--- title: Diaspora — Where Chinese Martial Arts Went --- Many of the strongest living Chinese-martial-arts lineages today live not in their place of origin but **abroad** — in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, the United States, Europe — having traveled there with the great waves of 20th-century migration. This page traces *where the arts went* and where, today, the **best primary archives and living transmissions outside the mainland** can be found. ## Hong Kong — the southern doorway After 1949, Hong Kong became the major **southern doorway** through which both **mainland-Chinese** martial arts (escaping the upheaval) and **diaspora-Chinese** martial arts (heading abroad) flowed. - **黃漢勛 Wong Hon Fan (1915–1974)** — 7th-generation **Seven Star Praying Mantis**, *"King of Praying Mantis,"* and the principal disseminator of Seven Star worldwide. Wong's complete published series of ~27 titles plus 63 manuscripts plus 132 newspaper cuttings — the **largest single Praying Mantis archive in the world** — is now the [**CUHK 黃漢勛 (Wong Hon Fan) Special Collection**](https://repository.lib.cuhk.edu.hk/en/collection/whf), 286 items total. Browser-only via IIIF viewer. The family lineage site is [hfwong-mantis.com](https://www.hfwong-mantis.com), which hosts archival film (including 1979 super-8 footage) and a few free PDFs. - **Wing Chun (詠春)** — **Ip Man (葉問, 1893–1972)** brought Wing Chun from Foshan to Hong Kong in 1949; through his students (including Bruce Lee) it became one of the most globally recognized Chinese martial arts. - **Hung Gar (洪拳)** — the Wong Fei-hung / Lam Sai-wing southern lineage; preserved in Hong Kong through 林祖 (Lam Cho) and others. - **HKMALA (Hong Kong Martial Arts Living Archive)** — CityU + HKBU + EPFL collaboration; ~2 TB of motion-capture and high-resolution video of 130 *taolu* across 19 styles by 33 elite Hong Kong masters. The largest intangible-cultural-heritage mocap archive in the world. Research/exhibition access; not a public download. ## Taiwan — the northern refuge After 1949, **Nationalist refugees** brought many northern arts to Taiwan that became harder to maintain on the mainland during the Cultural Revolution. - **Cheng Man-ching (鄭曼青, 1902–1975)** founded **時中學社 Shr Jung Tai Chi Society** in Taipei in **December 1949** (within months of the Nationalist arrival), at the invitation of the mayor — on the rooftop of Taipei's Zhongshan Hall. The school still operates: [37taichi.org.tw](http://www.37taichi.org.tw/cmc-taichi/index.htm). Cheng went on to **New York in 1964**, founding the school that brought Taiji to America. The lineage's free hosted Cheng-text archive — including a serialized *Taijiquan Qianshuo* — is at [shenlong-taiwan.org](https://shenlong-taiwan.org/) (Wu Kuo-chung 吳國忠 line). - **Liu Yunqiao (劉雲樵, 1909–1992)** — Li Shuwen's last disciple; founded the **Wutan (武壇)** school in Taiwan; trained Chiang Kai-shek's personal bodyguards; the major source of **Baji** outside the mainland. - The **Wang Zihe (王子和)** *Yang-family old-frame* line — a rarely-filmed alternative Yang transmission (Yang Luchan → Jianhou → Chengfu → Lü Dianchen → Wang Zihe) — is preserved in Taiwan. - The **Cheng Man-ching Memorial Museum** in Taiwan; the **official YouTube channel** [@cmc\_taichi](https://www.youtube.com/@cmc_taichi); the for-pay [chengmanching.com](https://www.chengmanching.com/) hosting *"The Master Tapes"* (4+ hours of unreleased 1970s NY footage). ## Singapore — Cheng Man-ching's first stop, Huang's launch pad **Huang Sheng-Shyan (黃性賢, 1910–1992)** — Cheng Man-ching's senior student, taijiquan title-winner at Taiwan's 1955 provincial tournament — devoted himself from **1956 onward** to spreading the art across Southeast Asia. His first stop was **Singapore**, where he founded the **Singapore Tai Chi Association** (formalized 1959). Today: - [**Singapore Tai Chi Society 新加坡太极学会**](https://taichi.org.sg/history/) — the body Huang founded. - [**taiji.sg (Huang-Style Tai Chi Singapore)**](https://www.taiji.sg/our-lineage) — Tay Ah Cheng line. - [**singongtaichi.com**](https://www.singongtaichi.com/huangshengshyan.html) — Yek Sing Ong line. ## Malaysia — Sarawak (Kuching), Kuala Lumpur, Sabah From Singapore Huang moved to **Sarawak / Kuching in 1963**, then to **Kuala Lumpur in 1970**. By his death in **December 1992** he had founded some **forty schools** across the Malaysian archipelago and trained on the order of **ten thousand students**. - [**Huang Tai Chi Association Malaysia**](http://www.huangtaichiassociation.com/) — the national body (est. 1973). - [**Huang Tai Chi Tenom (Sabah, Borneo)**](http://www.huangtaichitenom.com/) — and its [YouTube channel](https://www.youtube.com/@huangtaichitenom) which posts **archival Huang push-hands footage** rarely seen elsewhere. In addition, the **Selangor Chin Woo Athletic Association** in Malaysia produced significant publications in the early 20th century — we hold the *雪蘭莪精武特刊* (1928 special issue) in the codex's `Sources/northern-kungfu-manuals/`, a rare diaspora-Chin-Woo document. ## New York and the West **Cheng Man-ching's** move to New York in **1964** opened the door for Taiji and the internal arts in North America: - [**Tai Chi Foundation**](https://www.taichifoundation.org/cheng-man-ching/) — Patrick Watson, one of Cheng's eight "Legacy Holders"; runs the **School of T'ai Chi Chuan** with 20+ branches. - [**New York School of T'ai Chi Chuan**](https://taichichuan.org/) — the original *Shr Jung* school at 87 Bowery; the famous "Big Six" of Cheng's American disciples. - [**MOCA (Museum of Chinese in America)**](https://www.mocanyc.org/collections/stories/cheng-man-ching-collections-at-moca-2022-006-2022-022/) — holds the **Cheng Man-Ching Collections** (accessions 2022.006 and 2022.022). Western successor schools to **Huang Sheng-Shyan**: - [**The Taiji School (Prague)**](https://thetaijischool.com/master-huang/) — Wee Kee Jin line. - [**Taiji School of Central Equilibrium**](https://www.taijisoce.com/) — Wee Kee Jin's main organization. - [**Tai Chi Huang Foundation (Vancouver / Surrey BC)**](https://www.taichihuangfoundation.org/huang-sheng-shyan) — custodian foundation. ## Indonesia — the White Crane line Indonesia's major Chinese-rooted martial tradition is **PGB Bangau Putih (White Crane)** — founded in **Bogor in 1952** by *Suhu Subur Rahardja* from a fusion of family Kun Tao and a White Crane monk's transmission. Now led by Gunawan Rahardja. The art blends Northern Shaolin + Indonesian *pencak silat*. Branches: [pgbhk.com](https://pgbhk.com/) (Hong Kong), [pgbsf.org](http://pgbsf.org/), [pgbcalifornia.com](https://pgbcalifornia.com/). ## Thailand and elsewhere — a real gap **Thailand** has Chinese-immigrant martial schools (e.g. [Thai-Chinese Shaolin](https://www.thaishaolin.com/)), but no major digitized lineage archive surfaced in our search; the Chinese-Thai martial heritage appears under-documented on the open web. **Vietnam** similarly — Chin Woo branches existed historically; their archives have not surfaced. **Philippines** — long-standing Hung Gar and Wing Chun community; no open central archive located. These are documented gaps in the wiki's coverage; we'll continue hunting. ## Why this matters For a Western practitioner trying to learn an art *seriously*, the diaspora story is **not historical trivia** — it shapes **who is reachable today**. The senior living holders of many lineages are in Hong Kong, Taipei, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Auckland, Prague, Vancouver, and New York, not in the cities most people associate with the arts. The lineage sites linked above are the best concrete entry points into the **living transmission** of the systems whose textual record this wiki documents. ## See also ## Companion taiji wiki The Cheng Man-ching biography, Huang Sheng-Shyan biography, and lineage chart of the Taiji thread are documented in depth on the sister wiki: - [Cheng Man-ching (Zheng Manqing)](https://taiji.openmindspace.org/taiji-history/zheng-manqing) — biography + writings - [Huang Sheng Shyan (黃性賢)](https://taiji.openmindspace.org/taiji-history/huang-sheng-shyan) — biography + media - [Lineage of This School](https://taiji.openmindspace.org/taiji-history/lineage-overview) — the full Yang transmission