Kien Shih

Praying Mantis Shifu



The information presented in this chart was collected from different sources -see Bibliography-, therefore the romanizations in Pinyin according to the Mandarin pronunciation of the characters sometimes is not available. If you find any mistakes or inaccuracies please contact me.

His name is also romanized as:
Kin Shek / Sek Kin.
Shifu Kien Shih played in Hundreds of Hong Kong movies and most of the time he was the bad guy. Something not unrelated to the reputation of Tang Lang being a style for badies in Hong Kong. The goodies have often a local style of fighting in Hong Kong movies. Probably his most famous movie was when he played the bad guy (Han) in Bruce Lee movie "Enter the Dragon".
It was always understood that he was a Qi Xing Tang Lang practitioner, although it was not clear whether he learnt directly from shifu Luo Guang Yu or one of his students.
There is a picture of shifu Kien Shih with Luo Guang Yu and Siu Hon San (one of the 10 tigers of Canton). Siu Hon San and Sek Kin were sworn brother and Sek Kin taught Siu Hon San some praying mantis, at least Beng bu.
Then, it is surprising that sometimes he is considered as a Tai Ji Tang Lang practitionner. However, it is quite possible that he learnt some tai mantis like other well-known Hong Kong shifus who tried all the mantis coming down south.
One of his last roles was in a comic version of Wong Fei Hung, but he doesn't work much now because of Parkinson disease.


Page Updated: 1st November 2000.
If you have comments please contact me !! Fernando Blanco Dopazo .


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