key Facts

Wu Ta K’uei (1923–1972), eldest son of Wu Kung Yi and eldest grandson of Wu Chien Chuan, was taught by his grandfather as a child; in 1954 he opened the Nathan Road Kowloon branch — the first branch founded after the Wu–Chan contest.
After Wu Kung Yi died in 1970, Wu Ta K’uei became the fourth-generation head and president of the headquarters; he died young in 1972, aged 49, his ambition of spreading Wu Style to North America unfulfilled.
Wu Ta Chi, second son of Wu Kung Yi, and Wu Ta Hsin together founded the Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, and Manila branches; in 1975 Wu Ta Chi established the Toronto branch at the invitation of Canadian community associations, handing it to his nephew Eddie Wu in 1976.
Wu Ta Hsin (1933–2005), second son of Wu Kung Cho, taught some twenty direct disciples; on 15 July 2001 he became Gate Keeper of the Wu family, president of the International Wu Family Tai Chi Chuan Association, and president of the Hong Kong Jian Quan Tai Chi Chuan Association — the last family Gate Keeper.
Foshan was Wu Style’s earliest foothold in tai chi: before the 1940s, the only tai chi chuan in Foshan was Wu Style, and Wu Ta K’uei taught there for years.
After Wu Ta Hsin passed away in early 2005, Eddie Wu Kwong Yu, eldest son of Wu Ta K’uei, became the fifth-generation Gate Keeper.

After the Contest: From One School to a Network

That charity contest for Hong Kong’s fire refugees drew a crowd of more than ten thousand. Wu Kung Yi’s opening blows bloodied Chan Hak Fu’s nose; the restart was stopped when both men kicked above the knee. The result hardly mattered: Wu Style Tai Chi Chuan’s name burst out of Hong Kong (the full account is on our History of the Hong Kong Academy page).

Soon afterwards, Wu Kung Yi ordered his eldest son to open the Kowloon branch of the Chien Chuan Tai Chi Chuan Association on Nathan Road — the first branch founded after the contest, and the first time a member of the fourth generation ran a school on his own. So many students came that in 1956 the family bought the top floor of Po Man Building on Jordan Road for the new headquarters; the original Lockhart Road premises became the Hong Kong branch under Wu Kung Yi’s daughter Wu Yen Hsia and her husband Kuo Shao-chung. From one school to a network spanning Hong Kong, Kowloon, and Southeast Asia — the fourth generation’s departure was the start of it all.

Wu Ta K’uei: Eldest Grandson, Pioneer, Unfinished Ambition

Wu Ta K’uei was born in 1923, Wu Chien Chuan’s eldest grandson. According to the family’s own accounts, his grandfather taught him personally as a child — the direct line in the most literal sense.

His fighting reputation was largely made in Foshan. Wu Style had entered Foshan as early as 1928 — the first tai chi style ever taught there — when Li Pei-hsien, Ren Xiao’an, Lin Chun-hsuan, Cai Liqiu, and Zhao Tianjue of the Foshan Chin Woo Athletic Association travelled to the Shanghai Chin Woo headquarters to study under Wu Chien Chuan and Hsu Chih Yi. Around 1937, Wu Kung Yi and his eldest son opened schools in Guangzhou and Macau; during the war years Wu Ta K’uei moved through the Foshan region, and his practical skill became widely known. After the war, Wu Ta K’uei, Wu Kung Cho, and Mai Geng-yuan taught in Foshan in turn, transmitting the Wu Style hand form, the Xuanxuan sabre, and the Wu Style sword.

The representative Foshan transmitter Pan Yan-liu began training at eight, graduated from the Foshan Chin Woo advanced class at fifteen, and studied under Li Pei-hsien and Wu Ta K’uei — earning the epithets “encyclopedia of the martial world, living dictionary of Chin Woo.” His students included the Cantonese opera master Sit Kok-sin, the ceramic master Liu Chuan, and the martial arts teacher Zhou Shusheng; from the 1970s he led students in daily practice at the Foshan Ancestral Temple. As Ou Rong-ju recalled: “Before the 1940s, Foshan had only one kind of tai chi chuan — Wu Style.” What Wu Ta K’uei and his fellow teachers showed the city was that tai chi “builds health, but is also a very high practical fighting art.”

The best-known story of his skill involves a Japanese instructor: according to an account passed down among practitioners, during the war a Japanese military-arts instructor attached to a Japanese-run school sought him out, and Wu Ta K’uei agreed on one condition — that afterwards, whatever the outcome, the man be allowed to leave. They matched hands and weapons, and Wu Ta K’uei prevailed on both counts. After Japan’s defeat the instructor reported on the encounter to his superiors; when word reached Japan that Wu Ta K’uei had moved to Hong Kong, an invitation arrived, and he made an exchange visit to teach there. The story survives through oral transmission without documentary support, and we record it as such — but the very fact that it circulated says something about his fighting reputation.

When Wu Kung Yi died in 1970, Wu Ta K’uei succeeded him as fourth-generation head and president of the headquarters. He had set his heart on carrying Wu Style to North America; in 1972 he died at forty-nine, and the ambition passed to his brother and his son.

Wu Ta Chi: From Southeast Asia to Toronto

Wu Ta Chi was Wu Kung Yi’s second son. After the 1954 contest he and Wu Ta Hsin founded branches in Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, and Manila — the direct fruit of the contest’s afterglow. For years afterwards he taught across the Hong Kong and Southeast Asia schools and joined the family’s visits to the Singapore branch.

In 1975, at the invitation of Canadian community associations, Wu Ta Chi established the Toronto branch — Wu Style’s first landing in North America, and the fulfilment of his elder brother’s unfinished wish. In 1976 he returned to Hong Kong and handed the Toronto school to his nephew Eddie Wu Kwong Yu, who had already come back to Hong Kong in 1969 to assist his father Wu Ta K’uei and would build his life’s work in Canada until succeeding as Gate Keeper in 2005. Wu Ta Chi, too, died young; the second half of the overseas expansion belonged to the next generation.

Wu Ta Hsin: The Keeper and the Last Family Gate Keeper

Wu Ta Hsin was born in 1933, second son of Wu Kung Cho — the theorist of the family — and he inherited that thoroughness as the fourth generation’s steadying hand. With Wu Ta Chi he laid the foundations of the Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, and Manila branches, then returned to lead the Hong Kong headquarters. He taught repeatedly in Canada and Southeast Asia, and counted some twenty direct disciples.

On 15 July 2001, Wu Ta Hsin became Gate Keeper of the Wu family, president of the International Wu Family Tai Chi Chuan Association, and president of the Hong Kong Jian Quan Tai Chi Chuan Association. During his tenure he presided over the revision of the form’s standards, fixing the benchmark for Wu Style practice worldwide. He passed away in early 2005 at seventy-three — the last family Gate Keeper. The succession then passed to Eddie Wu Kwong Yu, eldest son of Wu Ta K’uei, opening the fifth generation’s global era.

One Art, Two Destinies

Widen the lens and the fourth generation makes a striking study in contrast. In the north, Wang Mao Zhai’s line — Li Jingwu, Wang Peisheng and their cohort — weathered the Anti-Rightist Campaign and the Cultural Revolution, practising through underground years. In the south, the Wu family rode the fading colonial tide outward, taking root in Hong Kong, Southeast Asia, and North America. One art, two destinies — converging again only after reform and opening-up.

The Wu family’s division of labour made Wu Style Tai Chi Chuan’s internationalization a family undertaking: the eldest son held the home base, the second son opened the south, the nephew wove the network, the eldest grandson reached for North America. From Shanghai and Hong Kong, that family network now extends across five continents.

Timeline

1923　Wu Ta K’uei born
1928　Wu Style enters Foshan; the Foshan Chin Woo group travels to the Shanghai headquarters
1933　Wu Ta Hsin born
1937　Wu Kung Yi and Wu Ta K’uei open schools in Guangzhou and Macau
1954.1.17　The Wu–Chan contest at the Sin Wah poolside, Macau, before 10,000 spectators
1954　Wu Ta K’uei opens the Nathan Road Kowloon branch; Wu Ta Chi and Wu Ta Hsin found the Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, and Manila branches
1956　Po Man Building’s top floor becomes the headquarters; Lockhart Road is renamed the Hong Kong branch
1969　Eddie Wu returns to Hong Kong to assist his father Wu Ta K’uei
1970　Wu Kung Yi dies; Wu Ta K’uei succeeds as fourth-generation head
1972　Wu Ta K’uei dies at forty-nine, his North American ambition unfulfilled
1975　Wu Ta Chi founds the Toronto branch
1976　Wu Ta Chi returns to Hong Kong; Eddie Wu takes over Toronto
2001.7.15　Wu Ta Hsin becomes Gate Keeper of the Wu family
2005　Wu Ta Hsin passes away; Eddie Wu Kwong Yu becomes the fifth-generation Gate Keeper