“Transforming Lingnan Martial Arts as a Movement and Performing Art through Digital Pedagogy, Interpretation and Performance” is organised by Institute of Chinese Martial Studies (“ICMS”). ICMS is dedicated to the academic study of Chinese martial studies, focusing on the research of Chinese martial arts and their associated historical, social and cultural aspects. Through research, publication, and educational activities, ICMS aims to preserve the heritage of China’s martial culture.
In recent years, ICMS has been involved in multiple research and arts projects in collaboration with International Guoshu Association, notably the exhibitions “Lingnan Hung Kuen Across the Century: Kung Fu Narratives in Cinema and Community” (2017–2018), “Safeguarding the Community: An Intangible Cultural Heritage New Media Exhibition” (2018), and “Way of the Sword: Warrior Traditions in China and Italy” (2021). The exhibitions produced by ICMS have been internationally influential, attracting attention in particular to the creative use of media in exhibition and museum contexts.
- Project Team -
Project Director ｜ Mr. Hing Chao
A leading researcher in Chinese martial studies and culture. Studied Ma’s Tongbei with Prof. Ma Mingda, the foremost authority in Chinese Martial Studies, Hung Kuen under Master Lam Chun Fai, as well as White Crane and the Minnan weapon system under Master Lee Kong. He strives to promote traditional martial arts by engaging new media as a medium to offer new artistic experiences. In 2012, Chao entered into a strategic partnership with the Centre for Applied Computing and Interactive Media of the City University of Hong Kong to build the ‘Hong Kong Martial Arts Living Archive’, and organised several significant new media exhibitions, such as Way of the Sword: Warrior Traditions in China and Italy (2021), Safeguarding the Community: an Intangible Cultural Heritage New Media (2018), etc. He organised several cross-discipline performing art projects, being the martial arts consultant for Romeo+Juliet by Hong Kong Ballet (2021), the expert panel member and instructor of “Research Study on Chinese Martial Arts and Chinese Dance” organsied by Hong Kong Dance Company (2018–2020), and the producer of the Martial Spirit performance at the “Grand Variety Show in Celebration of Hong Kong’s Return to the Motherland” (2017).
Artistic Advisor ｜ Mr. Yang Yuntao
Yang Yuntao graduated from the Minzu University of China’s Faculty of Dance. He joined the Hong Kong Dance Company (HKDC) in 2002 as Principal Dancer and became its Artistic Director in 2013. As a dancer, Yang was honoured with two Hong Kong Dance Awards for Outstanding Performance, and was named Best Artist (Dance) at the 2009 Hong Kong Arts Development Awards. He is also an accomplished choreographer. His most notable choreography credits for the HKDC include Spring Ritual· Eulogy and The Legend of Mulan (Outstanding Productions, Hong Kong Dance Awards), as well as Storm Clouds and L’Amour Immortel, both recognised with three Hong Kong Dance Awards. His award-winning works have toured to New York, London, Sydney, Minsk, Seoul, Beijing, Shanghai, Hangzhou, Guangzhou and Taipei. Most recent works include Convergence and Shan Shui: An Ode to Nature, both created through a three-year interdisciplinary research study on Chinese dance and Chinese martial arts traditions.
Performing Arts Advisor｜ Mr. Daniel Yeung
Chinese Music, Daniel is a self-taught dancer and was twice awarded scholarships to study choreography in Amsterdam and London. Daniel was raved by Europe’s BalletTanz year book as “The Choreographer to Look At” and was awarded the “Rising Artist Award” by the Hong Kong Arts Development Council 2002. He is also a seven-time awardee of the Hong Kong Dance Awards (2000, 2005, 2009, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2020), organized by the Hong Kong Dance Alliance, and twice-won “Top Five Best Dance Works of the Year” from the South China Morning Post. In 2013, Daniel was awarded by the Hong Kong Arts Development Council as the “Best Artist of the Year (Dance)” for his total contributions on curating, choreographing, performing, teaching and criticism on developing Hong Kong dance culture. In 2020 (till 2022), he was appointed by the Government as Councilor and Chairman (Dance Sector) / Vice-Chair (Arts Criticism) through democratic election from the Hong Kong Arts Development Council. Daniel was once again awarded by the Hong Kong Dance Award with the top honor “Distinguish Achievement Award” in the same year.
Martial Arts Advisor (Hung Kuen) ｜ Mr. Lam Chun Fai
Lam Chun Fai, the eldest son of Lam Cho, started to learn martial arts when he was five and began assisting his father in instructing martial arts at 12 years old. By the age of 20, he had already opened his own dit da clinic-cum-martial arts school in North Point. He is the third-general inheritor of Lam Family Hung Kuen, which played a pivotal role in the modern development of Lingnan martial arts in Guangzhou and Hong Kong. He is the president of Lam Sai Wing Hung Kuen Research Society, and has held the position of honorary president at Hong Kong Wushu Union.
He has over 60 years of teaching experience in Hung Kuen. He is responsible for spreading and promoting Chinese martial arts in many countries worldwide, including Italy, Germany, Czechia, Greece, the United Kingdom, Sweden, the United States, and Canada. He has collaborated with International Guoshu Association to systematically document the legacy of Lam Family Hung Kuen, leading to a series of publications.
Martial Arts Advisor (Fujian Yongchun White Crane) ｜ Mr. Lee Kong
He is the leading master of Fujian Yongchun White Crane Kung Fu (永春白鶴拳) in Hong Kong, and one of the most authoritative masters of this style globally. Fujian Yongchun White Crane is an influential and popular martial arts style in Fujian and Southern China. It was introduced to Hong Kong by Master Zheng Wenlong (鄭文龍) (1911-1984) from Zhangzhou (漳州) in 1957. He established the Fujian Shaolin Yongchun White Crane School in North Point, Hong Kong in 1969.
Lee Kong is the inheritor of this lineage. He is the Vice President of International South Shaolin Wuzu Boxing Union, and the Director of Hong Kong Yong Chun White Crane Kungfu Research Association Limited.
He published “Wulinqisilu” (武林啟思錄) and “Hequanshuzhen” (鶴拳述真).
Martial Arts Advisor ｜ Mr. Chiu Man On
He began practising martial arts, boxing and lion dance under Master Poon Shing, an inheritor of Hung Sing Choy Lei Fat, in 1973. Since 1976, he had been competing in boxing tournaments (in Hong Kong) and won bronze, silver, gold medals and gold shield successively. He won 4th place from the Featherweight competition at the International Chinese Martial Arts Open Contest in 1980, 4th place and 1st runner up from the Featherweight competition at the Asian Chinese Kuoshu Tournament (Taiwan) in 1982 and 1983, respectively.
He established Chiu Man On Martial Art Association in 1992 to teach martial arts, boxing, weapon set training, dragon dance and lion dance. He is the instructor, coach and judge of Chinese Martial Arts, dragon dance and lion dance, and the Life Honorary Chairman of the Hong Kong Chinese Martial Arts Dragon and Lion Dance Association. He also held the position of the Life Chairman of the Association in Memory of Chan Heung Founder of the “Choi-Lee-Fat” Martial Arts and the Vice-President of Choi Lee Fat Kung-Fu International Union.
New Media & Education Advisor｜ Professor Jeffrey Shaw
Jeffrey Shaw has been a leading figure in new media art since its emergence from the performance, expanded cinema and installation paradigms of the 1960s to its present day technology-informed and virtualised forms. In a prolific career of widely exhibited and critically acclaimed work he has pioneered the creative use of digital media technologies in the fields of virtual and augmented reality, immersive visualization environments, navigable cinematic systems and interactive narrative.
Prof. Shaw was the founding director of the ZKM Institute for Visual Media Karlsruhe, Germany (1991-2002), and co-founding director of the University of New South Wales Australia iCinema Centre for Interactive Cinema Research (2003-). He was Dean of the School of Creative Media at City University of Hong Kong (2009-2016) and the Director of the Centre for Applied Computing and Interactive Media at CityU (2016-2021). Currently Prof. Shaw is the Chair Professor of Academy of Visual Art, Hong Kong Baptist University.
New Media Advisor ｜ Professor Richard Allen
Richard Allen is Chair Professor of Film and Media Art, City University of Hong Kong and Acting Dean of the School of Creative Media. He is author and editor of a number of works in film theory including Projecting Illusion (1997), Film Theory and Philosophy (1999) and Wittgenstein, Theory and the Arts (2001), and he is well known for his writing on Hitchcock, including Hitchcock’s Romantic Irony (2007). He has published widely on Indian Cinema, including Islamicate Cultures of Bombay Cinema (2009), Bombay Cinema’s Islamicate Histories (2022), both with Ira Bhaskar. He wrote on the films of Lau Kar Leung in Lingnan Hung Kuen: Kung Fu in Cinema and Community edited by Hing Chao (2018), and he is completing a book on the double in Bollywood cinema. Since becoming Dean of the School of Creative Media he has engaged extensively with new media organizing two international conferences on Machine Learning and Art and writing and curating Art Machines: Past and Present (2020).
Martial Arts Instructor (Hung Kuen) ｜ Mr. Oscar Lam Chuen Ho
Four generations of the family have practised Hung Kuen (洪拳). At the age of 12, he began to practise martial arts with his father (Lam Chun Fai). He has participated in many martial arts competitions and won medals. At the age of 20, he started to follow his father to teach Hung Kuen in Italy, Czechia, Germany and other European countries. By 25 years old, he began to run his own martial arts classes in Hong Kong. He has participated in many martial arts documentation projects of the International Guoshu Association. He has been teaching and promoting Hung Kuen in The Hong Kong Polytechnic University and the City University of Hong Kong in recent years. He has worked as a martial arts instructor in dance groups and some large-scale performances.
Martial Arts Instructor (Choy Lei Fat) ｜ Mr. Jimmy Chiu Chi Man
He began to practice Hung Sing Choy Lei Fat, dragon dance, and lion dance under master Chiu Man On since he was a child. He works as an instructor of traditional Chinese Martial Arts in numerous primary and secondary schools, and community halls. He has received certificates qualifying him as the coach and the judge for traditional Chinese Martial Arts, lion dance, and (luminous) dragon dance from the Hong Kong Chinese Martial Arts Dragon and Lion Dance Association. He has also participated in multiple martial arts competitions and won numerous awards.