The Club History

Oxford Wing Chun’s history began in 1992 when Eddie Yuen started practising Wing Chun with several of his friends. In the beginning Eddie’s garage was the venue where they performed their forms and techniques. Although Eddie had learned Wing Chun in the 60s, he soon realized that there were many questions that needed answering. Hence, he began searching for a master to instruct them. Through his contacts, Eddie soon found that an accomplished Wing Chun Si Fu (Nino Benardo) was running his own school known as “Basement” in London. After a meeting with Nino he recognised that he had found the right Si Fu and was determined to learn from him. From that day onwards, Eddie started a new chapter of his Wing Chun.

Nino is not only a remarkable person but a hugely talented teacher with enormous amount of knowledge in martial arts. He is a ‘one in a million’ martial artist who is capable of applying the practical elements of Wing Chun in various combat situations as well as keeping an open mind in researching the history and theory of Wing Chun. His teaching method is dynamic, creative, philosophical, and yet extremely practical. He always analyses a student's strength, weakness, personality and learning ability to tailor a training program for individual. Under Nino's instructions, Eddie was enriching his Wing Chun experience.

During his time in Basement, Eddie's sincere attitude and passion in Wing Chun has earned recognition from many other senior members. In particular, Guy Cofie, Marc Wallaca, Johnny Turnbull and Kevin Lyons shared many of their skills and Chi Sau experience with him. Eddie always shows his respects and faithfulness to Nino and his senior Wing Chun fellows.

In 1996, Nino encouraged Eddie to share his Wing Chun to other new comers and continue his research by running his own class in Oxford. Together with help from two other fellow Wing Chun practitioners, Jason Lai and Mark Symth, Eddie founded the Oxford Wing Chun School in the same year.

The school had a tremendous start, the public response was extraordinary, class size often exceeded 50 students. As a result, Oxford Wing Chun invited Nino to take over the classes with the purpose of maintaining the highest standard of Wing Chun in the region, whilst Eddie continued to assist the teaching and further his own study with Nino.

In 2000, Nino stopped teaching in Oxford Wing Chun to migrate to Ibiza. Since then, the school was moved to a different address (a smaller premises) and the class size was limited to less than 20 students. Despite Nino’s move to Ibiza, Oxford Wing Chun continues to maintain a close relationship with Basement. In order to maintain its lineage, Eddie often takes his students with him to visit Basement and his senior Wing Chun fellows.

Oxford Wing Chun is not only a place to learn Wing Chun, it also a place to experience and appreciate the science of combat, a place to inspire people to research the martial art, and a place to develop friendships with other fellow Wing Chun practitioners. It has brought people from different races, gender, ages, professions and various cultures together. As for Eddie, who is retired, the school is a community where he can mix with different people, keep in touch with the society and to exercise with different ages of Wing Chun practitioners,

Recently, the influence of Oxford Wing Chun has been extended to contemporary dancing. Suzette Watson, the artistic director of Indigo Dance Company, contacted Oxford Wing Chun to show her interest in this style. Eddie has been helping Suzette to incorporate Wing Chun techniques in her dance routines. Although it is not the first time that dancers have used martial arts movement to express themselves in a performance, it is novel to employ Wing Chun (a practical style) in contemporary dance. It is fascinating to imagine how Wing Chun, music and dancing can gel together. The fact is that Indigo Dance Company has produced a show; the first performance was in the Banbury Education Center on the 28 Nov 2002.

Oxford Wing Chun has inherited Nino's martial art philosophy and Basement's training culture, under Eddie's development and other Wing Chun fellows efforts, its influence has reached to different part of the country as well as to the southern hemisphere in Australia. It has established itself as a renowned institute in Oxford to promote Wing Chun Kung Fu to newcomers and encourage the existing practitioners to continue their research. As the school believes Wing Chun is more than just combat techniques, its implications to life will take a one's lifetime to master.

The content of this article was approved by Si Fu Nino Benardo and other Wing Chun fellows whose names are mentioned.

Date: 29 NOV 2002