The Jow-Ga Story (Edited by Britney Ramirez - Sun, Oct 28, 2018)

Near the end of the Ching Dynasty in a province of China called Canton, a highly combative style of Kung-Fu was developed. This style is known as Jow Ga (“Ga” means family) and was named after the Jow family. Unlike many other Kung-Fu styles, Jow Ga was developed in an urban environment under actual combat conditions. It was not developed somewhere in the woods kicking on trees and beating the breeze.

The founder of this Kung-Fu style, Jow Lung, was born in Sa fu village. As a youth, Jow Lung studied Hung Ga and Choy Ga Kung-Fu from his uncles. When he approached his twenties, Jow Lung was very skilled at martial arts. The training molded him into a strong and righteous individual. Jow Lung didn’t get along well with the local gangsters. He constantly had to fight them because he interfered with the gangsters’ exploitation of law-abiding citizens. Luckily, he had four more brothers who also studied Kung-Fu from their uncles. So, the five of them would fight the gangsters to keep Jow Lung out of trouble.

One day, Jow Lung was defending a helpless citizen against the bullies when he accidentally killed one of the gang members with a lethal kick. Jow Lung had to leave town because the gangsters and the authorities were looking for him. He hid in the mountains. While there, he took refuge in a Shaolin Temple. In the temple, he learned Northern Shaolin Kung-Fu. After several years, Jow Lung returned to his family. He taught his four brothers the Kung-Fu that he learned during his exile.

In his absence, momentous changes had taken place in China. The Ching Dynasty had collapsed and a new republic had been founded. China’s army desperately needed a combat instructor. Jow Lung applied for the job. His Kung-Fu was so good that he passed all of the rigorous tests and was accepted for the job. Shortly after that, Jow Lung and his four brothers became famous for their martial artistry, and they became known as the Five Tigers of Canton. Unfortunately, when Jow Lung reached his thirties, he died of an incurable lung disease. The surviving Jow brothers (Tin, Hip, Hoy, and Biu) continued to promote the Jow Family Kung-Fu. Over a period of time, Jow Ga schools began to appear throughout China and Southeast Asia.

One of the brothers, Jow Biu, taught a man named Chan Man Cheung, who opened a Jow Ga school in Hong Kong. Among Chan Man Cheung sent him on a mission. His charge was to bring Jow Ga to the United States of America. Chan Man Cheung chose Dean Chin for this mission because Dean Chin was by far the most qualified. Dean Chin settled in Washington, D.C. He worked as a waiter and eventually saved enough money to open a studio in Chinatown, the first Kung-Fu school in Washington. Dean Chin was well-respected in the community as a Kung-Fu man of good character. He was always ready to help anyone in the community with whatever problem they may have, whether it was with housing, language, employment, food, education, etc.

In 1974, Dean gave the first large Kung-Fu tournament in the United States at the Washington Coliseum in Washington, D.C. He received various citations from the President of the United States and the Mayor of Washington, D.C. for his community work. In 1984, he died tragically and prematurely in an accident…. BUT the story continues. In 1987, Raymond Wong, Dean Chin’s most trusted student, established the Wong’s Chinese Boxing Association in Washington, D.C. Teaching the art of Jow Ga Kung-Fu, Raymond Wong continues his teacher’s work in promoting the style throughout the United States. The Wong’s Chinese Boxing Association is a not-for-profit organization dedicated exclusively to teaching the Jow Ga style. The school is supported by members of the community. In this way, Raymond Wong follows Dean Chin’s tradition of community involvement.

The Jow Ga style today is very versatile. It is composed of long to short range, hard and soft techniques. It contains five animal styles (Tiger, Leopard, Snake, Dragon, and Crane). There are no drunken forms in Jow Ga because alcoholism is not condoned in the style. There are well over thirty different empty handsets, over thirty different weapons sets, and over twenty different two-man sets. In addition, Jow Ga contains other elements common to most Chinese martial arts styles, such as lion dancing, medicine, chi gong, traditional Chinese philosophy, internal studies, and meditation.