A Three-Century Tradition

A living tradition since 1979

Shaolin Hung Fut Kung Fu School — also known as Tai Yim Kung Fu — is the world headquarters of the Hung Fut system, a southern Chinese system traditionally founded in the early eighteenth century by the system’s creator and first-generation Grandmaster Wun Lei, birth name Lee Jo Fuen. After many years of extensive training in various martial disciplines including the Five Animal Form, the Iron Wire Fist and his own Transfer Incense Palm, Wun Lei integrated components of his expansive knowledge into a unique palm system he designated as Buddha Palm (佛掌 Fat Zoeng). He then synthesized his new internal creation with the Hung Family boxing he had learned from Hung Hei Gwaan, forming our beautiful and powerful style 洪拳佛掌 (Hung Kyun Fat Zoeng), or Hung Fist and Buddha Palm, which is the original full name of our combined system. Over time the public abbreviated the name to Hung Fut Pai (洪佛派) as we know it today.

The school was founded by Sifu Tai Yim, the 8th-generation Grandmaster of the Hung Fut system. He is no longer actively involved in teaching; the 9th-generation masters he trained carry the system forward, and students of every age learn authentic forms, practical self-defense, and the discipline that comes from centuries of martial tradition. On 17 September 2006 he formally passed the lineage to the 9th-generation Masters, witnessed by Eagle Claw’s Grandmaster Lily Law, Wah Lum’s Grandmaster Poi Chan and the late Southern Praying Mantis Grandmaster Henry Poo Yee.