Lily Lau’s fortune for the Chinese New Year could have promised a pound of cocktail peanuts and many happy returns. Her schedule called for her to fly to Chicago from her home in San Francisco, then on to Puerto Rico to dance the Chinese lion dance for the Chinese consulate, after which she would fly back to Chicago, drive to a kung fu school in Michigan, then return to Chicago for the Chinatown parade on the 17th, in which she’ll lead approximately 100 kicking and screaming (if not leaping and twirling) students, all of whom attend the Lily Lau Eagle Claw Kung Fu school on Peterson. The only woman in Chinese history to be grandmaster of a martial arts system has a lot of responsibilities.
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Kung fu encompasses hundreds of fighting systems based on animals like the monkey, tiger, or praying mantis, and altered states or whimsies such as drunken fighting and wing chun (popularized by Bruce Lee, it means “forever spring” or “always changing”). Along with the spelling of kung fu (some prefer gong fu) the subject of who can be called a grandmaster is a matter of controversy, as many forms have been practiced for thousands of years, and their origins are cloudy. According to rules of succession dating back to the 17th century destruction of the Shaolin Temple, the title is hereditary but must also be earned. Until 1964 the lineage was exclusively male, passed on through brothers, sons, or favorite disciples. Then Lau’s father, Lau Fat Mang, grandmaster of the Eagle Claw style (a fast, gymnastic form of kung fu), died without having named a successor.
Eight generations of Laus have been in charge of the Eagle Claw system, Cardona says. “Each style, since it was entrusted to each family, there’s only one keeper of the system in the world. My teacher, grandmaster Lily Lau, is the keeper of the Eagle Claw style. It’s accepted in China and all over the world.”
