Wong Jack Man

Wong Jack Man (Chinese:黃澤民, born c.1940 in Hong Kong ) is a Chinese martial artist and martial arts teacher, best known for fighting Bruce Lee in a real-life challenge match in Oakland in 1964.

Wong taught classes in Tai Chi Chuan, Xingyiquan and Northern Shaolin at the Fort Mason Center in San Francisco. He retired in 2005 after teaching for 45 years. His classes continued under his student Rick Wing.

The fight with Bruce Lee
Wong's fight with Lee is controversial, as it was unrecorded and held in private.

According to Linda Lee Cadwell, Bruce Lee's wife, Lee's teaching of Chinese martial arts to Caucasians made him unpopular with Chinese martial artists in San Francisco. Dan Inosanto stated that Wong Jack Man did not teach Caucasians, and that he showed up at Lee's school on Broadway several months after Lee began teaching and issued an ornate scroll with a challenge to stop teaching Caucasians if he lost.

Wong stated that he requested a public fight with Lee after Lee had issued an open challenge during a demonstration at a Chinatown theater where Lee claimed to be able to defeat any martial artist in San Francisco. There are no witnesses that corroborates Wong's story, however. Wong stated it was after a mutual acquaintance delivered a note from Lee inviting him to fight that he showed up at Lee's school to challenge him. This "mutual acquaintance" has never been named and has never stepped forward to corroborate Wong's story. Wong contested the notion that Lee was fighting for the right to teach caucasians as not all of Wong's students were Chinese, Wong won't elaborate on whether any of those non-Chinese students were Caucasian, however.

As the fight date approached, Wong tried to delay the match and even asked for restrictions on techniques such as no hitting the face, no kicking the groin, no eye jabs, etc. Bruce refused "rules", and the two fought no holds bar. Individuals known to have witnessed the match included Cadwell, James Lee (an associate of Bruce Lee, no relation) and William Chen, a teacher of Tai Chi Chuan.

The details of the fight vary depending on the account. According to Bruce, Linda, and James Lee, the fight lasted 3 minutes with a decisive victory for Bruce.

Lee gave a description, without naming Wong explicitly, in an interview with Black Belt.


 * "I'd gotten into a fight in San Francisco with a Kung-Fu cat, and after a brief encounter the son-of-a-bitch started to run. I chased him and, like a fool, kept punching him behind his head and back. Soon my fists began to swell from hitting his hard head. Right then I realized Wing Chun was not too practical and began to alter my way of fighting."

Cadwell recounted the scene in her book Bruce Lee: The Man Only I Knew.


 * "The two came out, bowed formally and then began to fight. Wong adopted a classic stance whereas Bruce, who at the time was still using his Wing Chun style, produced a series of straight punches. "Within a minute, Wong's men were trying to stop the fight as Bruce began to warm to his task. James Lee warned them to let the fight continue. A minute later, with Bruce continuing the attack in earnest, Wong began to backpedal as fast as he could. For an instant, indeed, the scrap threatened to degenerate into a farce as Wong actually turned and ran. But Bruce pounced on him like a springing leopard and brought him to the floor where he began pounding him into a state of demoralization. "Is that enough?" shouted Bruce, "That's enough!" pleaded his adversary. Bruce demanded a second reply to his question to make sure that he understood this was the end of the fight."

This is in contrast to Wong and William Chen's account of the fight as they state the fight lasted an unusually long 20-25 minutes.

Wong was unsatisfied with Lee's account of the match and published his own version in the Chinese Pacific Weekly, a Chinese language newspaper in San Francisco. The article, which was featured on the front page, included a detailed description of the fight from Wong's perspective and concluded with an invitation to Bruce Lee for a public match if Lee found his version to be unacceptable. Lee never made a public response to the article. Wong later expressed regret over fighting Lee, attributing it to arrogance, both on the part of Lee and himself.