Life was hard and difficult for Cheung Shu Pui when he was young. His father worked in the Kaitel International Airport in Hong Kong as a fire department officer. He had five brothers and two younger sisters. During that time, the government had some dormitories for the workers inside Kaitek Airport, and they lived there in the government housing.Cheung Shu Pui studied at Chung Saan Middle School. The students there were all very poor. At that time, his family didn't have any money. He studied and completed elementary school and graduated from Form One (which is the equivalent of about seventh grade in the United States) and after that, he did not have formal schooling. At the age of 16, he started to work at Kingwah Hotel where he opened doors and carried suitcases. 
When Cheung Shu Pui was 18, there were several movies about Wong Fei Hung, the legendary gung fu master and herbal doctor, starring Gwan Dak Hing. When Cheung Shu Pui saw those movies, he became very interested in Hung Ga Gung Fu. He thought that this could teach someone how to be a good person. He decided to go out and look for a Sifu to study with. At that time, he had already moved to Shaukiwan on Hong Kong island. He saw Ho Lap Tin's name near San Wan Ho, about a 15-minute walk from his home. He went to look this Sifu up and then he immediately went into his school to study gung fu. The first time he went to the gung fu school, he burned candles and incense for the ceremonies and rituals to study gung fu. He bowed to the god Guan Gung. (Guan Gung is a warrior god. He is known for his loyalty. He is something like a patron saint to police officers, firefighters and workers.) Then, he started to learn how to do the horse stance. At that time, Ho Lap Tin was very strict and stern, which made Cheung Shu Pui very nervous and afraid. For the first two or three years, he did not speak to his sifu much at all. During those days, Ho Lap Tin did not speak much to the students, he would only speak with the older students.
In the begining, Cheung Shu Pui was taught by his sihings. After four years of study, Ho Lap Tin started a National Martial Arts Special Class to teach the more attentive and obedient students. That class consisted of Cheung Shu Pui, some of his sihings and sidis. There were 11 or 12 who were the heart of the school. They had to help the master, listen to what he said, follow him and study him, and they could not really oppose anything. During that time, there were a lot of people who came to study for a short time, and then left. They did not have the patience to stick it out and learn everything. To learn gung fu, you definitely need patience. That is the first requirement and after that you need to have time for yourself. After you determine you have the time, you need to practice hard--you cannot fear difficulty or pain. After the speacial class strated, Ho Lap Tin taught gung fu directly to Cheung Shu Pui. At this time he also learned tit da. Ho Lap Tin made his students follow him and watch him. They all lived together and slept at the school, so that they could study everything from Ho Lap Tin. Ho Lap Tin was a very serious and detailed person. For instance, he carefully recorded all the gung fu forms, the weapon forms, and the fighting forms inside of books. Also the herbal prescriptions for tit da--all were written down in books. In the future, he would never forget those things. Slowly, Cheung Shu Pui was given the gung fu steps, forms and the prescriptions for herbal medicine. Eventually, he received all of the books, including the history of Hung Ga as well as Ho Lap Tin's personal history.
Every Sifu has his own gung fu values, 20 or 30 years ago, very few of them had values. The vast majority of Sifus were not moral; a lot of them were corrupt, they were criminals. Many of the Sifus were really bad people. They really did know gung fu, but at the time the government was really messed up, and there ws the KMT and the Communist party and the society was so chaotic, so lots of the Sifus used gung fu for crime. Cheung Shu Pui realized that Ho Lap Tin was a person with good character so he continued his training under him.
One day, a Sifu came from Hawaii to Hong Kong to look for a few Sifus to come to America to teach gung fu. At that time in America, Bruce Lee was just becoming poplular, and all the Americans wanted to learn gung fu. So this Sifu decided he would find partners in different cities who wanted to try and start a school. This Sifu found Ho Lap Tin's school and Cheung Shu Pui was asked to go to Philadelphia to teach gung fu. Unable to speak English and not having any friends, Cheung Shu Pui felt alone and pitiful. Cheung Shu Pui did not have many students in the beginning, and the American he was working for was causing many problems. After Cheung Shu Pui one year contract was up, his American boss telephoned theImmigration Department, and the INS came and locked him up. Some of his students immediately tried to get immigration papers to help him out. The judge saw that he had so many students willing to help him, that he gave him three months to find a job, and if he could find a job, he said he could apply for a green card. Cheung and his students thought that Chinatown would probably offer him a job. So they all cooperated and supported each other and went to Chinatown and asked the associations if there might be a possiblity that they might hire Cheung Shu Pui to teach gung fu. Cheung Shu Pui was hired by the On Leung Association to teach gung fu to the members children. He taught there for aproximately for three years before opening his first school in Upper Darby, PA.Master Cheung used his heart when he learned gung fu and has a god-given talent for martial arts. As well as gung fu, he has learned Chinese art and the Chinese flute. He has passed this knowledge onto some of his students. Master Cheung maintains a racially mixed school of blacks, whites, hispanics and asians who are very close and get along very well.
Jerry Battle is a student of Cheung Shu Pui sifu
of Tang Fong - Ho Lap Tin lineage of Hung Gar
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