On
November 22, 1998, Grandmaster William
Cheung was inducted into the 1998 Blitz
Hall of Fame, receiving the award for
"Lifetime Tribute for Martial
Arts". He has been called the Masters'
Master; he was considered by Bruce
Lee to be the "ultimate
fighter": William Cheuk Hing Cheung
was the sole inheritor of the Traditional
Wing Chun Kung Fu
system, and was the person
responsible for introducing Bruce Lee to
Wing Chun Kung Fu.
In 1951,
at the age of ten, Cheung started his
training in Wing Chun Kung Fu under the
late Grandmaster Yip Man. From 1954 to
1958 Cheung was a live-in student of
Grandmaster Yip Man. It was during this
time that he inherited the complete
system of Traditional Wing Chun Kung Fu.
Between
1957 and 1958 Cheung won the Kung Fu
elimination contests in Hong Kong,
defeating opponents with many more years'
experience. In early 1954 Cheung
introduced Bruce Lee to Grandmaster Yip
Man, and became his personal trainer.
Throughout the four and a half years the
two men developed a very close
friendship, and Cheung passed on to Bruce
Lee most of his techniques and helped
developed his overall confidence and
experience in fights. In later years he
was to use these techniques in
competitions, and also in his movies.
In 1959,
after completing his training under
Grandmaster Yip Man, Cheung left Hong
Kong to pursue an academic career at the
Australian National University in
Canberra. He graduated with a Bachelor of
Arts/Bachelor of Economics.
After
moving to Melbourne to teach Wing Chun
professionally in 1973, Cheung began
operating a very successful Martial Arts
School. In 1976 he was elected the
President of the Australian Kung Fu
Federation.
Cheung was
appointed as Chief Instructor to the U.S.
Seventh Fleet based in Yukosuka, Japan,
during 1978 to 1980. Throughout this
time, he was in charge of the intensive
mental and physical development program
of close quarter hand to hand combat for
the marines.
Many of
Cheung's students have achieved
international recognition for their
martial arts prowess. In 1982 his
students, Joe Moahengi and Rick Spain,
won the heavyweight and middleweight
divisions respectively in the World
Invitation Kung Fu Championships held in
Hong Kong. Furthermore, Cheung himself,
in 1983, was inducted into the
"Black Belt Hall of Fame" as
Kung Fu Artist of the Year and again in
1989, into the "Inside Kung Fu Hall
of Fame" as Martial Arts Instructor
of the Year.
From 1979
Grandmaster Cheung and many of his
juniors conducted special programs for
special law enforcing officers and
special operation groups in the Armed
Services in U.S.A. and other countries,
teaching unarmed combat, restraining and
disarming assailants and a fire arm
retention program. 
It was at
the Harvard University, Boston, in 1984
that Grandmaster Cheung set the world
speed punching record of 8.3 punches per
second . To promulgate his ideas and
stimulate and enliven the art, Cheung has
authored a variety of books for the
general public including "Wing Chun
Biu Jee", "Wing Chun Butterfly
Swords", "Wing Chun Dragon
Pole", "Advanced Wing
Chun", "How to Develop Chi
Power", "Wing Chun Kung
Fu" (in French), "A Comparison
of Wing Chun and Jeet Kune Do"
Volumes I and II. He has also produced a
number of videos, including the
well-known "The Wing Chun Way",
"Tao of Wing Chun" and
"PRO-TEKT: A Personal Protection
Program".
From his early training in
Martial Arts, Grandmaster Cheung has
become an expert in Meridian, Pressure
Points and Meditation dealing with
internal energies. Over the last ten
years he has used this knowledge to
develop many successful programs treating
sports injuries and teaching stress
management. Grandmaster William Cheung
has been honored by the China Guangzhou
Medical University and Hospital Research
Institute as a Research Professor for his
Cheung's Meridian Therapy (CMT) program.
This appointment is for the two year
period from January 2000 until January
2002. As the result of these, Grandmaster
Cheung's seminars, workshops and
treatments are now much sought after all
over the world.
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