Barry Pang

Barry Pang, 吴国树 (born 11 August 1951) is a martial arts instructor who was involved in the development and growth of Kung Fu in Australia.

He is a noted Chinese Australian and Melbourne Australian Chinese entrepreneur.

Pursuing his martial arts interest in 1973 he travelled to Hong Kong to study Wing Chun Kung Fu under Wong Shun Leung.

Upon returning to Melbourne he opened a Wing Chun school in Australia alongside William Cheung.

Pang is related to fellow Kung Fu legend Bruce Lee as Pang's mother was cousins with Lee's father.

Pang's early martial arts training began in high school with Tae Kwon Do under Jack Rozinszky and then at university where he trained with Yong Dai Cho.

In early adulthood Pang began training Chinese Kung Fu with the martial artists who practiced in Melbourne who had trained in Hong Kong.

In 1973 Pang travelled to Hong Kong to train with Wong Shun Leung.

Whilst in Hong Kong he also studied Choy Li Fut with Hom Keung.

The Barry Pang school has been in operation since 1974 and was one of the earliest Kung Fu schools in Melbourne.

Pang is involved in the Australian horse racing industry and was the first Chinese Australian owner of a Melbourne Cup Winner, Fiorente.

His son is actor Chris Pang.

Pang was born in Melbourne to immigrant parents from Canton.

He was raised in the Melbourne suburb of St Kilda, where he attended St Kilda Park Primary and Elwood High School.

Pang studied mechanical engineering at Monash University.

He began studying Tae Kwon Do at high school and continued practising until leaving university.

In early 1976 Pang participated in the formation of the Australian National Kung Fu Federation (ANKFF), as vice president along with William Cheung as the president.

However, by the end of 1976 A feud between Barry Pang and William Cheung erupted publicly.

The conflict was over membership in the Kung Fu Federation of Australia and the rights to run Kung Fu schools in Melbourne.

Cheung, the then chairman of the ANKFF, expelled Pang from the organisation and confronted Pang in person and in a series of newspaper articles.

Described by the 'Sunday Observer' as a "Kung-Fu War" Cheung challenged him to a 'duel in unarmed combat' to which Pang replied 'It all sounds like a cheap Hong Kong movie'.

The ongoing conflict continued for a month with further demands and challenges from Cheung.

Eventually the matter was settled without a fight.

Barry was allowed back in the KFA later in the year.

The organisation ran the Australasian Kung Fu Championships from circa 1977/1978, with the 1981 championships being filmed and shown on SBS Television.

Pang's students won the light and flyweight division at this event.

These were the earliest Australian full contact tournaments open to all styles of martial arts.

Barry Pang was the Championship Director and a referee at these tournaments.

Pang was also the first official referee for the Australasian Professional Karate tournaments, which were the forerunner of the open style full contact kickboxing tournaments in the late seventies and eighties.

He was noted figure in early Australian Martial arts, having associations with key instructors in Kung Fu, Tae Kwon Do, Kickboxing and Karate.

Tino Ceberano, the father of Australian Karate writes 'My good friend, Sifu Barry Pang, a Kung Fu master, shared some dojo space with us in the city dojo...It's notable because i dont think you'd find many instances of Karate and Kung Fu sharing training space or having much to do with each other in that era.

We got on well and were always sharing knowledge and skills.'

The Barry Pang Kung Fu Schools expanded rapidly in the 70s in the Melbourne CBD and decentralised into the suburbs in the 80s.

Students of the school successfully participated in the open tournaments of the period.

Barry Pang Schools were also established within Victorian universities.

The two schools continued to operate in Melbourne and their respective students continued to compete against one another in the full contact tournaments that ran into the 1980s.

In the early 1990s Pang met Wu Hua Tai, a Southern Dragon Kung Fu (Lung Ying) practitioner who was a senior student of Grandmaster Lam Yiu Gwai.

He had a background in other Kung Fu styles prior to learning Lung Ying, and had studied other soft styles of Kung Fu such as Tai Chi.

Barry Pang and his wife Anne Pang began practising Lung Ying, Liuhebafa, and Tai Chi in addition to Wing Chun.

They trained under Wu Hua Tai until his death in 2002.