Siu Ying Passes Away At The Age Of 101

Siu Ying, wife of Hung Gar master Chiu Kau(1895-1995), passed away on August 30, 2002 at the age of 101. A traditional Chinese funeral was held in Hong Kong which family, relatives, friends and students attended to pay their condolences and best wishes to the memory of Siu Ying.

Siu Ying was born in a village in San Hui, Guangdong,to a family of Chinese medicine and kung fu practitioners. She married Chiu Kau and followed him to start a Hung Gar schools in Hong Kong. Besides her hung gar Siu Ying was a good herbal doctor and gave poor people free medical care, with many of them requesting to be adopted as godchildren. She helped in charitable and community causes including fund raising activities for Bo Leung Guk orphanage, Tung Wah Hospital, Gong Wah Hospital, and many others.

Part of the fund raising work included public kung fu demonstrations between her and her husband, which were very well received by the audience. Because of her skills, people called her “the martial arts heroine”. At times the joke goes that she is better than her husband, as the demos were often setup with Siu Ying beating up Chiu Kau. But in real life, she was often informally challenged at the market place, and she usually impressed the challengers with her superior skills. Her repertoire of skills includes the art of “dim yuet”, or acupressure points. She can quickly disable an attacker by using her fingers and put pressure at the points. She passed down her knowledge and skills to her sons.