Grandmaster Chiu is best known internationally as the tailor in Kungfu Hustle and many other personas. He has never shied away from playing a role to promote traditional Kungfu in movies. But there is far more to him than that.
Master Chiu’s main focus seems to lie in not letting Hung Gar, which is a direct derative style from the original Shaolin temples, to be forgotten. Additionally he tries to do that which is most needed in the global expansion and dispersion of martial arts styles: recognition of each other. Accepting and respecting different styles of traditional kungfu.
From his house in Alameda, San Francisco, he travels the world to support his students and grand students. They are the next generation and Master Chiu is well aware of this. Though the hierarchy of who is teaching who is very important to him, when it comes to his own teaching, he will skip those boundaries when he can. He will teach a ten year old student just as much as a fourthy year old.
Master Chiu is chairman of the International Chiu Chi Ling Hung Gar Association, which has branches in different parts of the world. Ranging from South-America to Europe, to Africa, The Middle East and Asia.
In 2016 Grandmaster Chiu publically announced who would be his successor. Martin Sewer, a longtime student of Master Chiu, is named to be the next grandmaster of the Chiu Lineage Hung Gar system.
This does not, in master Chiu’s eyes, diminish the responsibility of any other student of the style to be diligent and learn as much as they can.