A Ip Man story

Ip Man (1893-1972) was the first martial arts to teach the Chinese martial art of Wing Chun openly. He had several students who later became martial arts teachers in their own right, including Bruce Lee.
When Ip Man was thirteen years old, he started learning Wing Chun under great master Chan Wa Shun. At age sixteen, Ip Man went to attend school at St. Stephen's College in Hong Kong, which was a secondary school for wealthy families and foreigners who lived in Hong Kong.
According to some traditions, one day, one of his classmates, challenged him to try his martial arts skill with an older man. The man beat him with a few strikes. It turned out that the old  man was his sibak Leung Bik, son of his sigung Leung Jan. After that encounter, Ip Man continued to learn from Leung Bik. At age 24, Ip Man returned to Foshan and his Wing Chun skills had improved tremendously while he had been away.
In Foshan, being a police officer, Ip Man didn't formally run a Win Chun school, but taught to several subordinates, his friends and relatives.
After the war, be returned to foshan to be a police officer again.
At the end of 1949, being an officer of the Kuomintang, he decided to escape to Hong Kong, without his family, when the comunists had come to Foshan.
In Hong Kong, he openned his first martial arts school. When he initially began the school, business was poor because his students typically stayed for only a couple of months before leaving. He moved his school to Hoi Tan Streeth in sham Shui Po and then to Lee Tat Street in Yau Ma Tei. By that time some of his students were trained to a sufficiently high enough skill level that they were able to start their own schools. Among the first were Leung Sheung, Lok Yiu, Chu Shon tin and my sigung, Wong Shun Leung.
Some Of Ip Man Students and descendents, compared their skills with other martial artist in combat. Their victories over other martial artists helped to bolster Ip Man's reputation as a teacher.
In 1967, Ip Man and some his student, established the Hong Kong Ving Tsun Athletic Association.
In 1972, Ip Man, sufferde from throat cancer and subsequently, died on deceber 2, of that year. As a fitting obituary for the man, within the three decades of is career in Hong Kon, he established a training system for Wing Chun that eventually spread acroos the world.