During lots of occasions, Mister J. Wang Kiu wasn't very flattering about Leung Ting and other. What made him change his opinion? Read this interview...

Then Grandmaster Leung Ting would deserve the gold medal.

During Grandmaster Leung Ting's 50th birthday celebration we had the chance to interview many old Sifus and original students of the late Great Grandmaster Yip Man and were allowed to record the interviews on video.
Sifu Oliver König questioned Sifu Wang Kiu, one of the first and most highly educated students of Grandmaster Yip Man. Dai-Sifu Kernspecht and Sifu Schäfer were eye-witnesses of this interview:

Sifu Wang Kiu:
As much as I love Wing Chun, I despise the people that have to do with it. Most of the people are jealous of each other.
If one of them works hard and is successful, then they start to talk about him in a negative way.
This is what has happend to Master Leung Ting. He works hard, his wife hardly sees him at home because he is always away and working. And these people lean back in their chairs, drink tea and watch his success.
"Oh, Leung Ting is this... Leung Ting is that..." - That's the way they they talk about him. They themselves are lazy.
Someone has his well-deserved success and so they become jealous.
When I left China (in the 60's), he (Leung Ting) was already with Yip Man in Hong Kong. I didn't meet him personally before my departure, but I knew about him because he was in the Baptist College together with Yip Man.
I saw photographs with Yip Man and heard that Yip Man was teaching again and that he was a student of Leung Sheung. And one day I was sitting in a restaurant in the Nathan Road, where Yip Man went every evening after he had given lessons in the Ving Tsun Athletic Association. And Yip Man told me about his young, ambitious and gifted studend, named Leung Ting.

Question:
Some people say that Grandmaster Leung Ting was never instructed by Great Grandmaster Yip Man.
Do you have anything to say about that?

Sifu Wang Kiu:
That is a lie!
When Grandmaster Yip Man was teaching Leung Ting, he didn't need to tell everyone by saying: "Attention! I'm teaching him."
He only told the few people that he could trust and talk to, since the situation was no so easy to understand.
In the world of martial art, there is the rule that you are not allowed to have two teachers (father=Sifu) within the same style (family).
For example, if someone's teacher (Si-Fu) is Master Kernspecht, then he cannot have a second teacher (Si-Fu). You should know that. But Yip Man made an exception with Leung Ting.
Yip Man told me that while we were drinking tea. He was still a very young man, this Leung Ting. He (Yip Man) showed me a magazine with an artical about a (WingTsun) presentation and I recognized Leung Ting, since I had seen him before in the President Hotel located in Chim Sha Tsui (a district of Hong Kong).

That is where he used to take his afternoon tea. Leung Ting always had style. He is not like some common person. No, he drinks tea, and the way he enjoys it has class. He takes his tea in a restaurant, not in some old tavern.
That was the first thing I noticed about him.
Someone showed him to me because I didn't know him: "That's Leung Ting". But it didn't really interest me back then.
I was told that he was learning , which had nothing to do with me since I didn't know him personally. That was, until Yip Man told me himself. Then I took a closer look at Leung Ting. And I saw a man with talent.
But I asked: "Si-Fu, isn't it not allowed to have two teachers for one style?" and continued: "Didn't you tell me that yourself?"
And he answered: "No, but I'm making an exception with him."
I asked: "Why?" He explained that he was angry with his first Hong Kong student and Leung Ting's first teacher. The details are nothing that should become known to others.

Either way, Grandmaster Yip Man gave taught young Leung Ting - and he taught him well. And then Leung Ting was able to show Leung Sheung things that he had never seen before. That was Yip Man's way of revenge to Leung Sheung. You must know that Yip Man was a very good man, but not 100% straightfoward.
He could not simply clear the fronts. Instead, he gave lessons to Leung Ting.
And then (after Yip Man's death) there was a press conference, Leung Sheung was chairman, you know what I'm talking about (see 'Geschichte des Yip Man Stiles', Wu Shu-Verlag Kernspecht). At the conference it was announced that Leung Ting was not a student of Yip Man. Leung Sheung was there, even though he wasen't supposed to be there and he was feeling quite uncomfortable about it - that was obvious to everyone.
But he couldn't act as though nothing had happend. That's why he at least had to admit: "Yes, I did teach him things." But he can't completly deny that he gave him lessons. He can't do that. Yip Man went to Leung Ting.
Leung Ting is from an upper-class family. Leung Ting has money. I didn't know him then, but I knew that.
And Yip Man goes to him and shows him the wooden dummy forms, he shows him this and that. No one else was present.
Outsiders are not supposed to see it. And those who wern't there, who didn't see it now say that Leung Ting never learned from Grandmaster Yip Man. But that's not correct.

Some people, for example, teach Chi-Gerk, but I never learned Chi-Gerk. So people ask me why I don't do Chi-Gerk.
I say: "No, I can't do Chi-Gerk, Yip Man never taught me Chi-Gerk" - "But why can your student do Chi-Gerk? Leung Ting can do Chi-Gerk! I'm shocked!" And I say: "Calm down. Look, I don't do Chi-Gerk because Yip Man never showed it to me. But that doesen't mean that Chi-Gerk does not belong to . It definitly does not mean that!"
Yip Man showed Leung Ting Chi-Gerk - but he didn't show it to me. O.K. - one more question: "Why my other Sihings don't know Chi-Gerk?" A good question. In you have Chi-Sao. In , everything is based on yin and yang. If has Chi-Sao, then why does it not have Chi-Gerk? Why not? If Chi-Gerk had never existed or even if Yip Man himself had never heard of Chi-Gerk, and if Leung Ting invented Chi-Gerk by himself and placed it where it belongs. That would mean that Leung Ting would have found the missing link in the system.
Then he would deserve the gold medal for "theory"!
Some people would be better off keeping their mouths shut. I don't make a living by teaching Wing Chun. I am able to be impartial and fair. I'm not on Leung Ting's side. I didn't even know him back then. It was in 1985 when I first met him personally, when I was returning from Japan with my wife. And - I liked him at once. He was very nice to me.

Sources: WTWelt 19
Translation: Jennifer Winkler
Revisor & Publisher: Frank Schäfer Sifu