Sifu Wilkie Wu
Master Wilkie Wai Kwan Wu was born in 1948 in the city of Guangzhou, China.
He was educated in Guangzhou and immigrated to Hong Kong in 1962, where he started learning martial arts at a very young age at Yip Chi Sum's Bak Mei Athletic School. Since 1963, he has studied Bak Mei (White Eyebrow) Wushu under the tutelage of respected Bak Mei Wushu Masters Yip Chi Sum, the late Kwok Chi Chong, and the late Chow Fuk. His curriculum included Wushu routine training, weapons training, sparring, theory and history studies. During the course of his studies, he often participated in Wushu demonstrations, competitions, and lion dances during festivals. In 1968, Wilkie's intensive training was completed at the Wushu school in Hong Kong, where he stayed on as an assistant coach.
In 1969, Wilkie immigrated to Canada to further his education. During his years in university., he continually taught Wushu in his spare time-Wilkie was the first person who introduced Bak Mei Wushu to Canadian society and it had spread out ever since.
In the 1970s, he opened a school and taught Bak Mei Wushu in Vancouver's Chinatown area. The school became so popular that it was required to separate students into multiple clacsses; Wilkie also invited Master Yip Chi Sum to come to Vancouver and stay and help out at the school for a few years in order to better train the students. During those years, he taught many students and participated in numerous competitions and demonstrations, helping to promote Chinese martial arts to Canadian society.
In the late 1970s, Wilkie participated in the founding of the Western Canada Chinese Martial Arts Association. After the inception of the association, they hosted many Wushu competitions and invited Masters from all over Canada and the United States to participate.
In early 1980s, Wilkie was honoured to be invited as a coach to teach the Dragon Sign Athletic Association of North America where he helped train many students. In 1984, he was selected as one of the members of the Canadian National Wushu Team to represent Canada. participating at the 1985 World Wushu Invitational Competition in China.
In the 1990s he became highly interested in internal martial arts internal styles. Wilkie was systematically trained in Tai Chi, XingYi, BaQua, and QiGong under he professional coaching of Master Li Rong from China. For the following ten years, through the introduction of Master Li, Wilkie studied XingYi, sword play, San Da and Chen style Tai Chi under the guidance of the famous Wushu professors Wan Shu Tan, Man Wai Fong, and Sha Pak Hua.
Throughout the 1990s till the year 2000, Wilkie visited China many times to see numerous highly respected Wushu masters to exchange knowledge in Wushu. In the year 2000, he was a senior member of the Tai Chi team representing Canada at the World Tai Chi Health Conference in China. Prior to participating in the conference on Hainan Island, Wilkie and the team toured China's Szechuan province and Ermei Mountains (the birthplace of the Bak Mei Wushu style) performing demonstrations.
In 2001 he was a committee member who participated in organizing the International Chinese Martial Arts Championship, hosted by the Western Canadian Chinese Martial Arts Association in Vancouver.
In 2002, he was awarded an achievement award from the Canadian Chinese Wushu Organization CCWO- National) for Outstanding Contribution to the Martial Arts.
Wilkie is also the current president of the Canadian Bak Mei Martial Arts Soceity.
Throughout the Years, Wilkie has trained hundreds of students, many of whom have won great honours and awards throughout their Wushu careers. Wilkie Wu is highly regarded amongst the Chinese martial arts community in Vancouver. He is currently coaching Bak Mei Wushu in the Vancouver area and actively participating in various organizations promoting Chinese martial arts.
