Master Lay Wing Sung was born in Hong Kong, 1941, of Irish and Chinese parents (he became known as Vince when he changed his name in Australia, around 1964). When the Japanese occupied Hong Kong, they were all interned in the P.O.W. camps, and it was here that his father passed away when he was barely one year old. 

For the safety and security of her sons and their stepsister, his mother decided to remarry. When the war ended, his stepfather took off, leaving a heavy burden for his mother and the three children. As his mother had remarried, she lost her 'Widower’s Pension', and the family had to survive on a small War Pension for the children, which would be automatically cancelled once they graduated from high school. 

After their internment ended, the family moved to 'Rosary Hill' along with other European families to recuperate, and then they relocated to the 'Ma Tau Chung' camp near the Kai Tak airport around 1947. After several years, his mother managed to get some money from the government to buy an apartment (flat) on Pilkem Street (behind the Shamrock Hotel), near the borderline of Yau Ma Tei and Tsim Sha Tsui district. His sister had to quit school early to help support the family.

Master Lay Wing Sung and his brother.
Photo was taken at the 'Ma Tau Chung' camp, 1947 

In 1953 the family moved about a mile further down into Tsim Sha Tsui, another suburb, and resided at Kimberley Road. They had to share this large, old four-room apartment with three other families, all sharing one bathroom, one toilet and one kitchen! In all, thirteen people occupied this apartment. With this move, they lived only a few blocks from Bruce Lee, who lived on Nathan Road, the main road in Kowloon. 

It was not until 1958, when his mother enrolled him at Saint Francis Xavier College (high school), which was situated in the Sham Shui Po area. Saint Xavier’s was an all boys Catholic School run by brothers. It was here that Master Lay Wing Sung got to meet Bruce Lee, and they soon became good friends. Bruce loved to be the center of attention and always had a group of fellow students around him while he showed off his kung fu. Master Lay recalls, “Bruce could kick over your head quite fast, but his favorite kicks were the low Wing Chun kicks to the shins and knees.” When they first met, Bruce Lee had just won the Inter-School boxing tournament, defeating Douglas Elms of the George the Fifth School (a school for British kids only). Bruce had defeated him by applying his Wing Chun techniques and strategy. 

The two of them, along with a couple of other school friends, would go together to train after school on an apartment rooftop about a mile from Saint Francis Xavier College, near the corner of Nathan and Waterloo Roads in the Mong Kok district. In those days you could pick just about any of the apartment (flats) rooftops and train in your kung fu. There were no public parks, backyards or garages where you could train. All the private ‘Gong Sau’ (talk with your hands) challenge matches were held on rooftops. Many of the kung fu classes were conducted on rooftops as well because there was hardly room for more than three or four students to practice inside the Master’s small apartment. 

His training consisted mainly of the basic punches, blocks and footwork of Wing Chun, plus the ‘Chi-Sau’ Sticking Hands exercise and sparring. Bruce Lee at that time had short cut hair, wore glasses and loved wearing black leather shoes, which were a deadly weapon for kicking.   

Master Lay Wing Sung, center, his school chum George
on the left, and Master Cris Chan on the right, taken in 1957.
Master Chan has a Wing Chun school in San Francisco.

The following year, 1959, Bruce Lee’s father decided to send Bruce to the United States. This was due to Bruce getting involved in too much trouble and certain gangs were after him. Before Bruce left Hong Kong, he went with a mutual friend, Cris Chan to bid farewell to his close friend, Lay Wing Sung at his family’s apartment. He instructed his friend to keep an eye on the brothers and give them a hand should they get involved in any fights. His final words to Lay Wing Sung were, “When I get to America, I will become famous!”