The Alleged Photo of Wong Fei-hung

The alleged photo of Wong Fei-Hung

If you are familiar with the Hong Kong martial arts movie series Once Upon A Time In China, starring Jet Li, then you are also familiar with its lead character, Wong Fei-hung.

But did you know that Wong Fei-hung was actually real?

Since his death on May 24, 1924, the legend of the great Hung Kuen master Wong Fei-hung has continued on in the hearts and minds of literally every Chinese martial artist and kung fu movie fan. His life and fictionalized exploits have been portrayed by the top Chinese action film stars including Kwan Tak-hing, Jackie Chan and Jet Li.

But let us not forget that this legend was of a real man.

Great controversy still continues over what he actually looked like. It has been said that all of Wong's family photos were destroyed when Wong's home and medical practice (Po Chi Lam) burned down during the Guangzhou Merchant Corps Rebellion in 1924. He died not long afterwards, which explains why replacement photos were never taken.

It was said that Wong looked like the mythical "God of Longevity", presumably with large forehead and long earlobes. According to Madame Mok Kwai-lan, Wong's 4th wife, actor Kwan Tak-hing possessed a striking resemblance to Wong.

In 1976, magazine journalist and Wing Chun master Leung Ting interviewed Madame Mok and claimed to have been given the only surviving photo of Wong Fei-hung from her. For some reason, Leung withheld unveiling the above photo for 25 years (a good 20 years after Madame Mok passed away).

However, the above photo that you see does NOT really belong to Wong Fei-hung. 

Kung-fu Grandmasters confirm the alleged photo actually belongs to Wong Hon-hei, Wong Fei-hung's fourth son.

According to an article published on June 2013 by Practical Hung Kyun, this photo looks uncannily like Wong's fourth and youngest son, Wong Hon-hei, who was from Wong's 3rd marriage. This was firmly confirmed by many elders of the Hung Kyun family, which includes Grand Master Lam Jou, Grand Master Chiu Wai, and Grand Master Lei Chan-wo, who is the disciple and heir of Madame Mok. 

In addition to this discovery, about four months later, there was another picture, found in 2005 by a gentleman from the Municipal Museum in Hong Kong, which is now being considered to be the long-lost portrait of the legendary Kung-fu master.

At the back of the photo was written:

Portrait of Wong Fei Hung – Kwong Kei Tim

There are couple of good reasons that the person on the photo can indeed be Wong Fei Hung. First, there is a clear resemblance between Wong Hon-hei and the person on the photo. Second, Kwong Kei-tim was Wong Fei-hung’s disciple, and he definitely could not confuse Wong Hon-hei with Wong Fei-hung. Finally, it seems that there are some “pockmarks” (scars left on the skin after the healing of a smallpox) on the person's face. According to some sources, one of Wong Fei-hung’s nicknames was “Pockmark Yeung”. His original name was actually Wong Sek-yeung.

Madame Mok once said that Wong Fei-hung was quite superstitious. He believed that taking photos could shorten one’s life, so he took a picture of himself only once during his lifetime.

Even if it is confirmed that the first photo does not belong to Wong Fei-hung, we will also never know for sure whether or not the second photo that was surfaced ten years ago is that of the Kung-fu legend, either. In the end, I suppose it really does not matter. Memory inevitably wavers from truth as time passes by. Besides, a hundred years from now, will anyone of us actually know what do we looked like, and who we really were?

Read more at:

http://practicalhungkyun.com/2013/06/incredible-discovery-a-photo-of-real-wong-fei-hung/
http://practicalhungkyun.com/2013/10/another-photo-discovery-is-this-real-wong-fei-hung/

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