Kung Fu, Kilts, and a California Celt: A Visit to Scotland Lau Gar: July 2003
Sinzchun Hawke-McRee
California is a melting pot of Asian Martial Arts. Despite the Spanish names our cities carry, Chinese Immigration was at its heart. San Francisco alone used an entire island just for their immigration processing. Today you can visit Angel Island where a visitor center will take you on a tour of the few preserved holding cells. There you will see Chinese Poems engraved on the walls, “graffiti”, from the many immigrants who waited, sometimes years, to find what they believed California had: a “Gold Mountain”. San Francisco’s own Chinatown became the home for many Chinese, creating a vibrant culture that even today, gives San Francisco her special place as a city.
It was not until 1948 that the wall that separated Chinatown from the main city was finally taken down. Rumours of Kung Fu Masters living sequestered lives, only giving out the secrets of their training to special students, come from San Francisco’s Chinatown.
These rumours have delighted us with such Television series as Kung Fu: The Legend, where a renegade Shaolin monk wanders the west from San Francisco, amazing and befriending all those he meets with his special skills. (There is also of course Bruce Lee, who created that TV series.)
Today, numerous schools teach many variants of Kung Fu, Chi Kung, Tai Chi, not to mention their “rivals”, the Japanese, Brazilian, Korean, and Philippine equivalents. Local tournaments often have to be specific about its call for entries. For instance, I recently attended a tournament specifically for Chinese Wushu and Traditional Styles. Automatic disqualification was given for any entrant who wore a Gi or Japanese/Korean style uniform. This, the Organizers said, was strictly a Chinese Martial Styles Championship. Its participants filled a university size gym.
Needless to say students have a variety to choose from when they decide to study any form of Martial Arts. Competition for students, keeping them interested in learning, can be very fierce between schools, resulting in a barrage of creative membership plans. The result of all this choice however, can create a lack of respect and commitment on the part of students and the cheapening, dissolution and comprehension of Martial Arts’ deeper benefits.
My teacher, Sifu Wing Lam, began his school in San Francisco and then moved down to what is now known as the “South Bay” or “Silicon Valley” area. It is a prosperous region and also has its own wealth of Asian culture. However it is a daily struggle to live and work in the “Valley” as we locals call it. Studying Kung Fu here is perceived as just another type of Health Club, due to other exotic choices such as Yoga, Escrima, and Muy Thai kickboxing.
The Connection
My connection with Scotland Lau Gar began when a family came to visit Lam’s school a few years ago. None of us students on the floor that day even realized that there WAS interest in kung fu in Scotland. But this family kept up with a very intensive workout and stayed for ALL our school’s classes every day for the duration of their stay. The respect for this group increased dramatically. Would any of us spend our holiday at a sister school? Who was Scotland Lau Gar, as their uniforms said? Where did they get their instruction? When did Sifu start travelling there?
The Wojciechowskis, as I grew to understand, ran Southern style Kung Fu classes in Paisley and Greenock under the supervision of Chief Instructor Graham McKenzie. Graham McKenzie ran a school in Dundee, and in addition, once a month held a training class which the instructors from all over Scotland attended. I discovered that Graham had previously visited Lam Kwoon. He returned the following year and spent a lot of time with Sifu, trying to preserve every detail on videotape in addition to attending all our school’s adult classes.
I was very impressed that so many wanted to study at our school, because after Graham came others, some from Italy, a married couple from Argentina, even instructors from other parts of the United States, such as Wisconsin, and North Carolina.
Going across the Ocean
It occurred to me, as Lam prepared to move his school to a new location, that Sifu was not going to be around forever. The economics of our nation, the changes in the focus of the High Tech Industry, massive unemployment in our area, were creating a tense financial arena where students were dwindling and costs were soaring. What if Sifu stopped teaching? We all would lose something very precious. Not just his students, but all the people Sifu has touched over the years, including Scotland Lau Gar.
Now my interest in Scotland was also familial. My children spend much of their time as musicians learning what we call “Celtic Music.” We attend Celtic Camp, have kilts, and our family last name is McRee. I live in Santa Cruz, a resort town on the ocean, near Monterey. Santa Cruz High School has a pipe (and that means Bag-pipe!) and drum core and my children perform regularly at the Highland Games given in a town named Ben Lomond, only a few miles from us. The area I live in is home to a famous California Winery called Bonny Doon Vineyards, and there is a tiny fishing pond called, yes, Loch Lomond.
I made my decision. I would visit their school.
After the magic of the Internet and emailing, a visit was set up. Luckily Kris Wojciechowski, the younger of their two sons, on return from his job in Hawaii, came by and trained for a week. Sifu reintroduced me to him and told Kris told us about Scotland’s training set up.
There was no “school” like Sifu Lam’s, with a workout floor, wooden Wing Chun dummies, lots of weapons racks, and mats. This peaked my interest even more, since the difficulties of training in a non-permanent site can be difficult. And yet, they trained, and they grew despite these obstacles, something that would never happen in California.
The Element of Surprise
On my arrival to Scotland, my family and I had amusing and terrifying experiences with the Scottish roundabouts and left side stick shift vehicles, but our luck changed dramatically when we met Lynn and Nick Wojciechowski. Under their kind and wise instruction, we were able to drive through the streets of Glasgow and Paisley arriving at our destination in one piece.
My family and I were then given a wonderful tour of the incredible town of Paisley.
Now, the Scottish must understand that nothing built in California is older than perhaps 100 years. This is simply due to the unnerving arrival of big quakes with the jarring consistency of every 74-101 years. The town where I live has been rebuilt three times since its Mission was established in the late 1700’s. Our last quake in 1989 which registered 6.9 on the Richter Scale, demolished most of Santa Cruz’s downtown area and due to extremely high building costs (A California norm) and little or no insurance by the property and business owners, much of the downtown remained unrepaired. Santa Cruz’s merchants instead put up in tents in lieu of retail space and the city kept going like this for over three years. Even now, 12 years later, there are still vacant pits where the older buildings once stood.
Nick and Lynn showed us a town that was 1000 years old! It gave birth to a what is now a California sixties classic pattern, and a visit to Sma’ Shot Historical site showed us where our California term “cottage industry” really came from. Afterwards, Nick and Lynn introduced us to, the now sadly missed, IRN-BRU.
Passion and Dedication
Before I left the States, I checked in with our children’s class. Lam’s school runs classes for children 6 days a week. The Head Children’s Instructor insists on a two time a week commitment. They learn about eleven forms (three weapons sets included in that number) and are given exams and awarded sashes according to the number of forms they have learned. It sounds like a lot, but interestingly, most of the time they are simply fast and sloppy or forget what they have learned. Many come at least three times a week with much the same enthusiasm as those dreaded chores parents want them to do. They go through the motions and parents are generally no where to be seen. Naturally, due to its large size, maintaining discipline is a challenge. When I came to the Paisley YMCA, I expected to find something similar to what we had.
That was simply not the case. First of all, the children who arrived really wanted to be there. Second, they were very well behaved. Third, their parents wanted to be there as well. Many of the children inspired their younger siblings to join when they were old enough and Lynn told me, the enrollment was limited, a sign that growth and demand was good.
I was offered time to teach. With as much courage as I could muster, I introduced these children to some of the basics done to warm up Shaolin (Northern style) practitioners. The kids were wonderful, trying their very best to follow my often unclear instructions, and watch my movements with brevity. I asked some of the students to show me what they had learned. I was impressed at the precision of their movements. Their sets were short, some did not remember their entire set, but what they DID know was well executed. I thought-wait a minute, they must train more than once a week. But no, Nick told me, just once a week.
My heart was really warmed when I saw a young man do part of a Shaolin weapons set called Nine Province Staff. He was better than our kids who trained three times a week! He only knew half the set, but he knew it WELL. His movements were precise and aligned, his manner calm and focused. He had learned not just “another weapons” set, but he had learned the spirit of the set as well.
These children had the light of enthusiasm in their faces when they were engaged in class. They WANTED to learn. They weren’t just going through the motions. This was their favorite thing to do. Learning Kung Fu for these children was a precious and important experience for them. Teaching Kung Fu was a responsibility that Nick, Lynn, and Angela their third Instructor, took seriously. It was not something to do to “look cool” or be better than someone, an all too pervasive American attitude.
Real dedication to Martial Arts is not about having a fancy school or lots of variety.
Unfortunately it is a significant part of the American culture to have a lot of choices and to DENY what is given just as strongly. The children, the next generation of the Scotland Lau Gar, know that what they have learned is very precious and worth their time. They come to this Art with the basic understanding that what they have chosen to learn is rare and deserves the very best they have to offer of themselves. That is pure dedication.
The Spirit of Braveheart.
I am so grateful to the Wojciechowskis for sharing with me not only their classes and students, their passion and dedication to the Martial Arts, but also their beautiful country. We saw the very best of Scotland on a hot and sunny day, touring the ‘bonny bonny banks of Loch Lomond’ and a wonderful feast at a very delightful Indian restaurant.
I was also extremely honored to visit and meet with other Instructors in Dundee, including Graham McKenzie, and to reacquaint myself with Steven W. who had visited our school with his parents a few years before. The drive up to Dundee was lovely and I was introduced to a “double roundabout”.
I have returned to my training ‘routine’ with renewed dedication to pursue my lessons with this point of view. I also passed on my observations to our Children’s Instructor, Sifu, and the Hung Gar instructors at my school.
As of the writing of this article I must say there has been some improvement in the passion of our children and our students. I think one never truly appreciates what one has when one lives with it everyday. Thank you for your passion and dedication. I am honored to be included in your “family”.
Scotland once again has inspired a nation!