Leo Fong’s journey in the Wei Kuen Do & Martial Arts began when he was just 7 years old — on his very first day of school in Arkansas. The only Asian on campus, he found himself surrounded by a group of students during recess. They began throwing racial slurs at the newcomer.
WHEN LEO RETURNED HOME, his father asked how his first day had gone. “Great!” the boy replied.
“Everybody likes me. They even sang to me.”
His father asked, “What did they sing?”
Leo said, “Ching-chong Chinaman.”
His face red with anger, his father said, “They don’t like you. Don’t you know they are making fun of your racial heritage?”
The next day at recess, a teacher organized a softball game and told Leo to play first base. One kid hit the ball and ran to first. He looked at Leo and said, “Chink!” Without hesitation, Leo punched him in the nose, knocking him to the ground.
The teacher grabbed Leo, spanked him and sent him to the office. An administrator made him stand in the hall for two days, which gave other students a chance to further taunt him. But the scrappy youth was not about to let that chase him away, as racism had done to his cousins. While serving his punishment, he vowed to fight back. Leo would have other run-ins with bullies during the ensuing years, and he frequently found himself in the principal’s office.
BACK THEN, no martial arts schools existed in the part of Arkansas where the Fong family lived, a fact that forced Leo to turn to the preferred Western method of self-defense. The 12-year-old bought a book called
The Fundamentals of Boxing and devoured it. To practice his techniques, he hung a pillow on the wall to serve as a punching bag. Despite the lack of legitimate gear and instruction, he honed his hand skills. From that point forward, whenever a bully would unleash a wild swing, he’d get knocked silly by one of Leo’s jabs or hooks.
Leo Fong fought in his first formal match at 15. Although he lost a close decision, he learned much from his first foray in front of an audience. After graduating from high school, he enrolled in Hendrix College in Conway, Arkansas, where he promptly joined the boxing team. That’s when he received his first formal lesson from an old pro fighter named Kirby “KO” Donoho. During his first year of competition, Leo won seven of his eight fights, scoring five first-round knockouts — all with his left hook.
IN 1974 Fong received a call from a movie producer in the Philippines who had seen him on the cover of Black Belt. The producer offered Fong the lead role in two films. Fong flew to the Philippines to visit some movie studios to get a sense of what filmmaking there was all about. He returned home and then, with his business partner and friend Ron Marchini, jetted back to the Philip- pines to begin filming.
Fong’s first movie there was Murder in the Orient, aka Manila Gold. Although he and Marchini got the star treatment in the Philip- pines, the movie was a disappointment. Despite that, Fong decided to remain in country for a year to school himself on action filmmak- ing. After returning to America, he went on to star in 16 movies and direct, write and/or produce six others — including the very successful Killpoint, which co-starred Cameron Mitchell and Richard Roundtree.
Fong then decided to travel to Hong Kong to visit kung fu schools in search of a place to train. Interestingly, he wound up selecting a local muay Thai gym. During this time, Chaplin Chang, the production man- ager for Enter the Dragon, set up an interview for Fong with a Hong Kong magazine. On the way to meet the writer, Chaplin asked him what he called his style. Fong couldn’t give a short answer because he’d trained in so many systems.
Chaplin’s suggestion was, “Why don’t you call it wei kuen do?”
Fong asked about the meaning, to which Chaplin replied, “The way of the integrated or assimilated fist.” He went on to explain that wei means stomach, where food starts to get integrated into the body. Fong immediately liked the name. Having grown up in the Southern United States, he knew all about integration and supported it wholeheartedly. He also liked that the name hinted at a connection to his friend Bruce Lee.
WHILE STILL LIVING in the Philippines, Fong befriended Remy Presas and became a student of his modern arnis. When he moved back to California, Fong trained extensively under Angel Cabales, founder of serrada escrima. Later, Fong developed his own style of stick fighting called modern escrima. The footwork he devised for it was subsequently integrated into wei kuen do.
Believing that learning is a never- ending journey, Fong spent decades as a martial arts student, eventually earning black-belt-level rank in choy lay fut, sil lum kung fu, wing chun, taekwondo, tang soo do, karate, arnis, escrima, judo and jujitsu. Naturally, he incorporated elements of all of them into wei kuen do. During that whole time, he lifted weights diligently. In fact, he and Marchini co- wrote Power Training in Kung-Fu and Karate and Advanced Power Training in Kung Fu and Karate, both of which were published by Black Belt Books.
It’s been that very combination — boxing, weightlifting and wei kuen do with its moves culled from a variety of traditional arts — that’s enabled Fong to live a long and healthy life. Now that he’s 90, he spends his free time extracting select components from his system and mixing them with chi kung to form a program he calls chi fung.
Although it’s designed for seniors, chi fung is great for everyone, Fong says. It resembles tai chi and chi kung but with light weights and calisthenics. The goal is to connect physical skills with internal energy and spirituality.
It’s those spiritual elements on which Fong now focuses because he believes they can help martial artists refine their skills so that in combat, they can hit without getting hit and fight without fighting. They can more easily overcome size, strength and stamina differentials. And outside the training hall, they can deal more effectively with adversity. Clearly, wei kuen do stacks up as much more than a fighting art.
“Wei kuen do is a process, always changing, always growing, always striving but never quite arriving,” Fong says. “A person must learn to adapt to the changes that will always come.”
The development of wei kuen do also was influenced by Leo Fong’s friendship with Bruce Lee. To read more about it, visit blackbeltmag.com.
Adam James is founder and president of Rainbow Warrior Martial Arts (rainbowwarriormartialarts.com) and vice president of the National College of Exercise Professionals. He’s an instructor in wei kuen do, chi fung and modern escrima under Leo Fong, as well as a fifth-degree black belt in kempo, karate, jiu jitsu and kobudo.