The information below was collected from different sources for details but mainly comes from a verbal history passed down by my instructor Gary Steuer. Some details may vary from other sources, but in general I think this is a fair description of Grandmaster Ark Y. Wong's life and accomplishments.
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Grandmaster Ark Yuey Wong
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Ark Yuey Wong (1900–1987) was a pioneering Chinese martial arts master whose life and teaching spanned traditional Kung Fu, Lion Dance, Chinese herbal medicine, acupuncture, and Dit Da healing. Born in Guangdong, China, Wong spent more than seven decades practicing and teaching martial arts in both China and the United States. His career represents an important chapter in the transmission of traditional Chinese martial arts from the Chinese community in America to a broader generation of students.

Early Life and Martial Arts Training

Ark Yuey Wong was born on January 11, 1900, in the village of Toysun (Taishan), Tien Sum Chien, near Canton (Guangzhou), Guangdong Province. He came from a relatively prosperous, land-owning family. His formal martial arts training began at the age of seven following a family tragedy. After Wong's grandfather survived a violent attack by a relative during an inheritance dispute, he decreed that all male descendants of the Wong family would be trained in martial arts. To fulfill this tradition, the family employed a succession of instructors, reportedly as many as fourteen during Wong's youth. Several instructors lived with the family, and Ark Wong trained daily, with sessions lasting at least two hours.

Among his early teachers, two had a particularly important influence on his development. Lam Ark Fun, a master of Choy Lay Fut, taught Wong martial arts and introduced him to Chinese herbal medicine when he was approximately twelve years old. Wong also studied Mok Gar Kung Fu under Ho Ark Yeung (Ho Yeng). These early studies gave Wong exposure to both martial arts and traditional Chinese healing practices, two disciplines that would remain closely connected throughout his life.

During his teenage years, Wong was sent to Guangzhou to attend a school roughly equivalent to an American senior high school. While studying there, he began teaching private martial arts lessons and continued developing his own skills. It was during this period that he met Monk Pang, also rendered as Pung or Peng, the Chief Monk of Canton and a figure described as one of China's great Kung Fu fighters. Wong studied under him for approximately eighteen months, learning both the external and internal aspects of Kung Fu, including Qigong and breathing-based training. This internal discipline became an important component of his later practice.

Civil unrest around Canton eventually brought Wong back to his village. There, he became a teacher at a local school while beginning to accept martial arts students of his own. At approximately nineteen years of age, his Lion Dance performance during a New Year celebration brought him recognition as a Master.

Establishing His Career in America

In 1921, Wong immigrated to the United States with relatives and spent time in San Francisco and Oakland. He continued studying Chinese herbal medicine and acupuncture under his uncle while teaching martial arts within Chinese community organizations, including the Hop Sing Tong. He also remained active in Lion Dance.

In 1929, Grandmaster Wong moved to Los Angeles, where he continued developing his martial arts career and his work in traditional Chinese medicine. In 1931, at the request of the Wong clan, he returned to China to teach martial arts to members of his family. He remained there for approximately three years before returning permanently to Los Angeles in 1934. A surviving photograph from the period identifies him as head instructor of the Wong Wun Sun Benevolent Society in Los Angeles in 1931, reflecting his close relationship with Chinese clan and benevolent-society organizations.

For roughly three decades, Wong's teaching was conducted primarily within the Chinese-American community. His students included members of the Wong Family Association and the Hop Sing Tong. During this era, Chinese martial arts in America were commonly transmitted privately through family associations, clan organizations, and community groups rather than through schools that were open to the general public.

Opening Chinese Kung Fu to a Wider American Audience

Ark Wong is credited as one of the first genuine Chinese martial arts masters in America to openly teach non-Chinese students. He reportedly began accepting outside students as early as 1958, including Ron Shewmaker and Jim Anestasi. This preceded the more commonly cited date of 1960, when he formally opened his instruction to any sincere student.

Following his return from Hong Kong in 1962, Wong established the Wah Que Kung Fu Studio at 302 Ord Street in Los Angeles's Chinatown. The school later moved to Daly Street in 1974, where Wong also operated a clinic for his herbal medicine and acupuncture practice. His appearance on the January 1965 cover of Black Belt magazine became an important milestone, helping bring authentic Chinese martial arts to a national American audience.

Among Wong's students and successors was Gary Steuer, who became a trusted instructor and later established the West Los Angeles Kung Fu School in 1973. Through students such as these, Wong's teachings continued beyond his own school and contributed to the growing presence of traditional Chinese martial arts in the United States.

Martial Arts Curriculum

Wong's curriculum reflected the breadth of his own training and his approach to traditional Chinese martial arts. At his school he taught the Five Family system, consisting of Choy, Li (Lee), Fut, Mok, and Hung, together with the traditional Five Animals: Dragon, Tiger, Snake, Leopard, and Crane.

His curriculum extended beyond the Five Animals to include additional animal forms representing the Elephant, Horse, Monkey, Bull, and Lion. He also taught Tai Chi Quan, Hop Gar Lama, the eighteen traditional Shaolin weapons, and Lion and Dragon Dance.

This broad curriculum illustrates the range of Wong's martial arts teaching. Rather than limiting his instruction to a single style, his school preserved and transmitted a diverse body of traditional Chinese martial arts, including family systems, animal methods, internal training, weapons, and the cultural practice of Lion and Dragon Dance.

Chinese Medicine and Traditional Healing

Martial arts and traditional Chinese healing remained closely connected throughout Wong's life. His study of Chinese herbal medicine began around the age of twelve under Lam Ark Fun and continued in America under the guidance of his uncle. Wong eventually operated a Chinese herb shop and taught herbal medicine, massage, and acupuncture.

His healing practice also included Dit Da, or traditional trauma medicine, and he became known for the use of Dit Da Jow, a traditional medicated liniment associated with martial arts conditioning and the treatment of injuries. In 1975, Wong received his California acupuncture certification, formally recognizing a practice that had already been part of his life for many decades.

Influence and Legacy

Ark Yuey Wong's influence reached well beyond his own students and school. He influenced major martial arts figures including Bruce Lee, Dan Inosanto, and Ed Parker, as well as many other practitioners. His career was documented in publications such as Black Belt and Inside Kung Fu, while historical film footage recorded from approximately the 1960s through the 1980s preserved examples of his Five Family forms, Five Animal forms, and weapons training.

These records provide an important visual connection to an earlier generation of Chinese martial arts instruction in America and have subsequently contributed to documentary material about Wong and his teachings.

The Passing of a Traditional Master

Grandmaster Ark Yuey Wong died on January 11, 1987, his eighty-seventh birthday. Sometimes described as “the last of the old Masters,” Wong had devoted more than seventy years to the practice and teaching of martial arts, Chinese herbal medicine, acupuncture, and Lion Dance in China and the United States.
Even in his later years, Grandmaster Wong was remembered for his agility, speed, and mastery. His life reflected a remarkable continuity between traditional Chinese martial arts in Guangdong and their development in the Chinese-American community of the United States. Through his teaching, students, demonstrations, and surviving historical footage, Ark Yuey Wong left a lasting legacy in the preservation and transmission of traditional Chinese martial arts.