What's In A Name
I have been asked many times, "what does Kung Fu San Soo mean". Basically Kung Fu means to be very good at something, or some type of work, while "San Soo" means "free fighting (hand)". However, the words "san soo" are not proper Chinese terms, but rather a slang. San Shou is proper Chinese for these words. In addition, san soo by itself really doesn't refer to any martial art in general, and is used in many other martial arts as part of the curriculum.
If a Chinese person asks you what kind of martial arts you practice, and you say san soo, he will think your out of your mind. Its kinda like if someone asks you what kind of car you drive, and you reply, a black one, it doesn't mean anything. But if you say, a black Ford Tempo, I know exactly what your talking about. Then we can discuss it further; how many doors does it have, what type of engine (2.2 or 2.4), does it have 4 cylinders or 6 cylinders, is fuel injected, does it have a turbo and etc.
So, when someone trys to talk about Kung Fu San Soo with other martial arts, they are actually misrepresent the art they're are practicing. This is why Jimmy (chan siu duk) kept trying to get his top belts to drop kung fu san soo and use "Choy Li Fut san shou Wushu" or "five family free hand war art". So, what is kung fu san soo?, it is just a style within an art, it is not the art itself.
How The San Soo Name Got Started
In the early days, no one really knew or recognized the formal names of Chinese martial arts, but they did know what Karate and Kung Fu were. So as a businessman Chan Siu Duk, instead of advertising himself as Choy Li Fut, he used "Karate Kung Fu" which was designed to generate business. When white people would ask him what type of Karate Kung Fu he taught, he say, San Soo, and thus the name was born. Then in the late 80's he changed it to choy li fut (or tsai li hok fut) san shou wushu, but most students by then didn't care to make the change, to them it was Kung Fu San Soo. Today, only a hand full of his original students use Tsai Li Fo or Choy Li Fut san soo wushu while the majority continue to misrepresent the art by saying "san soo". For example, there are many many copies of the 5 kung fu books Carl made up, and which Jimmy (Chan Duk) signed. Now on the face of each and everyone of these books, he wrote in Chinese, down the center in very large bold letters; Choy Li Hok Fut, then in small letters to one side of the page he wrote the characters san soo wushu. He did not place or give the characters "san soo" any formal significance that might suggest that these words are very important, other than to distinguish the style of Choy Li Fut that we practice from other Choy Li Fut practitioners.