Karate was introduced to the public of Hong Kong when Uyehara Ko Sensei, top student of the late Grandmaster Ei'ichi Miyazato, went to work in Hong Kong in the early 1960's. My first Sensei, Mr. Kim-Kung Wong was one of the first group of student studied with Master Uyehara.

When Master Uyehara went back to Okinawa a couple of years later, Suzuki Masafumi Sensei of Seibukan School from Kyoto, who also trained under Grandmaster Miyazato in Okinawa, in the later 1950's and earlier 1960's, went to Hong Kong and accepted Wong Sensei and Mr. Kum-Qun Lee (now in Calgary, Alberta) as students. Most of the original students of Master Uyehara went to Yamaguchi Gogen Sensei's Japanese Goju Kai Association.

I left Hong Kong and came to Canada in November 1971. In early January the same year, Suzuki Sensei came to Hong Kong and promoted me to Shodan. I was one of the second group of Wong Sensei's students promoted by Suzuki Sensei. The first group of my senior classmates (about 10 of them) were promoted a year before me.

Unfortunately for Wong Sensei, he had an disagreement with Suzuki Sensei a couple of years later and broke away with the Seibukan Organization.

Here are the second generation of Hong Kong karate-ka, a day after we were promoted to Shodan in January 1971

Hing-Poon Chan
2001-2-24