Grandmaster Moy Yat Biu Gee Workshop Richmond, VA 2000

Late in the year 2000, Yip Man disciple and Ving Tsun Grandmaster Moy Yat did his last public event, a Biu Gee (Bil Gee) certification seminar at the Richmond Moy Yat Kung Fu Academy. This school was founded in 1986 by his SSA disciple, Anthony Moy Tung Dandridge, to teach pure Ving Tsun in the name of his Sifu, Moy Yat.

At the 2000 Richmond seminar, nine Ving Tsun Kung Fu students in Grandmaster Moy Tung’s lineage were certified in Biu Gee. Grandmaster Moy Yat delivered his last public remarks on Ving Tsun Kung Fu, passing not long afterward, on January 23, 2001.

The video has never been publicly released, but will be, July 25. Grandmaster Moy Yat began speaking with the following statements:

Bil Gee, in our system, means you've attained the rank of a Sifu. If you're up to Biu Gee, you represent the style. And you represent your school. And you represent your Sifu. And also you represent yourself as a Sifu.

What does ‘Sifu’ mean? It means you can’t make any mistakes. If you make mistakes with your Kung Fu, then there’s no excuse, because you’re a Sifu already.

A Sifu is a teacher. So, before you’re up to that level, you really have to work hard, if you want to get the certificate. And then, later on, you teach Kung Fu. At least, you have a paper like this. Otherwise, you’re disqualified to be a teacher.

And if you want to use the Moy Yat Kung Fu name for your school, if you don’t have a certificate of Bil Gee, you’re disqualified.

The video was screened for a group of about 40 people during the last day of the 2022 Richmond Moy Yat Kung anniversary seminar. Before the video, Grandmaster Moy Tung recalled,

I don't know why Sifu pushed that seminar. Because I did not want to do a workshop – he’d suffered a couple of strokes. I was like, ‘Look, take it easy. We're gonna hang out in New York.’ … In my opinion he was working too hard. And we're trying to get him to chill and relax, but he was like, ‘Nope, nope – gotta do this.’ He would not have it. So that's the only reason this video is here. He insisted.

In addition to a great deal of information about Ving Tsun’s forms training system from Siu Nim Tao through Baat Jom Doa, Grandmaster Moy Yat also speaks on Kung Fu culture and customs. He closes his talk with a couple of revealing and memorable stories from his own Kung Fu life as a Sifu.

There is huge significance in Grandmaster Moy Yat’s choice of topics and words at his last seminar. It’s clear from his delivery that he had been contemplating the subjects for a long time, and had been looking forward to this forum for presenting his views. He passed just a few months after delivering these remarks.

Grandmaster Moy Yat produced and directed over 30 Ving Tsun videos prior to his passing, and he insisted the 2000 Biu Gee Seminar be recorded, with the intention that the video would be released to the public.

A portion of the video sales will go directly to Sitai Helen Moy.

by Erik Larson